Board of Town Commissioners - Regular Meeting

It is now 4.30 p.m. The Bel Air Board of Town Commissioners Budget Work Session meeting is now in order, and I'm going to call the roll. Commissioner Foss?

Present.

Commissioner Chismar?

Here.

Commissioner Taylor? Here. And Commissioner Hanley?

Here.

All right. May I have a motion to approve the agenda?

So moved.

Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you. And all in favor of approving the agenda this evening?

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Unanimous. All right. And first we have the presentation by the Lions Club, a derby update. I can't wait to hear it. Not at work session. Okay.

I was all prepared.

It works.

I practiced.

Good afternoon. My name is Dave Gazach and Amy Biondi. And we co-chair the Derby for the Lions. So thank you for giving us time here today. We wanted to give you just a quick update on the Derby, which is coming up on May 17th. Where it is, you should have a handout in front of you there so you can follow along. And we welcome any questions you have. We're going to keep it short and sweet. The good news is we're on track. all things are go we've had tremendous cooperation from the town staff and and we will be just gushing compliments to everybody on the town staff here as we go every you know every department we couldn't do this it makes it so much fun and so easy working with the town staff so it's really cool and in addition The cooperation from the community is amazing. All the businesses that step up and say, how can I help? We want to be a part of this. It's really a lot of fun. This year, we have 31 cars racing. Now, if you remember, if you go back a few years, we started out with 10 in 19, sorry, in 2023, we started out with 10. We have 31 this year. We actually should have had 33. Two cars, two businesses can't make it. They dropped out this year. It's a standard double elimination event just like we've had going now with the consolation bracket and Mayor Edding knows all about that. This year, though, the thing we've added, we've talked about for a couple of years, is what we call super racers. In the derby world, they actually use the term super kids. We can't use that term because that's a trademark term kind of thing. We made up our own term. We call it super racers. And these would be exhibition races, not really races. They're not part of the official race event, but they will be during that event. During the time and later morning probably towards the end of the actual racing event two races two cars each of kids with special needs And we have drivers one driver is Amy's daughter We have another driver who is a former Lions driver who will drive these special cars that were built that are two-seater cars and and the seat that holds the kid with special needs is a has a three-point harness kind of thing on it and we have helmets and stuff for it the kids come to us from miracle league if you're familiar with miracle league uh tom walls hand-picked these kids and they're they're tremendous they were here for the our trial runs last week steve was there at the trial runs i don't know if anybody else made it last week for our trial runs but she got to see them so it'll be fun that's a new feature this year it's really it's not part of you know the event the race but we're going to have that it's just an exhibition race yeah so one of the things i wanted to let you guys know about the super racers is

We have four children with special needs racing, and we had them at our safety meetings, which are required for everybody who participates in the derby. And at the end of it, I had an opportunity with Dave to talk to the mom of one of the kids that are racing. And I think he's seven, Joey?

Joey's.

And he's been to every race, and every year he says to his mom, I'm going to do that one day. And his mom's like, no, you're not. Like, sorry, you have special needs. You can't. And when they found out we could do it and he could do it, she said that she just cried because this town and the Lions, we have brought this something that she didn't think her son could participate in. So we just want to thank you guys and show you the impact we're having on real people in our community by having this event.

He's a great kid, but you see him there that day. He's all into it. Anyway, sponsors, again, the sponsors have been tremendous again this year. We have so many businesses stepping up to contribute to this thing. It's really amazing. Our test runs are completed. We follow a lot of safety protocols for this whole thing. We have for years. And one of the main things we do is we conduct our safety test runs over here on leeway. We finished it last week. It didn't rain. and that went very well. So all those, we're on track, all those safety precautions and the parents signed the waivers, all that kind of stuff, we've got all that done, all that's in place. We've done, we make, we call it our Main Street Walks, We go door to door on Main Street, knocking on the door of every business, hand them the flyers, hand them the information sheet, make sure they are aware of the Derby, the hours of the Derby. This year, it's been extended. This year, Main Street will close at 7 and reopen again at 2 p.m. That's seven hours. Main Street will be closed this year. That's the longest we've ever had. Thanks to Chief Moore, we got that permit for that time. So, question? So anyway, so we're, I'm hearing things. We have a promo video out. If you go to our website or some of the social media, hopefully you've seen the promo video on this. Banners are up on Main Street. Thank you to Steve and his team. We got the banners up on Main Street. If you drive down Main Street, you'll see the Derby banner hanging up there now. We found a main stage, and if you heard the story, we lost the stage we've used in the past. It wasn't available this year. But one of our new car owners this year is called Classic Car Foundation. And they raise money to send kids to school to learn how to work on cars. you know, instead of going to college, so to speak, to go as a, you know, to learn to work on cars. And that one of their guys is gonna have, you'll see this, it's gonna be really cool, when a Jordan, it's a 1953 Chevy pickup truck converted to a Jordan tow truck. It's really cool. We have a new PA system this year that we'll be using. We're not gonna use the town Main Street PA system. Thanks to Music Land, they're donating us a system to use for the day. We've got Harford TV online that we've met with them. They're all set up to broadcast it again to tape it. We're gonna have a virtual program booked this year, not that, because we hand them out and they end up laying on Main Street when they're done. So this year we're gonna do a virtual book that spectators can do on their phones if they wanna see the players and all that stuff. And the Volunteer Fire Company, again, is providing the EMS support. So thank you very much to them. Amy.

we had an opportunity to meet with the town staff a couple weeks ago we were able to sync up with Beller police they understand everything that we need they're actually going above and beyond and helping us with extra signage to make sure that the parking lot at the tower is empty so that that's where our Derby cars can stage. It's one of our pit areas So they're gonna have all of that blocked off and closed for us and available The road the road is supposed to open at 2 But our goal is to be done well before then every year we have beat our goal and we have been open Well before we thought we would We've connected with Steve and his team when the couple things on Main Street. We needed a little help with there's a couple not potholes What do we call them?

They're valve covers.

Thank you.

Valve covers. They're not BG. They're Maryland American Water.

Oh, okay.

So I found that out. So we're pursuing them to try to get them repaired. And again, if they're not repaired, we'll cover them up with some black document.

know but you could tell I was a little anxious about that and Steve said stop you're good we'll take care of you Amy you don't need to be anxious about it so that helped me a lot but we went over all the things that his team does his team is there at the Derby and they just they also help us like if there's things that need to be done they just pitch in because they find it a fun event so I love that and then I'm supposed to email you mayor Edding and I haven't yet because I forgot but just checking to see if you wanted to be part of the day give the opening remarks ending remarks if you wanted to do coins like you did last year so we'd love to have you but if you were unavailable totally understand yes to all the above it's already blocked out on my calendar and has been since the date was set probably last year so I'll be there and I can't wait okay all right so that's all from us open it up if you guys have any questions anything you want us to do

Just have fun. It was a great event. I know the first year it was a little slow to get rolling, and now you've got more cars than you really have room for, so everybody's really coming together. It's a great time on Main Street. Looking forward to it.

I mean, this is one of the probably, I'd say one of the top five events that bring the community together of all ages. I mean, there are other events that bring people together, but they're more adults or whatever, but this brings everybody together. I'm glad you brought in some of them. You were able to do something with the special needs kids. I mean, I think that's a great thing, and you guys are just knocking it out. That's all I got to say. It's a great event. It keeps growing every year, and keep going. Love it.

I saw an interview for a new business coming on Main Street, taking over where Boyd and Fulford was. And in his interview on Channel 2 News, he said something like, I love the town of Bel Air. They always do stuff for the community, the Fourth of July parade, the town derby. And I'm like, oh!

like yes I was like so I think it's good for our community right it's good to bring these people in so thank you for your support we couldn't do it without your backup obviously I'm excited I'm gonna be there but just from 6 and 6 a.m. till like 9 45 because I have obligations at church that morning but then hopefully I'll be able to turn around and come back for the yeah it is a lot of fun so

and don't worry about those valve covers because i know mr klein and i have talked he is on it i can't talk about it he's got a plan a and a plan b so you'll be fine i'm not worried anymore don't worry looking forward to it is this event rain or shine or is there a rain date set there is an actual rain date um the rain date would take place off of main street and i think a lot of us are just saying that we don't need the rain date because it's not going to rain it's going to be so we we will run in the rain right unless it's torrential

Right. You know, showers, light rain, everything, we'll still have it. Lightning, of course, we won't.

Right.

all right that's it from us thank you for your time all right moving on with our agenda we will have public hearings next week at 7 p.m. on May the 4th when ordinance 859-26 amending the Bel Air Town Code chapter 165 comprehensive planning development regulations part 2 zoning article 10 Accessory and Temporary Uses, Section 165-68B7, Accessory Uses in Residential Districts Regarding Chickens and Hens, and Chapter 134, Animals, Article 1, General Regulations, Section 134-1, The Raising and Selling of Poultry, as well as a public hearing on Ordinance 860-26, Amending the Beller Town Code, Chapter 10, Boards, Commissions, and Committees, Article 7, Cultural Arts Commission, 10-30-33, Purpose, membership terms of office quorum officers rules and records meetings and compensation and under unfinished business we'll start with ordinance 859-26 which is chickens and hens and the raising and selling of poultry commissioner taylor yes i think we have uh

eat this hen several times. The goal of the legislation is to make it easier and more accessible for residents in town who live on single family lots to enjoy two hens or more, depending on the size of their lot. It of course was inspired by a family over on William Street who fell in love with the chicks over at the mill and were crestfallen to learn that the current code does not permit hens on their lot because it's less than 10,000 square feet. So we sprung into action, myself, the town staff, to help make this family's dreams a reality. We crafted this legislation to bring that 10,000 square foot minimum down to 5,000 square feet, and also to ensure that we're talking only about single family lots. So there are a handful of townhouse lots in the town, adjoined, attached, whatever you wanna call it, that are over 5,000. This would not apply to them. We thought that would get a little bit sticky when you've got an attached unit. But this does open up hen ownership really to almost every single family home in the town. There are a handful under that five that would not be able to avail themselves of this benefit. But this is really widening that. And then of course the domino effect of that is that for those who are permitted to have hens currently at that 10,000 square foot, this legislation will actually bump them up from two to three, and then at 15, three to four, and so on. So this really expands what folks are able to do for everybody. I think it's relevant to say that since we've been undergoing this as a town over the past several years, we really haven't received any complaints. It all seems to be on the positive. I certainly know that if I had neighbors with hens, that I'd be less interested in complaining about them and more interested in seeing if I could get some eggs. So I think this will really benefit not only those who will raise these animals, but also the communities in which they are raised. It's just good government that we can get the code out of the way of people doing something that will enrich their neighborhood, and I think that that's a win.

All right, I know we've had this on our agenda a couple of times. Anybody else have any questions or comments? No, I know it's Easter and those chicks are just so darn cute that everybody wants to take some home. And now they can, almost everybody. All right, moving on to our next piece of unfinished business, Ordinance 860-26, amending the Town Code regarding the Cultural Arts Commission. Ms. Robertson?

Yes, we just have, and I know we've discussed this before as well, we just have several changes that need to be made to the Cultural Arts Commission portion of the town code. One, to amend the quorum from how it currently reads as three members to a majority of members and another removing the language that was in another section about the quorum and putting it where it really belongs and then a third change to remove language that is about a regional center for the arts as that is no longer planned for within municipal limits we do still support Maryland Center for the Arts goal of building that center, but it no longer needs to be in our code. The last thing would be to indicate in the last section, section 1033, that special meetings may be called by written notice only currently. It also says they may be called by verbal notice, but that is not our practice.

Thank you so much. Any questions for Ms. Robinson? All right, I know this is something else we've discussed several times and they seem to be sort of sensible housekeeping type of changes. So if there's nothing else, we'll move on to new business. Which will be Ordinance 861-26, prohibiting data centers in the town of Bel Air. Commissioner Taylor? Absolutely.

I asked the staff to draft this ordinance out of really an outpouring of public concern regarding economic pressures concerning the establishment of data centers across Hartford County. And I asked them to make just sort of a bold, you know, clear black letter declaration that data centers are prohibited in the town of Bel Air. And that's exactly what they delivered, Ordinance 861. We did receive some great feedback from town council who helped us. work around some language in the legislation that seemed overbroad to ensure that, you know, we're not banning server rooms and things like that. Really what we're talking about here is large-scale commercial facilities, things that would sit on, you know, let's say a 30-acre plot, and would convert that commercially zoned or industrially zoned land into one use, which is the processing of data. My concern is not so much that this will happen in the next year or two or even five years. My concern is that as local jurisdictions like Harford County and beyond move to block the development on, and I'm supportive of this, but as they do move to block the development of these types of projects on large tracts of agricultural or otherwise land, And as the AI sector continues to grow, and just as the technology sector and portion of our economy, which is really no longer a sector so much as it is just an incredibly important part of the economy, as that continues to grow, demand will increase, the supply decreases. We all know what happens when that happens. Price goes up. It creates a premium for data center real estate, meaning anywhere data centers are able to be developed is going to become very profitable to do so. And so in the next 5 to 10 to 15 years, you could see an instance where the economic headwind is that a 30-acre commercial partial is actually more profitable as a data center than it is as a shopping center. And with the small footprint of the town of Bel Air, I just don't think that that's the direction that we want the town to go in. And this legislation would leave us protected should that day ever arrive. There were some questions about, you know, is this really necessary? And that's the reason that I proffer and that's the reason I submit for why I'm submitting this legislation. Now, obviously it was spurred on by a great deal of public comment and public outcry on this issue and it prompted me to look at the code and it prompted me to look at the commercial environs in town and say, you know what, we could do with some protection here. You'll see that it will fit quite nicely in the section of the code which already prohibits junkyards, which are, you know, not so nice to look at and which would, if they were permitted, suck and siphon some useful and generative commercial and industrial, otherwise generative commercial and industrially zoned land. And this would add that to that. This would actually carve out a new section called prohibitions. Currently junkyards are the only thing that are that are prohibited in that section and this would add that to that section. I'm certainly open to discussion of how we want to more narrow the definition here. I'm looking already at some other local jurisdictions and how they're defining it. Like I said, we don't want to be banning anybody's server room. We want to be clear that this is exceeding a certain square foot, that this is about the primary and sole purpose of processing data, that really what we're trying to avoid here is the conversions of lots of acreage of commercial or otherwise industrial zoning property into data centers. That's what we're after here. So for those reasons, I have submitted this piece of legislation and I certainly look forward to what my colleagues have to say about it. Does any member of the staff who was involved with the drafting of the legislation want to chime in here or add anything?

The only thing that I would suggest we do is what you just suggested, narrow down that definition of data center and either include or perhaps through some additional text we could exclude the reference to square feet if we can come up with a more thorough definition, which I don't have at the moment, so we'll have to do some brainstorming.

So the square foot number that's left blank right now, is that just something that we would want to look into to come up with a solid number?

That is correct. Okay.

I just have a question as to why we even want to have a prohibition section in the code when we have permitted use tables and anything that's not in the permitted use table is not permitted, is prohibited. So, I mean, I like clean code and requirements there. I if we keep doing that this thing gets bigger and bigger and bigger because every new hot topic item that comes up we're going to want to put in there and it doesn't anybody any the future commissioner or future board can change any of that at any time so I don't think this adds anything to preventing data centers from coming into the community and i think you know if we want to clean the code up which i like well to get rid of prohibitions because junkyards is not in a prohibited is not in a permitted use in any of the tables that we have so i just like uncluttered clean code and why be redundant i think it's a little redundant and it's going to be hard to define what a data center is and if we go with that well I just like this like to not get into prohibitions I think that's a slippery slope now we got three categories we have stuff that's permitted we have stuff that's prohibited and then what's the stuff that's not listed is that another category and you know if so it's just I think it messes the code up it makes it messy that's my

What do you suggest then?

I don't think data centers currently are not permitted in town, period. I don't see a need to add to it because it's not in the permitted use table. I am against, let me get straight, I am against the data centers. I don't think they belong in town. It's not something that we need to have in here. But I think they're already prohibited, so I don't see the need to make any changes.

I do agree with your assessment and I was just thinking they're prohibited by omission you know which can sometimes be confusing to the general public so I saw this as clarification to the perhaps individual who doesn't see it in there and doesn't understand that it's prohibited by omission

feedback well there are a lot of other uses you're correct listed you're you're correct and still prohibited by omission like short-term rentals and i think that's what we you are when we discuss short-term rentals i think that was our decision was we don't need to put it in the code that they're prohibited because they're not in the code so that means they are prohibited they're not in the permitted use table so i think this just falls into that same category let me ask you do we know why junkyards are expressly prohibited in town

Well, yeah, I'm not necessarily asking you. I'm just asking anyone who might remember.

I'm not sure how long that clause has been in there.

I mean, I know why they're prohibited, but I'm curious why they're expressly prohibited.

My recollection was that someone was using their property as a junkyard and it was kind of questionable because it was also like a permitted use, like a mechanic store. This is just my recollection from about 20 years ago with Mr. Keenan.

Okay.

And the commissioners were like, get rid of it. And they're like, no, you know, it's an accessory to the existing permitted use. So they had to outlaw it entirely to get rid of it, to clean it up. That was just my recollection.

Do we know for certain if something is not explicitly stated as permitted use, there's no chance that you can? That is law.

That's Maryland law. If it's not permitted, then if it's not expressly said, it's a special exception, it's permitted here, then it's deemed excluded, not permitted.

And the reason I bring that up is because, for example, with the county, everybody talking about the county, we're putting a moratorium on something that's not even permitted. So I guess they're going to look at it closely. But some people were saying the zoning administrator, it's at their discretion, which that may not be true. But that's sort of the reason I was asking.

That's a legal strategy. A moratorium is nothing more than a legal strategy, because otherwise you'd have to say, you know, is it permitted? Is it not right? Are you going to pass legislation or not? There is legislation that's being worked on right now. So that's the legal strategy.

I think as far as this is concerned, you're right, Steve. The closest thing that is in the permitted use is, I think, electronic service is the closest permitted use that you could probably come up with. And I would agree. Electronic service is not, you know, you know. That being said, I understand every hot button issue. I get that. I guess my contention is really that there's not going to be a hot button issue quite like data centers that is going to come up over the next 10 years. That's my contention. I could be wrong. I could be proven horribly, terribly wrong. But my contention is that this is going to be the defining economic headwind of the next 10 years. I truly believe that. And I think we're safer off this way because I don't want there to be, in the same way that we outlawed junkyards so that there is absolutely no shadow of a doubt whatsoever, I think this leaves us protected. And you're also right that in 10 years, I don't assume any of us will be here in 10 years. It's possible that we might be. I'm sure plenty of the staff will be, but the five of us, just if we look at history, probably won't be. But regardless of who the commissioners are in ten years, if there is any degree of question about this, they will have this to go back and refer to. And if they want to repeal it, they can repeal it. That's their right. but that there will be something clear and declaratory in the code making it clear that data centers are not permitted and not wanted in the town of Bel Air.

And that's, I think, worthwhile.

I understand where you're coming from, I really do, but for the same reason that we put junkyards in there, I think this ought to go alongside it. And I also understand your perspective, which is just take junkyards out. Because really, I mean, you have to do one or the other, right? I mean, you're either going to have the prohibitions or you're not. And so the legislation in its final form should either be prohibiting data centers or repealing the junkyard prohibition. You really, I don't think, can leave it hanging like that.

don't understand why what Liz what you were saying is if you take if they weren't considering in a junkyard they were considering a storage area or whatever well if it's if it's classified as a storage area then you know I know but I'm saying just relaying what I recall about it I mean the details of it I've lost the time you know if Kevin was here you'd probably be able to tell you but if we classified it as a junkyard and then that I what he was using it for was classified as a junkyard in our minds, then it's it's a junkyard. It's not a permitted use table.

So it should have been gone back then his argument was an accessory used to a permitted use. So he was saying, you know, he's working on cars. So obviously, there's going to be cars that are inoperable on his property. So that was sort of the argument that my recollection was making.

All right, any further discussion of the data centers? Now I'm sort of in the same position as Commissioner Hanley I don't really understand why the county is doing a moratorium on something that's not permitted at all so they're not going to permit it for 90 days but it's really not permitted forever currently I and they want to study it which is fine although I certainly hope that's not a study that's on the way to figuring out in what fashion they would accept the data center what size or under what conditions so I think they should stay with it's not allowed forever I know it's the state of the law that if it is not listed in a permitted use table it is not permitted but that is just sort of Maryland law not in the code correct you know It's possible that like a splitting the baby sort of thing would be to put a section in there that says, you know, all things that are not listed in the permitted tables are not allowed at all per zoning including but not limited to data centers and junkyards because the problem is that the junkyard issue was a problem because although it's not listed as a permitted use, it became an issue at some point. And I know you're concerned about the same thing for data centers. At one point, somebody tried to shoehorn it in. Right.

We could also add, I like that potential amendment, we could also add a line that says electronic services shall not be construed too mean, just the one way where you could shoehorn it in, we could do it that way too. I guess really my, Just looking forward here, I truly believe that this, in the same way that everyone was probably trying to get rights to stick a drill in the ground in Texas in the late 19th century, I really think that's what data centers are over the next 10 years. Gold in California in the mid-19th century, right? There is the data rush. I mean, I think that that's what we're staring down the barrel of. And so I just, I don't wanna leave the door open to it in any way, because I think that the economic pressure that landowners and other business people are about to face is going to be immense on this issue. And I think we have a responsibility to stand up for the character of the town and of the homeowners who bought here in reliance on certain things about the community that they were moving into. And I hope I'm wrong, I really do. I hope that technology in the next five years, that computing power in the same way that it took a computer half the size of this room to send us to the moon and that we now have that amount of computing power in my pocket, I hope we make that breakthrough in the next five years so that these giant centers are not needed because one the size of this room could power enough data for the globe. I really hope we get there, and we might, and it might make all of this moot. We might look back in 15 years and say, boy, we were using 30 acres, 500 acres to put up giant data centers. What barbarians? That would be great. But in the chance that that doesn't happen and that's not where we're going, I just have a great deal of concern about this. So I'm very much open to rewriting it in that way, and I think that might be a smart way to do it to sort of handle all of our concerns.

It's a comfort level for people that aren't as used to using the zoning codes to be able to point to something and say, hey, right there it says if it's not listed in the permitted use tables, it's not allowed. because there's nothing like that to point to you have to know that from working with zoning and there are many people that don't of course people putting up data centers are surely working with folks that know much about zoning and I there's so much money involved it is incredible you know we have like that approach we have the Harper Mall which is a huge chunk of land we have the District Court which is a huge chunk of land one day they'll probably be the same as our pocket computers that used to take up an entire room but right now they're not I'm waiting for that for solar panels because when it's the size of my iPad and I can put it on like antenna aerial I'm getting one but until then I'm gonna stick with the old-fashioned way so maybe we can think about that as far as a way to go forward on this

Yeah, I'll get in contact with staff about rewriting it in that manner. I like that approach better, yeah, saying that.

And we could put some examples in there, and data center can be one and all. Jake, I was just looking at the electronic equipment supply service. The definition of that is a facility that stocks and supplies electronics and associated equipment. for distribution or installation so it's not a date so we don't need to change the definition of that I think that's quite adequate that it says it's not a data processing center yeah all right anything more on the data processing centers certainly a hot topic everywhere right now I haven't found anybody this forum

all right resolution 1270 probably the people who built them probably the people who built them and uh to some extent the people that need them for their businesses all right next we have resolution 1270-26 opposing the relocation of the district court commissioner Hanley

Given that the state appears to be moving forward with moving the court over to Marketplace Drive, I'd like to act promptly on getting something out there. I know resolution, it may not have a huge impact on the direction of the move of the courthouse, but I think it's something. And hopefully it could catalyze the county to get involved or other entities. Yeah, so this resolution, it focuses on the economic impact of our small businesses in the downtown corridor, traffic and walkability. And we've got a lot of institutions and resources available within walking distance of the current courthouse, and moving that over to Marketplace Drive would render those not as effective, because you've got to get your car and drive or public transportation. That's what this is. We got feedback from Economic Development Commission. We got feedback from Downtown Alliance. These are those memos and letters attached on the back. I wasn't sure if we wanted to attach those as exhibits for this resolution or how we wanted to work that. Or, you know, when we go to send this to DGS at the state, if we want to just attach those, I guess we can figure that out.

I think it's a good idea to codify, well, codify isn't the word because we're not putting it in the code, but to formalize the supporting organizations within the resolution.

I agree. If we just add something like that in there, you know, as evidenced by the letters that we've gotten with the date or something like that in the name of the organization, I think it would be a good idea to put them in the actual resolution and then send them as exhibits so that everybody knows that's part of the package that we're submitting. And thank you for your work on this, I know. The whole town has grown up this way, and now they're kind of lobbing a hand grenade in the middle of something that has worked well for so long. And I'm sorry to see that, so we'll see.

Thank you to all the staff that reached out. We got feedback from a lot of different entities and the legal community to provide input regarding this. And not many people seem to be in favor of moving to Marketplace Drive.

I'll talk to you afterwards. All right.

So moving on from the resolution opposing the relocation, we're going to move on to the contract for the sculpture at Atwood and Marketplace Drive.

All right, Christopher.

Ms. Robertson.

Thank you, Madam Chair. You have a photo coming around of this proposed sculpture, but I'll just go over some background with you as well. On January 14th of this year, the Town of Bel Air Cultural Arts Commission issued an RFP for a large-scale permanent sculpture to be installed at the north corner of South Atwood Road and Marketplace Drive. So this is in the curve just beyond the former 510 Johnny's location at the stop sign there. The project has been titled Atwood Road and Marketplace Drive Sculpture and is intended to enhance the public space, create visual interest, and complement the surrounding area. We've been looking for some time, the Cultural Arts Commission has been looking for a location to put a large sculpture and this was one of the recommended locations by the planning department and when we evaluated the locations really felt that this would reach the most people including a lot of pedestrians that are in that area as well as motor vehicles passing by. Bel Air has become known for its strong commitment to public art since becoming an arts and entertainment district in 2011. We've developed a thriving collection of murals and sculptures which now feature more than 40 public artworks throughout the community. This installation would continue that tradition and contribute to the town's cultural identity. For this sculpture, public amenity funding would be used as the source of funding for the project. Noted in Chapter 165 of the Comprehensive Plan and Development Regulations, Part 4, Subdivision of Land, Article 16, Subdivision and Site Development, Section 165-118E1B, Property owners whose development diminishes the availability of the community's recreational, cultural, and artistic resources are required to contribute an amount equal to or greater than one-half percent of the building cost for all non-residential development. in excess of 10,000 square feet. The total amount contributed is not to exceed $10,000 per project and shall be set aside in the town's public amenity fund for the inclusion of public art, a public square, passive open space, or a park amenity. The current balance in our public amenity fund is $47,505, and that is the funding that would be used to fund this project. The RFP was posted in January on our website and shared through a variety of channels and submitted designs were found to be visually striking, highly visible to both pedestrians and motorists traveling on Atwood and Marketplace Drive. We requested something creative in style and content, durable and appropriate for outdoor public display, and aesthetically appealing for the area without obstructing driver's sight lines. The Cultural Arts Commission reviewed and scored the two proposals received at their April 15th, 2026 meeting. Submitted bids were evaluated using the criteria of design, applicable experience, quality and clarity of their proposal, and cost. Based on those criteria, Rooted in Air by Pontus Wilfors scored the highest and was selected by the commission. Rooted in air, as you can see by what I passed around to you, is a monumental aluminum sculpture depicting a tree which measures 18 feet in height and 16 feet in diameter at its widest. Approximately nine feet from the ground, the structure expands into the canopy of branches, providing a strong visual presence while remaining open in its light and light in appearance. The structure is both anchored in the community and shaped by its surrounding environment. In its discussion the Cultural Arts Commission deemed the organic design to be relevant and appropriate for the site in terms of size, design, and appearance. The sculpture demonstrates appeal from different angles and would be visible to pedestrians and motorists at the intersection. The artist's comparable illustrated examples of past work and experience with installation of similar projects was demonstrated and was taken into consideration. Also the anticipated proven durability of its aluminum construction lends itself to the non-maintenance requirement listed in the RFP. Mr. Wilfors scored higher during the review process in the category of design, applicable experience, and quality and clarity of proposal. The only area where his score did not exceed the other bids was in the area of cost where his bid received 28 out of the 30 applicable points, available points. The timeline for the project was clearly defined in the proposal and within the Cultural Arts Commission's required dates. I'd like to thank staff members, both Kat Buttram, who's our economic development coordinator and manages our cultural arts things throughout the town, both the A&E District and the Cultural Arts Commission, and also Marty Topham from procurement, who really helped to bring this to life. We initially talked about this last spring of 25 and then in September really decided on the location and to move forward with the RFP. So this has been a long time in the process. The staff would recommend that the prices, terms, and conditions set forth in the submitted proposal from Pontus Wilfors for a sculpture to be installed at Atwood Road and Marketplace Drive in the amount of $30,000 be approved by the Bel Air Board of Town Commissioners. Thank you. It's a lot of information, I'm happy to answer any questions, but I wanted to give you some background on where the funding source would come from as that far exceeds the Cultural Arts Commission budget in any given year, as well as the different criteria that were used in evaluating the proposals and how they came to their decision.

I most appreciate the picture. Correct. Because it's worth a thousand words. It's true. Now I know what we're talking about. Correct, yes.

So thank you for that. Wanted to make sure that you had that.

The public amenity funding, do we know how long it took for us to get to a balance of 40-some thousand?

that's a Lisa question I did not bring that with me this evening but I have a somewhat of a of a spreadsheet staff had talked about it in the planning department about a year or so ago tried to recreate what went in that fund and when because we only have a certain period of time to use it or you have to give it back so I can I can look at that spreadsheet and see if it has that answer okay

We did use funding from the public amenity fund for the mural on Lee Street as well. So that was another example of a public art piece. Another example of a public art piece that we used that public amenity fund for. I believe that mural may have been in 2016 or so, I'm guessing. It's been there probably about that long, so.

The one on the side of the armory garage?

On Lee Street that faces Beller Elementary, yes. Little girl with the balloon. Right. Yep.

I'm sorry, were you talking about where this is gonna go? No. No, okay. The other piece. Sorry, I misunderstood you, sorry. And this is at the corner of South Atwood Marketplace?

That's correct, yes. Yep, there's a stop sign there where Atwood makes the corner.

So this is like an AI rendering of where it would go? That is correct, yes. I recognize that.

Yes, the artist was good to provide in his proposal an illustration of how the sculpture would look in its proposed location.

So does it like get rooted into the ground?

It would be on a concrete base.

And that's not depicted here?

That is not depicted, correct.

I love the location of this because it's right out near that one senior housing and then it's on the way to the McFarland Center and I think so many seniors go by there and it's just a beautiful thing for them to enjoy too and I know I go by several times going to Target I'm there often during the week but I love the location of this

It is nice a lot of our public art is concentrated in the downtown corridor so this gives us another piece that's outside of the historic downtown but within town limits obviously for the public to enjoy and like we said a well-traveled pedestrian area as well and also of course near the new park which you just designated a month or two ago.

Did Mr. Wilfors say if there will be lights shining on it at nighttime?

We did not request lighting for this project as part of the RFP. So his responsibility would be to put the concrete base in as well as install the sculpture. So that would be the responsibility of the artist, but we did not request lighting.

What does it mean? Can we get some like, I'd really be curious to see this proposal.

Sure, well, happy to share that with you. There were lots of examples. He does a lot of organic work, a lot of work in trees. We had just requested that it be something that was well-suited to the area, so I think that It's an environmental, it's an organic design.

But it's made out of aluminum.

Correct.

Right, okay. And I appreciate that. I would definitely like to read the proposal. I'd like to understand sort of what the art is trying to convey. For me, I'm thinking if I would just plant a tree and not spend $30,000 on a metal tree personally, but I may be missing something here. I just would be very curious to read what we're going for here. Sure.

We're looking to add public art, so planting a tree is not a substitute for that. Certainly.

I just am trying to understand what the art is meaning to convey. That's what I'm trying to understand.

So Angela, you answered some of my questions about the sizes, about nine foot tall to the base, to the tree, the canopy, the bottom of the canopy, and then 18 feet total. Looks, the canopy, the branches look kind of fragile. they're thin let's put it that way whether they're fragile or not i don't know they're aluminum type of thing and i'm like i was just sure wondering about vandalism i mean it's only we'll put some electric into the trees i mean this this old geezer i can still touch the rim jump up and touch the basketball rim i barely barely okay but that's 10 feet and you know and like i said i'm you know I'm on the downside, way down, so it's not like it wouldn't be unreachable to go up and grab branches. Well, if it's more than 10 feet off the ground, it ain't me.

There are certainly a lot of, the same could be said for many pieces of public art, whether it's a mural that we worry about damage to or a building, all kinds of things you could say the same about, and yet I think the town is very safe. Chief's staff works to keep us very safe. And we don't see problems like that often.

I'm just thinking of my old days, mischief days as a youth. There's the low hanging tree, let's see if we can touch it. Not that they're trying to break it, it's just let's see if we can touch the tree limbs, okay, type of stuff. And oh, you hit it too hard. Like I said, I don't know how fragile it is.

Well, it's aluminum, so I don't see it being fragile.

I assume he works with a lot of aluminum and I assume he works with a lot of these designs. Correct. Does he have anything to say about the conductivity of aluminum and, you know, like if the storm rolls through, you get a lightning strike because aluminum is more conductive than copper. So I'm just curious if he runs into that problem a lot, if he has anything to say about that issue.

We did not address that as a question in the proposal, nor did it come up in the discussion with cultural arts at all as being a concern. We did discuss some concerns with other proposals that posed a potential risk, and we did not feel this proposal posed that potential risk.

Okay. I see.

We have that one on Office Street. Isn't that aluminum also? I don't think there's ever been a problem with that.

I'd have to go back and look and see what that was made of, but you may be right that it's aluminum.

Yeah, I think we'll be all right with that. And then, I mean, maybe eventual lighting on it eventually. Lighting would be great. Public works.

Lighting's going to be a little tough because we don't have an existing source right there. Whereas the door statue on... we were able to utilize electricity from the bank. They were so kind to let us use their electricity to light that up. So it would be somewhat. Oh, that's right.

Steve, he didn't mean stop talking. He meant talking to your microphone.

Oh, I thought he meant stop. No, no.

I was like, what's going on?

It might not get recorded if your mic's off.

And Ansel, I forgot to ask this. Are we going with the Rooted in Air or is this like one of the ones where we can, remember when we bought Queen Anne's lace and then we added that, like we could add a quote after that? We did.

This is the, we've had discussions about this in cultural arts that when a proposal comes in from an artist that we do typically keep the name of the sculpture that the artist has provided as his work. But certainly for like the instance you've provided at Queen Anne's Lace, when we did the signage, we did add something underneath.

Yeah, we did where life renews. Correct. Which was a beautiful thing for the parking garage and the whole adding art into that. So with that whole rooted in air, maybe there's something that we could...

I think art for art's sake. We did not, to Commissioner Taylor's point, we were not defining exactly what we wanted from the artist in the RFP because we wanted to see the creativity of the proposals that would come in and it is designed to enhance the life of our residents through public art. Public art is known to reduce stress and anxiety just from being able to see it. We certainly then offer also our public art tour to our residents. So it just has become an important part of our landscape, what makes our town unique. sets us apart from other places so again we did not define specifically we want this sculpture to be XYZ we left that open for interpretation to a professional who would see that space and be able to visualize what they might see as being appropriate in the space

I remember some of the discussion on even the title of it, Rooted in Air, like ballet. We kind of liked that too. So there's always like when we go to do, I'm sure we'll do a plaque for it, but there's always a line that we could add, a quote that we could add after that that would tie things in. and the cultural, especially, some of the members are so creative in their thoughts and they'll come up with something that is amazing. But I think it just looks beautiful. And I just like, even in the AI rendering when you see the shadows on the, I mean, I think it's gonna be incredible.

Any additional questions you might be able to answer?

all right i think we are done with that and we'll move on to the fiscal year 2025 audit acceptance lisa moody thank you uh this is uh for acceptance um on on monday um almost all good news um no inter internal control deficiencies no issues with internal controls which i'm very happy to to report and very thankful to the department heads sitting here with me. Finance is very particular, we're very picky, we're very detailed about our records, and that's what keeps us clean. with a clean opinion and no internal control issues or deficiencies. So the auditors look at internal controls anywhere from payroll to accounts payable to accounts receivable. They pick samples and if they find any issues with any of the samples that they select, then they pick a lot more. And we've never had that happen. So thank you all here for all of your hard work with regard to accounts payable, because it does make a difference. So that's a really good note. The second is in the general fund. We are ending the year with an additional 1.3 million, which don't fall out of your chairs, but it is way more than we anticipated. But really the sole reason for this is because of the amount of interest earned on ARPA. There was first the, I don't want to say thought, but the perception that we could not recognize, that's accounting terminology, recognize the revenue that was earned on the ARPA money until we had particular projects for it. um however we are allowed to use the arpa interest for whatever we want so with that in fiscal year 25 we recognize the interest earned from fy 24 20 sorry 23 24 and 25. so the amount earned that was over the the budget uh for interest uh was about a little close to nine hundred thousand dollars um so that's that was the bulk of the revenue being uh bringing in more than we budgeted on the revenue side on the expense side we spent less by about 382 000 mainly in the public works department and in general government and i'll give you all a little bit more specifics at the the town board meeting the good news with again that additional revenue is it means more goes in the capital reserve and that is never a bad thing especially with what we what we what you all just approved last Monday with the refuse trucks and that whole are the condo condo trucks and

As I remember, Ms. Moody, we are going into a season of the town's budgeting in which we're going to rely on the capital reserve a little bit more than we have in the past. Correct. And that's largely due to the change, the massive pay overhaul that we approved last budget, is that right?

I don't know that I would say that. Okay. No, I would not correlate that with it.

I just remember us having a conversation about being able to cash flow that and that large increase that certainly our DPW guys very much deserve, but that large increase we were able to cash flow it with the understanding that projects that we've been cash flowing, we may not be able to cash flow in the future because we dedicated it over there. So if we want to do similar projects, we're going to have to dip into the capital reserve. Correct. And so that's where I'm coming from on this, that it's important that we guard that fund as we move into that, having now that a lot of what we had done with current year revenue is spoken for in a way that it hadn't been prior to this current fiscal year.

Right. If we can grow that capital reserve, it will be in the town's best interest for future budgets. spending we've been able to use that capital reserve as you all know for our vehicles and equipment and it has served us in the right way that we're not incurring interest costs with borrowing we're also able to do various projects and to what Jake is saying yes we we have some additional projects that we're proposing to come out of the capital reserve just solely in the technology budget that typically we don't have and we wouldn't utilize that reserve to do that. So this will give us a nice cushion to be able to provide funding for some future projects that we're also looking at right now. So again, it's definitely not a bad thing. And again, from policy, we put in, there's a range, but we put in $20,000 just from the budget. And then we are allowed to put in up to $75,000 in the capital reserve. as a measure of the excess of revenues over an expenditure. So why wouldn't you put the full 75% in there, which is what we did. That additional money also allowed us to compensate for the little bit of leave payout reserve that we utilized in fiscal year 25. but at least it allowed us to bring it back up to the $300,000 level because we will be using that money in fiscal year 26 and in fiscal year 27 as well. The sewer fund, we had additional revenues over expenses at about $400,000. However, the main reason for that is recognizing ARPA money from our pumping station projects. And some of the costs for those pumping station projects are not considered expense because it's a capital project so they're considered assets that are depreciated over time so in this year's budget the majority of those costs that we incurred in fiscal year twenty five budget were capital asset not an expense you'll see that expense come back once the project is projects are fully complete your depreciation expenses going to you escalate uh... and you that's when you see the expense of that if that makes sense. So I don't want to call it an anomaly because it does happen. It's no difference than buying a vehicle like we have in this fiscal year 27's budget. You have a sewer vehicle, Well, we have to show it as a budgeted line item. So we do, but we're actually showing it to fund it with retained earnings because it will never be an expense. It'll be on the balance sheet. So it's just accounting how things have to look, if hopefully that makes sense to you all. We also had even with the rate increase from the county that fiscal year, the flows were down. So it kept our costs down, not to the escalated level that we thought they could be with that kind of rate increase. So that was also good news. So there were a couple of things that happened during the fiscal year to create that excess. With that excess, we were able to transfer about $250,000 to the sanitary sewer capital improvement reserve in the sewer fund, which we haven't been able to do for quite a while. Steve, I don't know if you remember bringing up this point when we were looking at, we were talking about ARPA in these major pumping station projects that we have. You made the comment, well, ARPA is not gonna be here forever. So where are we gonna find the funds to continue to treat our capital moving forward in the sewer fund? Obviously we're not going to be able to fund it all in-house, but if we can start putting some money away into the SSCI reserve, then you will have some. And when we get to the 27 budget discussion, there is a project in there of $250,000 that I actually had to cut because there was no funding for it. Now we may be able, we'll be able to do that. So, it makes sense to be able to do that. Very similar to your general fund and your capital reserve. Same thing with your sewer fund. And a little bit more to come when we get to that budget. Parking fund, no surprise, that is the bad news in this, but again, shouldn't be a surprise to anyone because we have talked about this, $119,000 loss. So it's right around where I had anticipated it to be. We'll have some further discussions, I'm sure, on parking when we get to the parking fund budget in 27. But takeaway here is, I think, good news overall. And then, again, it'll be for acceptance on Monday. Any questions from anyone?

You had mentioned the ARPA interest, I think it was 900,000?

Yes, because there was three fiscal years.

Gotcha.

Yeah, and it was because it was about 900,000 over what we had initially budgeted. Okay. Because we had only budgeted one year.

And I guess I don't fully understand. So my understanding is ARPA funding, we get money for projects and then we use that money to pay for the project. So where does the interest come into play? Where do we get the interest from?

So the ARPA money we received years ago, it was just shy of $10 million and it came from the federal government. It was all COVID related. So each, the majority of the jurisdictions in the country receive something from the feds to be able to do, we actually, we utilized ARPA money to be able to fund salaries and benefits and the savings from those salaries and benefits we funded projects. That's the way we had to look at ARPA, because if not, then we had to follow all the federal procurement laws, which would have cost us a lot of money and a lot of time. I know that wasn't your question. So that money from ARPA has been sitting there as we slowly use it over time, and interest rates were really high over the last several years. So we were... investing it at the local government investment pool and getting around 5%. So that's why.

So it's not like we're going to be expecting that on a yearly basis? No. It's a one time?

No, no. We're not completely done with spending our ARPA funds. And actually, our April 30th report is due this week for this fiscal year, for this year. They have it on an April 30th reporting basis. And as of our cutoff of March 31st, we still had not spent all of our ARPA money. We have in the general fund, but not in the sewer fund. And those two projects should be complete by the end of the fiscal year. So know that that money has dwindled over time, but still has provided us with a very healthy interest to be able to use in other ways.

It really is incredible that we're sitting here and talking about this because the American Rescue Plan Act was passed five years ago. It was the largest nominal dollar federal stimulus. It was President Biden's cornerstone policy when he was first elected into office and came into office in early 2021. And regardless of the impact of the federal government spending billions and billions and billions of dollars and injecting that directly to the economy and superheating the economy and causing inflation to go sky high, it really is incredible what it has allowed, what it allowed local jurisdictions to accomplish. And I really just wanna, I wanna use this time not to either praise or thank the federal government, but to thank what we do here on the local level and acknowledge the shrewd management that the town of Bel Air went under Lisa Moody's leadership because There were many, many agencies, not just in the state of Maryland, but agencies down the street who use this money to fund new recurring projects. And now they're upset that they can't get their multi-million dollar raises every year. cough-cough school system because they used ARPA money to fund new projects, and uh-oh, the money, which was a one-time expense, is gone. We have to go to the county taxpayer to get this money. And I just really, I say, I just wanna make this so clear that the town of Bel Air is run so incredibly well. I mean, it is like a Navy ship. the degree to which you ensure our budget is zipped up tighter than an oil barrel. And I really appreciate that because we could be in some serious trouble if we had gotten spend happy as many folks did, if we were not the fiduciaries that you are with taxpayer dollars. And really that should be recommended, that should be commended and recognized because We are in a fantastic place. We have our hands on a bunch of new assets that we use the money to pay for as opposed to sending it out the door on new programs. These are real iron and stone projects that we can look at and say the town owns these things, the town has done these things to improve the lives of our citizens and we can be proud of these things. And that was the right way to use it. And now looking back five, here we are five years later, looking back on how it was used, we can say we did it the right way. And we can also look at what happens when you do it the wrong way. And we're not coming down off that hangover, we're waking up really well. So my commendation to you and your shop, Lisa, because the things that we've been able to accomplish with these funds have not only been good for the town, but they've been responsible. And so I just really need to give you a big pat on the back for that.

Madam Chair, just if I could add on to Commissioner Taylor's comments. Several years ago at MML, I sat around a table with folks from other jurisdictions in the state of Maryland and had a very similar conversation about what they had used their ARPA money or were planning to use ARPA funding for. And that's exactly what Commissioner Taylor described was what a lot of other municipalities had done. And I sat there and recalled conversations that we had had as staff about how to use that money in the right way so that we would not end up in that particular spot where we had used it on programs that we wouldn't be able to continue to fund. So I couldn't agree more with what Commissioner Taylor said and certainly give Lisa a lot of credit for it. That was a very difficult amount of money coming in. us to figure out what is the best use of this money. And I do agree that I feel like we did that as well. And just being witness to other municipalities who had that same influx but chose to spend it a different way and didn't end up in the position that we were in. So we are very fortunate.

We spent it on a lot of, you never use one time money on a continuing cost. It's like an iron rule, never do that. It should be obvious. It was obvious here, and what we spent a lot of it on was the not visible and not so sexy items of sewer pumping stations. But if you have, I think a functioning sewer plumbing station is a beautiful thing, Steve.

And that's why you're in charge of them, Steve.

I couldn't agree more because when they go down, it is a 911 emergency and you have to fix it right away. So we are now good for probably decades on our sewer plumbing stations. And I think that was a terrific, people don't really see it. it benefits every taxpayer not just a few they're using a particular program or anything everybody gets the benefit of that because they're not going to have to buy a new one next year so i think we did a great job may not be too visible but a sewer plumbing station that's not working is a very visible thing all right anything more on the audit acceptance i know it will be a clean report

just being new to the board and all the audit is this this is something that we're required to do each year and is it like internal or what just for folks watching and more for myself sure anything yeah it is required it is an independent auditor's report so we have auditors i believe fy 26 will be their last contract year under our contract But yes, it is an absolute requirement of local jurisdictions to have an audit. So when they come in, I basically just hand them a stack of papers that you've never seen before and just say, have at it, just get in and get out. And then whatever questions they have, it's always been a good way partnership with our with our auditors some auditors there's an adverse relationship not with with ours they're definitely a partner of ours to answer questions throughout the year help us with whatever we need but as soon as it the the report is not completed yet it's going through their um their review right now um but as soon as i have a pdf copy out i'll shoot it of course your way and then we'll put it on the website where all the other ones are

All right. Moving on from the audit acceptance, the tree removal service contract. Mr. Stephen Klein.

Thank you, ma'am. This is just a renewal of a tree removal and trimming services contract. It's a piggyback on Harford County. Contract number 23-054. it had expired and we were just renewing it with the firm of harford tree experts in landscaping out of falston maryland we've been very happy with the services that they have been providing us over time and it's uh it's a contract not to exceed 75 000 we put it a little higher uh just in case we ever have an emergency situation or something like that we don't have to get into emergency procurement or everything most of the time and like this year i think our projected budget is 50 and we try to stay within that 50 000 we just add the little extra there in case we ever run into an emergency situation so i'm going to ask for your approval for that contract and we'll continue moving on with their services great thank you very much any questions for steve about the contract Give Mr. Jolly my regards? I will. He's a heck of a guy, I tell you, Mark is. The tree people had a busy year this year.

You're saying 75 plus a 50K? No, sir.

It's not to exceed 75 total for one year, you know. The budget that you have before you is $50,000. That's what we anticipate the normal tree work to be. But if for some reason we were at this point in time of the year and we have a really bad tornado or something that goes through, we have that extra money right there to help with your approval. Okay. Yep, so it's 75 total. Got it.

All right, anything more on the T contact? right commissioner liaison reports um the tree committee did not meet in april because the meeting was the arbor day the opening day of the farmers market they will meet again on wednesday may the 13th at 4 30 over on the churchville roadside where the planning office is if anybody cares to join us

And due to the nature of my assignments as well, I have nothing new to report other than on behalf of the Appearance and Beautification Committee, make sure that you attend Garden Mart on Friday, May 8th from 8.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. at the Bel Air Armory. It is the biggest plant-based bash in Bel Air annually and perennially. So there's a little bit of plant humor for those. This guy liked it. So, but in all seriousness, a lot of work goes into this event. We have an incredibly hardworking team over there at ABC. They do a lot of, as a matter of fact, I just got a text from Elaine, the chair today, telling me that I had not responded to, she has handouts and I was supposed to edit them. I did not realize I was supposed to edit them. I felt really bad about that because she's waiting to get them off to Alpha Graphics, so those went off today. The point is they take what they do very seriously. They're really into community outreach, not only through this event, but she goes and talks to different garden clubs, and she's going to talk to somebody at an event at Maryland Golf and Country next week where she'll be using these handouts. She goes to the high school sometimes to talk to their clubs and try to get them into Garden Mart. She really is just – she is the face and the legs and the muscle that is behind ABC, her and her merry band of – sisters there who just do a wonderful job. So make sure you go out and support them on May 8th because it's a wonderful event and it's also a wonderful use of a town facility. I love us getting to highlight the armory in that way because it's a great big space and it's a shame when it goes empty and luckily most days it doesn't go empty and so this is a great use of that space.

The Rockfield is going to meet on the 18th. Their board meeting is going to be on May 18th instead of their regularly scheduled time, which would have been Wednesday the 6th. Cultural arts, of course, you saw with the sculpture. proposal that we have and cultural arts met and also these that's the America 250 art exhibit May 13th it's on your calendar now and that's a special time 4 p.m. for the commissioners to come and this is student artwork that'll be in the library so that's really exciting I think that was about it from cultural arts, just some other things that they're planning. Was there something else, Angela? Okay, because you looked up, I just wanted to make sure. Downtown Alliance, exciting stuff going on. We've got First Fridays coming up, so that'll be fun. Yes, also there's the certified barbecue judging class that they have. They are accepting hometown hero banners right now, too, and those are really awesome. They go up. from Memorial Day through Veterans Day, I believe. And I know that I had my, my grandfather was up there at one point. He's a World War II hero. So I know I have somebody in my family that I'm going to put one in for. So I'm excited about that. My dad and I are going to do that together. They also, Just another thing, of course, the Post 39 has selected as the Freedom 250 mobile museum, as you know, that you've gotten the emails and all for. And living on Crocker Street, and I know Mayor Edding went by there the other day, but today they are having their paving done. So it's going to be really exciting to have all of that ready to go for that. And I think with the... I think that was just about it I mean they had some nice openings in the last couple weeks businesses but also it was nice to have Michael Bair join us for the Downtown Alliance meeting and to be able to introduce himself I didn't have anything for the Planning Commission I mean and what car are we is the Planning Commission have any items coming up in in May

Not meeting in May, but there's some potential projects coming up for the June Planning Commission hearing.

Okay, so nothing in May, possible June. And then Board of Appeals has nothing coming up either, so.

Board of Appeals has Wellwood coming in for June 16th. In June, okay.

Again, nothing in May.

Neither one of those in May. Nothing in May.

Both in June, okay.

Now, and so we're not sure about June yet, but am I correct in that? I apologize for planning.

There's a project for Dunkin' Donuts and Jimmy John's that is in preparation of submitting a month prior to the June Planning Commission hearing.

The only reason I ask is because regardless of what final form ordinance 861 takes, that will have to go to the Planning Commission at some point. And I think the latest it could do that is June. Because I think if it went any later, it would expire after introduction in May. So I'm not saying that we need to call in the Planning Commission just to look at that for May, but it definitely would need to be on a June agenda if I'm not mistaken.

That can be added to the June agenda.

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. Yeah.

No, I said if we waited any longer than that.

Oh, right. No. So yeah, we're going to have a June meeting. We will have a meeting. So we'll be good with that.

Yeah. And presuming that, you know, and I assume we'll talk about this in the calendar, but presuming that we have two meetings of this board in June, you know, we can then easily take that up at the second meeting in June and pass it. So yeah, that's fine. I just wanted to make sure that we didn't go two months in a row, because then we couldn't, you know, they do have to look at that.

Committee for Seniors and Citizens in Need met last week. They were appreciative of our letter on behalf of the commissioners that I delivered to the county council and county executive advocating for adequate funding for the Office on Aging. And then Vicky Banz from Upper Chesapeake, she talked about a street medicine mobile clinic, which is currently gifted to Upper Chesapeake from a private donor that goes to the Route 40 corridor and provides medical treatment and all that kind of stuff and sort of like an RV, like a bus, that type of thing. And she wants to bring that to Bel Air. The issue is right now it's the The focus is the Route 40 corridor. She would have to go through a different grant or something to be able to bring it to Bel Air. But the idea is meeting people where they're at as opposed to having to get people, transportation to go over to Upper Chesapeake emergency room. And it also alleviates a lot of the wait times in the emergency room. So I thought that was pretty cool. And it's doctors that work at Upper Chesapeake that are on the mobile medicine clinic. The historic preservation met last week as well. Michelle Sowers on Gordon Street, she received a 10% tax credit for her roof. She was very happy about that. And then we began brainstorming ideas for America 250. We're thinking of doing a scavenger hunt, a historic landmark scavenger hunt throughout the town of Bel Air where you'll have pictures and you have to identify where in town those pictures are located. And then we wanted to do some sort of gift or award for them, so we're sort of working on that right now.

And that's all I got. That sounds like fun. I'm really glad to hear about Michelle. I was talking to her about her roof a couple months ago because she drives the bus for the Liridendron. And we drove past her house, and she was telling me about that. And I told her about the new tax credit, and she said she'd look at that. So I'm glad to hear that that worked out for her.

Gavin and I also heard about the roof on a similar ride on the bus. I think she likes to talk about the roof. She's thrilled. I would too. She's thrilled about all the plans she's got for the house, so I'm happy for her. That's a really great idea that she's redoing that.

I think we all did.

That might have been all five of us, yeah. It's good to get feedback. It is great to get feedback, yeah.

All right, having completed Commissioner's liaison reports, Mr. Krantz, the staffing update.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The only job we have posted at the moment is a police officer lateral that was posted on April 21st and closes on May 6th in the early evening of 4.30 p.m. So if you know any officers working for allied agencies that are interested in working for the Bel Air PD, please apply. Otherwise, we're working diligently on processing some previous applicant polls, especially in the police department for recruits and laterals.

All right. and i know we are looking fairly good on our committee positions here i know that phil rob did come and tell us that he would not be reapplying so we need a person to fill that right we're looking for someone for the planning commission and you have to be a town resident correct and uh have interest in in planning interested citizen um so that would be we're looking for them for the they would

Phil is okay for the June meeting, but we'll need somebody to fill in from then on, from July. So we have, I have potential lead on one, but if the general public, anyone's interested, please let me know or let Mr. Kranz know and fill out an application and we'll take a look.

All right. And we also have, the only other one coming up kind of in the short frame is Steve Burdette on the Board of Building Appeals. Are you going to reach out to him, Steve, and ask if he's, I bet you can convince him to re-up.

And we got plenty of time to worry about that one.

All right, anything else on boards, committees, and commissions? all right moving on to the calendar i did have that one calendar item that i had sent out to everyone um we have a june meeting on the 15th um and i believe that is the same week as mml it is all right so i wasn't sure how many i know you and i are not attending mml here all right so Steve are you attending okay so that means and you're attending all right so we do not have a quorum for our June 15th meeting making our June 9th work session maybe sort of not so necessary but we would like the staff to take a look at your calendars and make sure that you have everything done in time to take into account that there will be no June 9th work session no June 15th town hall meeting so that would mean in June we would only have our June 1st town hall and then a work session on June 30th with a next town hall being on July the 6th I think no it would have to get moved around okay because

we would nor we normally cancel that first week of July. Yes. So and I'm also thinking that if we are introducing a development reg in May, right, we're not meeting it, it would expire after 60 days. So it might be an idea to move that. Well, I don't know how you would do that. Actually.

Why can't we move the 15th town hall meeting to the 22nd?

Oh, we could do that. Yeah, we could do that. Absolutely.

and then do the work session Well, there's a Board of Appeals meeting at 6 on the 16th. Well, yeah. Well, we can't have the work session because we're going to have three of us are going to be out.

We could have the work session, but the work session usually precedes the town hall meeting. So if the town hall meeting, we're not going to have it, then the work session doesn't really make sense in the calendar in that spot.

Now, we could just have another business meeting to take care of any business we need to take care of on the 9th.

I thought if we were moving the 15th to the 22nd, then we want to have a work meeting before that. Yeah, Ms. Moody.

Sorry to interrupt, guys, but I need a second board meeting in June. Yeah. So we are going to introduce the budget amendment, the first board meeting in June. There's no way I can be ready this second. board meeting of May to introduce it and then approval on the first and I know there has been years where I've split the month meaning it's been introduced in June and we've had approval in July however I won't be here in July and I'd rather have my replacement here with me in June to be able to go through that process with the person so sorry but I really that's okay that is why it's on the that's why we're discussing it today because there's a lot of moving parts in in June

I think we could keep the work session on the 9th preparing a little early which I think staff would be okay with and if there's any unforeseen additions during the week of the MML conference then we'll certainly communicate those so we could still meet on the work session on the 9th in preparation for a town hall meeting on the 22nd That works for me

Okay.

All right. So we'll keep the ninth work session.

And we will keep the 30th and whatever that Monday and July is canceled.

All right, so July. Which we normally do. We usually do. All right, so our town hall one Monday, July 6th is then going to be canceled. Is everybody good with that? We usually do cancel the one right after the 4th of July.

And then we also normally do the August 1. And if needed, we can always meet if needed.

So the 30th is canceled of June, the work session. The 6th is canceled so we'll do a 14 work session and a 20 town hall is that right Yeah 22nd is the town hall right No I mean in July Oh in July 14th and the 20th

I'll get the summer schedule out since we're just talking about it now so I'll get it into your outlook calendar so we can have that so it would be the 14th and the 20th in July work session on the 14th town hall meeting on the 20th and then in August it would be the the 11th work session and 17th town hall meeting in August skipping the first Monday of each month just for the reduced summer session

and so then just to jump back to the committees and commissions thing Phil Rob's term expires on June the 21st which means we'll need someone to appoint by the 22nd in case there is a July Planning Commission meeting because if there is we want to you know be at full strength for that well we still have

We'll have four plus an alternate.

That's true. That's true.

We will have that, but we'll go full bore trying to get a permanent one. Right.

I just mean, I know we've already settled that we are, in fact, having a second meeting in June. I'm just saying that's another quiver or another arrow in that quiver for why a second meeting in June is necessary and why the 22nd would be a perfectly fine date for it because Mr. Rob's term expires the day before. So it would be seamless if we could do it at that time.

And the other thing that I'm going to look to calendar is I did talk to Delegate Susan McComas. This was her last legislative session. She served as a commissioner on the Bel Air Board of Town Commissioners from 1987 through 2002 and left to go to Annapolis and served until 2026. So that is about 39 years of service. public service much of what she served right here in town was a longtime Commissioner and three-time mayor so I think it would be nice to invite her to town hall for some recognition as she moves on to the next chapter all right so I'll send her a bunch of dates and we'll see what works for her all right any other calendar items that we missed all good all right miscellaneous um i had asked mike to put this on there's been a lot of discussion over at the county council down the street about public comment protocol nobody's really raised it with us but i certainly am sensitive to people that may not want to give their full name and their full address here now that we are on youtube and my my main concern is not so much that they give it publicly but how do we reach them if they come and talk to us about something that is the town's responsibility or is not the town's responsibility you know how do we reach them and say um you should contact the county or we need more information or something like that so i'd be happy if they would provide that information to mr kranz you know privately on paper would be fine. And they can just, you know, state their name. And I forget what the county council is asking for a zip code or something. Because often people do think they live in the town, because their mailing address is Bel Air 21014. But they're just outside our limits. So it's important for us to know exactly where they are and have some kind of right way to contact them. So that we can address their concerns.

i do think it's more relevant to us than it is to the county council to get somebody's exact address correct because chances are if you're coming to testify before the harford county council you probably live in harford county is a very good shot uh... not always but there's a very good shot you come in here uh... i don't know i i We might be 50-50 in terms of people who live in town versus who don't live in town who come and give public comment for one reason or another. There are a lot of people who come, again, for one reason or another, who don't live in town, and it's helpful to us, not only us as elected officials, but then also the staff if there's an issue that we need to direct them to to understand if someone is a town resident or not.

We have many business people who live in the county that don't live in the town and want to come and address this, which is fair. And that's relevant, too. Perfectly relevant. Actually, the one thing I neglected on the calendar was that the Harper County Bar Association will have their annual Law Day celebration on Monday, May the 4th, from 12 to 1, right in front of the circuit court. So I will be attending that. I will let them know. I think we usually do a proclamation, Mike, of some kind for a law day. I think we do. In fact, I think it might already be signed in there. There you go. So I'll be sure to pick that up when I go to that. All right. Any other miscellaneous comments?

And it's normally the first, but they moved it to the fourth.

They did.

Yeah. So I do have a existing sign-up sheet, if you will. Right. Existing form for public hearing and some public comments. Because this board has been so open, virtually allowing anybody who shows up, whether they've preregistered or not, to provide comment, we've kind of gotten away from requiring the form. So what I'll do is I'll just have those forms ready and since they won't be required to give a name or address at the podium, I'll just have the form ready for them to fill out and please turn in And put it in the bin or give it to me before they leave town hall. And they give their name before they leave town hall.

I get people not wanting to give their exact home address. I mean, businesses give a business address is what I usually say, which is perfectly fine. But if you don't own a business, you're stuck with the only address you have is your home address. And I understand these days people don't want somebody to be able to walk up to their door and knock on it about anything. Although, yes, there's a lot of that going around too. Terrible people. Terrible people that do that. All right.

staff comments mr kranz any comments no i think commissioner foss brought up the big thing that i wanted to bring up is remind everyone about the two uh the 250 freedom truck that'll be at the american legion post 39 so we're awfully proud of that and and staff is working diligently especially chief moore and angela and her staff to help them iron out any issues So I think I've copied you on some of the most recent communications back and forth, and I think it's proceeding along nicely. So if you if you have any of those watching at home, if you aren't aware of it, look up the freedom trucks online and they can come visit one in person on May 11th, 12th and 13th at the American Legion Post 39 right here in Bel Air.

That's all I had. That's an attraction that I know ECDC was interested in. But it's good that it's coming to the town under anybody's auspices. That'll be a great thing.

That is correct. I think the American Legion is a spot that makes perfect sense for the mobile museum to be. And there were multiple entities throughout the county that had applied to have the mobile museum at their location. So we are thrilled that the town of Bel Air has one coming. All right.

Miss Thompson.

I just wanted to correct a mistake about the date for the Planning Commission for June. I mentioned earlier that it was on the 16th of June but it's actually going to be on the 4th of June and then Board of Appeals will be on the 16th of June.

Thank you for that correction. All right, Ms. Moody, Ms. Robertson.

Annual award nominations will open on May 1st, which is this Friday, so you'll see information on our website for both nominations for Business of the Year and Citizen of the Year. As a reminder to anyone watching, Business of the Year does need to be located within town limits. We get a lot of submissions for businesses that are not within town limits. A citizen does not need to live in town limits for citizen of the year. All right, Mr. Klein.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to wish my mother a happy 91st birthday tomorrow, and my sister as well. She's not 91, but she's having a birthday.

You're not going to say which birthday? I think that's very smart of you.

I'm going to go into YouTube and clip that, Mr. Klein. I'm going to find your sister and tell her you called her 91 years old. She watches regularly.

Chief Moore.

You're 91 years old, aren't you, Steve? So I think Commissioner Edding and Commissioner Taylor are going down to the MML convention. I'm not sure if the others are, but a reminder that Officer Krause, Senior Officer Rick Krause, is getting a very prestigious award down there for the MML. It's the Top Cop Award. there were many many nominations and he rose to the top and we'll be down there so we'll see you for breakfast and I think it's June 16th that we're going to be having breakfast with all the attendees and the governor's is going to be there too I hear so I mean it just more proof of the quality of officers that we have here we just had Mauro recognized corporal Mauro recognized a few weeks back at the the Moose Lodge he got an award there for for his service too so it's giving you a reminder a bunch of great guys and I really appreciate everything very lucky yeah

All right having finished with staff comments Commissioner's comments Michael Baer are you still on the line Perhaps we've lost him Ah yes he is there yes thank you sir did you have anything for the

Any staff comments from you, Mr. Baer?

I know, just continuing to onboard here and getting to meet with everybody. We are looking at the process of development and drafting that out with staff this week. So that's kind of our next step on that. And then catching up, I've been at the National APA Planning Conference since last Thursday. all right we look forward to hearing from you all right having concluded staff comments we'll move on to commissioner's comments

Last week I met with Mr. Martin Grams of Screaming Bean Coffee Shop in Aberdeen. They have one location on 22 and then one on APG. They're looking to open up a second on APG and they're also looking for a location in the town of Bel Air. I was very impressed meeting with him. I think he's exactly the type of business that we would want in the town of Bel Air. So I sent him Miss Robertson's way and I'm hopeful that we can make something happen for him. Saturday we had the town cleanup. About 15, 20 people showed up. It went very well. Lots of trash cleaned up throughout town, so happy to be a part of that.

Well, I would like to thank Public Works for their very quick action on repairing the base of that decorative light pole that's in the Pennsylvania Avenue lot. I happen to notice that it had gotten broken, and I sent Steve a picture, and it was fixed the same day. So, I mean, you can't expect any faster service than that. It just looks nice to have town all, you know, nothing broken and ignored around here. and congratulations to the American Idol Brooks Rosser whose hometown is here he has moved on he's a fellow John Carroll graduate and he's a winner in my book even though he was eliminated apparently last night so anyone else

No, just I'll thank the chief and Steve about that. I relayed some complaints from some neighbors of mine about some noise and some and some other sidewalk damages. So they got on that and looks like it's all resolved. So quick response. Yep. Yeah, we'll find out tomorrow at 3am.

Thank you, Kat, Angela, and the Cultural Arts Commission for the sculpture. Angela, thank you also for your explanation and how you present it. You are incredibly professional. You have just the right words to say, and you graciously take the questions that we have and answer them. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Anybody else? All right. And we're going to move on to the fiscal year 2027 budget discussion. And our first presentation is the Bel Air Recreation Committee. I know Lisa is going to tell us what page we're supposed to be on.

Yes, ma'am. So 189 is their request letter. Dave, come on up. Apologize for the wait, but thank you very much. No problem. I'm glad to be here again. Thank you very much.

what we do, but I'm just give you a few highlights from this past year because it's always good to brag about your program as best you can. So, you know, we still have over 50 different programs for the greater Bel Air and Hartford County community covering youth and adult sports and also our community arts programs, which are multiple items. This past fiscal year, program registrations to date are roughly 14,000. And I know the question comes up. And this year, I'm a little bit prepared, like, are they all from Bel Air? No. But it also depends on the program. So some rec councils don't have all the programs we have. So we draw sometimes from Abingdon or Forest Hill. So just a couple examples on our larger programs, our co-ed soccer program past year had 415 registrants and 75% of those were Bel Air zip codes. That would be 14 and 15. And then like boys lacrosse this spring, 565 registrants. 57% are Bel Air zip codes because lacrosse is one of those sports that draws from the entire county and we all know we've had children in it and people that have played lacrosse and if you're not happy with one program you jump to the other. So we're glad we're getting more into our program. So a couple of other highlights for the year. So this year we partnered with Rec and Hartford County Public Schools to undertake over $100,000 worth of work on our baseball fields. So all the fields we have to our use were not uniformly maintained. Some had grass infield, some did not. So we had decided that we needed to have some work done. The program has grown because it's baseball and softball now. So it was an investment we decided was worth it because we wanted to make sure the quality of the fields was top notch, but also for player safety. So, you know, Saad is actually doing the bulk of the work, but in cooperation with Hartford County Maintenance Department. So once the work is done, we'll keep the maintenance. Um, everything was just finished last week. So it was roughly 14 baseball fields. So season just started a few weeks ago. So we got most of it done before the season started. So now they're on those fields. We do need a little bit of rain to help, but I know some is coming, but that's not hurting just us. Um, we recently, uh, through the tireless work of our president, rich, um, installed a bunch of, uh, are starting to install automated external defibrillators. So we've had some portable devices that we've had on site at some of our larger locations but we had to get permission from the schools to mount these on the outside of some of their buildings. And that is in process now. So we are starting with four schools, Bel Air High School, Bel Air Elementary, South Hampton Middle and Bel Air Middle School. Once they're mounted and up and running, we'll maintain them. But they're there for public use, so they will be available. We understand that that's something you have to stay on top of because they need to be calibrated and pads updated. But they are, in our opinion, worth having on site. They are very easy to use in case of emergency. Let's hope we don't have to use any. But we do have those now in place and we will finish that work up. This past year, seven new youth programs. Not just sports, but dance program, a couple programs at the middle school that sort of kicked off beginning of the fiscal year, and they are coming back this year. One is like a summer drama program, so it gives students an opportunity to learn about performing, but also behind the scenes work on props and sets and things like that. And then we also have another one through the Bel Air Middle School. It's called Code It, Film It, and Construct It. So it's offer the middle school students chances to get some hands-on experience in interactive media, coding, and some engineering. Already has about 20 registrants. It just opened up about a week ago. So that's looking pretty good. Not AAU, but spring basketball this year for the men, boys. It was more of an opportunity to continue some of the success through the season for those kids that wanted to keep learning. So it's more of a learning. It's not a camp, but they're actually playing basketball. Came together real quick, and it's already over. But it was just a real short new program for those that really learned a lot and wanted to keep going when the season ended. As you know, we do continue to have our special needs programs for the community through our Discovery Soccer and Discovery Basketball programs. This past year, the leadership of the program was invited to some Hartford County public school events to talk about what they provide, and it actually led to some increase in registration in our Discovery Soccer program. And these are for special needs, all age groups, But the increase was in the youth because they went to the high school. But that was a good news story with those programs. Our community arts programs, you know, we have the Festival for the Arts. Last year was our 58th, so we're working on registrations for this year. It'll be on September 13th, so put that on your schedule. We already have John as the leader, John Resto of that. We already have 181 exhibitors registered. now 191 so there's our update we always know that that's a big event right back here town helps us out tremendously in that regard and we're very thankful for that summer concerts are back last year 11 different musical groups so this year working on setting up the the musical entertainment we have the wednesday music in the park if you recall we started that a couple years ago The first year was a little shaky. Last year we had a lot of things set up and then we had the stormiest July we've had and every storm was Wednesday evening. but we still had some concerts, so it turned out pretty good. And then we have our community chorus, and the chorus grew tremendously this past year. They've increased their visibility and presence in the community. They had over 100 registrants in the winter season. They were on WJZ Morning Show, so a lot of good news. They're pretty good if you haven't heard them. And then, of course, the community band keeps on kicking. 54th anniversary this past year. And so lining up Memorial Day celebrations, 4th of July celebrations, and they'll be part of the summer concert series. So our request for the coming year, you have in front of you $108,212. It's about a 3% increase from last year's money just because of inflation. So we do greatly appreciate any and all support that the town provides. Um, everything significantly helps on the use side, particularly with costs of registrations, um, the phrase, some of the costs for necessary equipment like basketballs, um, lacrosse balls, baseballs, um, but also sometimes help with other expenses like uniforms and such. And then the money that goes to the arts programs just helps to defray the costs for operations. So those were kind of the primary highlights and I thank you for your time and the Have any questions? I'm here to try to answer them best I can.

Any questions? I'm sold. It's a great program.

All the programs are great.

That's a great one. David, a question about facilities. Yeah. I know McFall Center can be very crowded at times, and in the summer times with the Boys and Girls Club, it takes up a lot. Do you have problems finding places for your programs?

I think the hardest thing is the indoor programs in the wintertime. And so with basketball, volleyball, wrestling, um, for the most part, we've managed that, um, with the new Homestead Wakefield elementary school, it's a middle school size gym. So that helped this year to put our youth volleyball program in. Um, but, um, that being said, I think that's the biggest challenge is indoor sports. And then because of the explosion in both boys and girls lacrosse this spring, And everybody wants to play on turf. So we have two turf fields available to us. That's been kind of an internal fight going on. But we've gotten all teams on the fields. They've gotten their practices in. So yes, it would be great to have more facilities. I've always talked about taking that skate park at McFall, putting a bubble over it, and putting basketball courts in it. I know I'd never win that fight, but I talked about that when Gavin played basketball in the program.

But I mean, besides funding, I think it's something else that we can advocate for with Harford County Parks and Rec about facilities and upgrades and things, and where do we sit on there in the upgrade? Because I know they have limited resources too, but if we advocate for we need this, we need that, So maybe have a side discussion with you as something different that we can go and find out what your needs are. And then, you know, I'm good with going to, you know, Hartford County Parks and Rec and having a discussion with them about, you know, where are the upgrades coming in the county? Where is Bel Air on that? And what are you anticipating? And then try to match that up with what your needs are.

No, I greatly appreciate that. That's a good point. And we'll talk about that internally. about facilities as on a whole get the commissioners of each of the programs together get their opinions and then i'll come back to you okay and have that discussion yep good anytime okay thanks thank you all appreciate it thank you guys for all you do and uh mr resta i'm looking forward to that arts festival again this year are you going to run out of spaces before you run out of vendors as usual It's really popular. Oh, and you know, knock on wood, we usually have good weather. Yes. All right, thank you.

Thank you. All right, so next we have the Harford County Education Foundation.

Their letter is on page 113. And, yep, Katie, come on up.

Hi, good evening, I'm Katie Jacob and I'm here on behalf of the Harford County Education Foundation. While we serve the entire county, our heart is right here in Bel Air. Currently we support over 1,100 students and educators living and working within the town limits. We all know that for a child to succeed, they need to show up ready to learn. However, financial barriers often get in the way. Our Tools for Schools Resource Center, located right here in town, distributes over $65,000 in free supplies annually so that teachers don't have to pay out of pocket and families don't have to choose between school supplies and groceries. Staying local has become more expensive. This year our rent in Bel Air has increased by $2,100 putting a strain on our ability to keep these resources available to your neighbors. We are requesting a $2,500 grant to stabilize this physical presence and support these three proven strategies. first being tools for schools providing the physical basics for classroom engagement second is enrichment funding innovative tools for students facing economic challenges and third early literacy proving or I'm sorry providing books to children ages 0 to 5 to ensure that they are reading proficiently by third grade the biggest predictor of high school graduation Ultimately, this grant isn't just about notebooks and pens, it's about economic development. By investing in the academic readiness of Bel Air's children, today we are strengthening the workforce of tomorrow. Thank you for your leadership and for helping us ensure every child in Bel Air has the opportunity to unlock their full potential.

Great, any questions?

Now we're moving on to the continued detailed review of the general fund expenditure starting with the Planning Department

Yes, so I'm actually going to present the planning department's budget that I asked Steve to stay to speak to the code enforcement officer. So if you all will turn to page 68. As you all know, we have budgeted for a new part-time code enforcement officer at 24 hours a week. Staff is requesting this position to inspect properties for zoning violations, property maintenance, vehicle violations, vacant properties and building code issues. While the position would be under the director of planning, the staff member would also answer to the director of public works, the police chief, and possibly the director of economic development. So I'm going to turn it over to Steve to talk about what he was part of, I guess, the process with Kevin and Eddie to discuss proposing this new part-time position.

Yes, we just excuse me. We felt really strongly that. this position would really benefit the town moving forward in the fact that it would provide eyes and attention on a regular basis on violations that are occurring towards the code in our community. And in the past, it's kind of been handled by each of the directors, Kevin, Small, myself, Chief, and also Angela when it came to the economic part. And we originally planned a part-time position for three days. There has been some discussion from one commissioner regarding perhaps making that a full-time position. The staff met at our regular staff meeting last week and got together and really tried to throw around because of Jake's comments, would we be able to really keep that person busy for a full-time position? And it became Well, we all kind of agreed at the end of the discussion that it was best probably to keep it at a part-time position this year for three days rather than start full-time. And if the person didn't have enough time to do, we would then have to take those two days away. So we felt very strongly that if we start with three days part-time and we see that that position requires the extra two days, we would then make that change the following year. And that's what we all kind of agreed to at that table. Of course, Michael is new. He hasn't been involved really in the day-to-day violation stuff that his department has to handle, like for example, All these signs and things of that nature to get put up on telephone poles and things of that nature and you know boats and so forth parked in the front lawns and so forth. We feel that three days is a good starting point and we'll see we'll go from there. Makes perfect sense to me.

Yeah.

Any other questions on that? I think it's going to really help. Jake knows. He sits in on the ABC committee, and we have a segment on each meeting's budget. It's called Clean Up. And usually at that meeting, I have three or four items that are brought before me that involve several sections of not only in my department, it also covers Kevin's department and sometimes even Chuck's department. So we'll now be able to meet at those meetings and then bring that information to that person and they'll be able to run with it. I think it'll really help.

My question was, how many of these do we have a year? I know you get them from, I might see something or get a complaint and send it to you. It could come from ABC, it could come from just the public, it could come from any one of us.

It really varies. In next week, we'll probably have 15 to 20 high and uncut grass ladders that have to go out and then have to be followed up with. to make sure they did cut the grass from our original communication via letter. If they did not cut the grass, then we have to contact the contractor and have them cut the grass. And then we have to follow up and make sure that the contractor cut the grass before we send them a bill to leases off. So it gets busy in cycles like that. My department is, Hansel's probably three, four, five a week. Like calls, like, oh, my neighbor's not, you know, keeping the yard nice. The weeds are all up and things of that kind of nature that require us to go out and where the tree is covering a sign and things, you know, that type of thing.

and I know I've had several boats on the street so people can't see or cars that are on lawns or cars that are up on jacks and look like they're being worked on or something like that in various neighborhoods We have a couple right now that have kind of been put in the

As my boss used to always tell me, the sleeping dog file, because it's going to be so difficult to start and then follow through all the way to the end. And I think this person will be able to do that much better and work with Elizabeth as well. Because a lot of these require us to take legal action against, and that person will be able to communicate with Elizabeth on a regular basis with that.

I know so many of them are handled just on like a knock on the door or or the first friendly letter yes there are those that are way more difficult but sometimes it's just as simple as people don't really know that's a role I know there was some older lady who had something in her son's truck had died and so whatever it was wasn't moved promptly but it was it was handled when she was notified I guess I don't want to have, I like the small town way that it's handled currently with we try to just work with somebody rather than get like the cold letter is the first thing you get in your mail, just a friendly knock or a friendly letter saying, hey, your grass is too high or whatever. before we follow up with that we're really serious about it because I know I know that the one grass there you could have lost a small toddler in that lawn and nobody was going to come and mow it because there was no homeowner there and it was taken care of after you you know sent things out but I just don't want to have a roving government

Well, that's a very, very good point that was actually discussed at the meeting. Mike Krantz had brought that up. I don't want to speak for Mike, but he brought that up. And we've never been that type of government where we've gone out and you've got to ballot, you've got to, like the HOA things that you see on TikTok. We've never done that. We've always basically reacted as a complaint.

Right.

And I don't think we want to change that. I know I don't. That's up to the town commissioners on that, how they want to direct that.

I know I do.

And in my department, I can tell you, we always start out with a pretty friendly letter. You know, thank you so much for taking the time to do it, you know, and so forth like that. One great one that I think is going to come to an end tomorrow is we had a parcel that annexed over on Tollgate Road, and there was a rundown house over there. And I've been dealing with and dealing with. I signed the demolition permit Monday, and hopefully they say they're going to start Wednesday to take the house down. And they're going to put up three new single family houses on the three lots, which is a good thing. Great. So when things like that end like that, it's a win-win for the town.

It's definitely a win and I know some of them are really difficult and those difficult ones are very very time consuming the easier ones are where somebody you know didn't know that was the rule or you know time got away from them or whatever and then they go out and mow the lawn I know that aggravated the community that is outside of the town that lives directly across the street from this and I tried to explain that we're not like a sue heavy town you know where we sue everybody we like to work with people

and that's what we did with this situation we worked with them they said they're trying to sell it we you know we work with them and then finally here we are we never had to go to court or anything spend a lot of money and eventually it did get done and everybody will be happy tomorrow yeah

Yeah, I want us to stay that kind of community. So I was just hoping we were still going to continue in that direction and not take a turn and become the HOA enforcer on TikTok. but also on the other hand if you do happen to live next to somebody who doesn't take care of their property and you're a taxpaying citizen you do want the town to take action and and that's what we're here for and and it's been pretty effective because i know there was one tall lawn that i ignored but another neighbor called it in and it was promptly taken care of once the management company again it was a an individual home it it's really a rental so there's no homeowner right there and a lot of them fall into that category

there's really not a home or they're taking care of it and things get dropped so you got their attention and they did come in and take care of it and we do appreciate that yeah now fully support the way you're handling those things the um but steve the 28-3 would be the like approximate salary yes or that that's more of lisa's uh portray there the actual dollar amount i'm not i think that's what you had on i think we came up with that we felt that that was a good uh good job area in the And then, I mean, I think that's a very reasonable cost to start this process off and look at that.

And of course, the other great thing is we don't have to outlay the monies for insurance and all the other things like that.

Right, the loaded thing. But what about a vehicle? How do you handle the person doing this?

The one thing we just had is we purchased a new car for planning and we feel that we could really utilize the old car and that will be that person's car when he comes in. It'll be parked at our facility and it'll be able to be used by the planning department or that person when they need to go out and do it. Okay. So we won't be selling that vehicle this year? no that's that's the plan unless somebody else has a different option but we felt that the car was in good enough shape that it would be safely able to be utilized for this position and it kind of meets the same color as some of our other vehicles and we'll put a big light on top of it and sirens and stuff so when it comes running down the road bulletproof glass you might want to add a logo too

I was going to ask, is that car currently marked, or do we plan on marking it just that way?

It's not currently marked. It's not currently marked.

And do we plan on doing that for this position? Yeah.

They all do have local government plates, though.

So many people don't know what they mean. I'd like to see that big thing on the sign, and I'm sure they'll have ID as well, but then you know that that person is actually official government, not these fake schemers that go around.

Thanks, Steve. Appreciate it.

You all have a great evening. Thank you. See you next Thursday.

OK, so moving on, I'm just going to highlight some of the major accounts. The first one being on page 69 is the travel training and memberships. There's a slight increase here to account for the interest of participating in the Hartford Leadership Academy. as well as the American Institute of Certified Planners Review and Testing Certification and the membership of the AICP.

Who wanted to go to the Hartford leadership? I'm just curious. Gotcha.

On page 70, traffic review and studies, account 0355. Kevin increased this account. He just felt that it was warranted with things possibly coming down, I think, the pike with Hartford Mall. And that, just keep in mind that this is in our fee schedule, so money's coming in. We bill them for the traffic impact analysis. It's submitted by the developers. It's an offset, and you see the revenue for that under planning and zoning fees on the revenue side. So we do get some of that money back. Moving on to on page 71, about middle of the page, the strategic plan 0710. This is a new account in this year's budget. It is anticipated to address the implementation of the goals and objectives of the comp plan update with public input. It's a five year plan and it will concentrate on implementation of the desired improvements as determined by the Planning Commission and the town board. So costs basically are for design and printing of the final product. Still on that page at the bottom, 71. If you remember me talking about when we looked at the CIP, the $10,000 that was requested for the additional disc golf holes from nine to 18, that's what those monies would be for. It has become extremely popular from what I understand. On page 72, we did the wayfinding projects for the signs were cut. Those totaled $44,000. There just wasn't enough funding for that. There may be a possibility to either bring those back at at budget amendment or may even look at them this fiscal year which time is getting short with only a couple months left and with Michael being new and more than likely will get pushed to possibility of an amendment The other one on there, the Plum Tree Park and the Homestead Park, this is for additional enclosures around the portable restrooms. Staff had discussed this a bit ago and we will be funding these in this fiscal year's budget. So that's the reason they were cut. Any questions overall on Planning Department?

Lisa, the wayfinding, when you say new directional sign at Hickory and Moore's Mill, I mean, these aren't just road signs, are they?

It is a road sign. It's the one I think that they were working on. It's a...

I want to say it was the entrance sign but I believe they were working on a sign right there where the 7-eleven that Dunkin Donuts is in that area it's not just a street sign it is it is more of like a welcome to town here is Bel Air you're now entering Bel Air kind of sign I don't know exactly what it says but it's one of those kind of decorative town identifier signs as you enter into it's another one of our entrances that wasn't really signed correct

That's a pretty major one too. I know because we couldn't put it on the one property because next to 7-11 goes the floodplain. Correct. Something about how it was acquired and how it was acquired. And then there was another one at Main and Broadway. That's right there at Shoprite. what's the directional sign there is this the ones that show you know Luria dendrum courthouse whatever is that what we mean by these signs I'm fairly certain that's the one that's like historic downtown that way okay yeah all right and okay and a new gateway sign 24 and McPhail or 924 and McPhail is that it's 20 grand. It's a lot more. That's not the big bricks.

It's a it is a lot more because you'll you'll need masonry work, right for that sign.

That's kind of similar to iron or whatever out.

Yes, there's something similar to that because the brickwork is included in that 20,000. So it's just not the sign for that one. It's also the masonry brickwork. Okay. Any other questions on planning?

Michael, I think.

Michael, did you have anything to add?

I just wanted to thank you for taking everybody through that and thank the board of commissioners. I'm looking forward to implementing these projects and I'm definitely becoming familiar with them. So I appreciate everybody's interest and support.

You're welcome. I was just going to say, I find this year's planning budget to be a lot more straightforward than last year's planning budget, so I appreciate that. It's very lean. It looks good to me.

Lisa, one other question. Where will we count for the contract for Kevin Small to come back? That's not under planning department.

It would be, but we won't budget for that because, again, we really don't know how many hours or what it's gonna so we could budget $500 or we could budget $5,000. So that's one of the things that as things progress next fiscal year just become a budget amendment.

Okay.

If there's nothing else, I think Michael Bear would probably be interested in driving home because I think he's sitting in the airport.

Poor Mr. Bear. You are certainly welcome to terminate this call and drive home unless you have anything more you'd like to ask or add.

I don't have anything more at this time, but like I say, definitely looking forward to continuing working on these projects.

All right.

I appreciate your support in that.

All right. Drive safely.

all right moving on to finance yes ma'am so we're going to start on page 57. Not a lot going on in the finance department's budget. But at the bottom of page 57 is our travel training and memberships. The memberships are for director and deputy director. The majority of the publications and training are for those two positions as well. with the new director coming in next fiscal year. I still budgeted the same types of interests that I had with the local Maryland GFOA and their conferences, as well as various national GFOA webinars. The deputy director does an annual payroll training update which is critical to review any new compliance issues or things that need to be reviewed on an annual basis. Moving on to page 28, 58 rather. Middle of the page, you have the audit, account 0320. You have the GASB pension valuation, 0325, and the OPEB valuation, actuarial valuation, account 0326. So these are probably, besides salary and benefits, are most costly items within the budget, but all three are requirements. The audit, again, is the final extension option that I mentioned earlier at 21,259, and then it will go out to bid for fiscal year 27, fiscal year 28, sorry. The GASB pension valuation is a requirement of GASB and we've had it every year. The OPEB, again, is a requirement of a different set of standards from GASB and we have that every fiscal year as well. These are, I don't want you all, I just remind you all that there are two sets of valuations that are done. There are the actuarial valuations that you need for the plan that the plans pay for. The OPEB plan pays for it. The sworn officers pay for it. The civilian plan pays for it. These are requirements that are required by the town. So one is a GASB or governmental accounting standards board requirement. The other valuations are required by your plan. So that's why the town pays for the GASB valuations and the boards or the plans pay for those valuations. There's a lot of valuations going on, but you have to do what's required. Banking fees, I just wanted to mention this because this is something that has continued to increase over the years. Just recently we added the ability to pay vendors through an ACH. We are not looking at making the 100% or really even 50% change from cutting checks to paying ACH. really the reason we looked at it is because of MML MML will not accept checks anymore and the only way you can pay them is by credit card and they'll charge you a convenience fee or you pay them through an ACH so you certainly can't cut them a check and we try very hard unless it is the only way to do business is to pay a convenience fee on a credit card because it's just a waste of money so this does have fees associated with our with our bank but pam and i reviewed it and and we are starting with baby steps with with this um so we recently paid mml and things went very smoothly no issues we have a couple things we need to to look into with our financial software with notification to the vendor. But we're getting ready to pay another vendor through ACH the end of this month. So it's just something I wanted to bring to your attention. We are moving in that direction slowly and it'll be something that I'm sure the new director will look at and enhance the process and move forward in that direction. But the main reason for the increase

our budget is due to now having that ability through our bank First of all I am 100% on board with like not paying a convenience fee unless it's after I do the same thing in my personal life and I'm glad that you're watching the town's dollars like they were your personal dollars which I know you've always done my question about the ACH versus checks is I've seen I heard the IRS is gonna stop taking checks I don't know when they're gonna do that but It was a notice that was in a form from the CPA that does the taxes, and I was like, I don't know what I'm going to do. But they've been cashing checks, so I think they're trying to move to that. My question to you is, why do you prefer checks over the ACH? Is it just the cost from the bank, or is it any kind of a security issue? Yeah.

i wouldn't say it's necessarily that i that i um like one better than the other it's just when you go to a brand a new process you start small you start slow you just make sure that you understand the process which is why when i said you know the new director it will start to ramp up more i think next fiscal year and will continue to the point where i think there may be more achs than checks but there's still a lot of vendors out there that don't accept ACH that only accept checks. So, you know, that the tide will turn. But I'm not uncomfortable with ACH at all. It's just a new process. Finance has to, you know, we have to get our procedures together and make sure that our process and our procedures make sense. We talked about internal controls before when it comes to auditors. So you want to make sure that you've covered all your basis there and, you know, really left no stone unturned. Make sure you understand it before you turn the volume up. Even, you know, a quarter of the way, you really want to make sure that you understand what's going on

I agree 100%. I was just wondering if you, other than the expense, you had any particular concerns about that form of payment?

Not at all. Not at all. And then, let's see, on page 59, not really a lot here, just our supplies and then the processing fees that we pay to our vendor to print and process and mail our real estate tax bills. Any questions of finance? Okay, we're gonna move on to benefits then. Which is on 106. So medical, dental, and vision that you see here in this budget department, really those three are housing potential estimated premiums for vacant positions in various departments. When you put the budget together, you have vacancies. You don't know whether those new staff members are gonna take any of these three, health, dental, or vision, and then you don't know if they're gonna choose individual, husband, wife, family. I mean, it's really a crapshoot. So the way that I have budgeted for it in the past is just look at how many vacancies that we have and just be reasonable with it and let's assume it's gonna be one person's not gonna take it, then you're gonna have an individual, a husband and wife and family. Just something that makes sense for budgeting purposes. And then instead of trying to figure out, well, is Who's not gonna take it and what kind of coverage and what department am I gonna budget that in? I just house it here for the interim. And then as you progress through the budget, you then know where to move the money or transfer the money from this department to the applicable departments. Does that make sense to you guys? Yeah. Workers' comp, this is only the cost for, we have an expense constant, terrorism and catastrophic coverage, which amounts to $4,200. Before I move on to the other two, I just want to go back and talk about each one of the benefits. because as you know we budget all of the benefits in the different departments that we have here at the town so medical insurance you you've heard us talk about medical insurance here we do offer a high deductible health plan with a health spending account it is by contract right now we're sitting at a 20 rate increase uh we started at 25 and michael feel free to chime in if you have any things to add but if i recall correctly our broker told us that we should be we should be happy with 20 because what she's seeing is more in the mid 30s to the mid 40s

scary numbers very scary numbers it's actually carrie informed us our broker from innovative insurance solutions informed us that the uh that the amount of significant increases has has caused a delay at care first and getting their numbers back to us as well as some staffing cuts that they've had or some unexpected acceptances of retirement early retirement buyouts was a greater impact at care first and they originally anticipated so we are anticipating those numbers as quickly as possible because we do have open enrollment scheduled for our employees who are eagerly awaiting to see how this could potentially impact them as well and like Lisa was saying this is this is super critical stuff I feel confident you know in this Moody's budgeting that we will certainly overcome this hurdle and hopefully we'll go back to a another seven years of modest to low claims but you just never know and statistically a year like this was expected to happen and we've been we've been set up for it over the last several years because we have had a health savings account and there are many employees who have taken advantage of that and saved two three times or more of their deductible annual deductible in their hsa and they've been prepared for this eventuality Not everybody has the capability of doing that, so we certainly want to try to minimize these increases as much as we possibly can to help the employees who might be struggling a little more with these health increases.

Yes, so Carrie is, like Michael had said, she's still waiting from CareFirst to look at some alternative plans within CareFirst for Michael and I to look at. more than likely it would be higher deductible plans. Sometimes that's not the best way to go, so you really have to look at the plans as a whole. And think of it not only from the employer standpoint, but from the employee standpoint as well. So in discussions with her, because we are at a 20% rate increase, that is what is budgeted as a 20% increase. With that 20% increase, the town is proposing that The town no longer pay 100% of the premium, but it gets split with the employee. Town pays 95% and employee pays 5%. The town just cannot bear 100% of the burden with a rate increase like that. As Michael said, we've known this day was going to come. You can't go with it's rare to go with, you know, one and 2% increases every year for like the last five or so years. And so we we changed the the rate structure, meaning it used to be 90% town and 10% employee until we might started to migrate towards the high deductible health plan and then in doing so we needed some incentive for employees to feel comfortable because now they were a little bit more on the hook right we had an hsa um account that they had to hopefully fund but they were putting out some additional dollars that they weren't used to so that's why we moved to the town paying 100 the employee paying zero but it's extremely rare i don't know of any place else that does that so we did know this day was coming and every year during open enrollment michael talks about save your dollars because you know we don't know if next year is going to be the year where we're going to have to ask employees to start paying a portion of the premiums so what does that impact look like for the average employee

I was going to estimate that but I didn't calculate it in advance the way you would calculate it is you take our current premiums and then you would reduce the percentage from 35% to 25% of what we contribute to the HSA but then you just take that total premium and calculate 5% of that based upon what they enroll in. So it could be individual, could be parent-child, it could be husband-wife, it could be family coverage, but then they would pay a 5% portion of that premium.

But that does come out pre-tax. It does come out pre-tax. So depending on where you are in that world, $10 may cost you eight really out of your paycheck or whatever. Correct. And I know the math is all wrong on that, but it's not as bad as the full. Right. five percent and i really have never heard of any entity um that pays 100 of the premium um although i'm not sure how many have high deductible plans particularly in the government world it was a choice for a while in the county but they did away with it i think because nobody picked it um but the high deductible plan with the health savings account is truly the way to go and people who don't pick it aren't thinking it through I agree with you 100% because in my personal life that is what I have chosen because the premium is something you will pay every single year your high deductible you may or may not you know pay that much but the premium is a certainty the high deductible you know you may have a bad year one out of five or something like that and you're still generally ahead but it depends on your personal circumstances if you have a lot of routine medical costs in a year then you're you know playing with a different hand um but generally speaking the high deductible plans are are good it's people aren't comfortable with them it does place the responsibility on the people who use it and sometimes it discourages them from going to the doctors which is bad generally but overall financially it's a good issue they have to remember that your annual checkups are free yes for the law yes you know so as well as a lot of other type of preventative care preventative care right so mammograms and colonoscopies and all that preventative care is mandated free by the law and care first of course provides that for our employees how about like if you have kids and they go for their you know shots and all that stuff is that um covered under the plan or is a part of the high deductible portion they they also get their annual exam but

You know, immunizations and checkups are just a co-pay. Okay. Yeah, and obviously after your deductible's met. So your deductible has to be met first. It does require the employee to think about their healthcare Whereas in the past, I think the comprehensive plans that people have enjoyed, that I know I remember in my lifetime, maybe 15, 20 years ago, you'd see a comprehensive plan, just show a person your card and everything's paid for, and you pay for it out of your wallet because you're contributing to your premium, is... It is great and convenient, but it also encourages abuse of the plan as well too. While I agree with your statement that sometimes a person might be discouraged of going to the doctor if they don't have money in their HSA, or they're worried about that, the town also has offered and will continue to offer a no interest loan through payroll for somebody who might not be able to afford their doctor because they don't have money in their HSA. We've done it very infrequently. I think we've done it a handful of times at the beginning when we first implemented the high deductible plan, maybe seven, eight, nine years ago, oh my gosh, I'm dating myself, but it has been a very positive, the high deductible plan has had, I can't quantify that now, so this is my opinion, it has had a very positive impact on these last several years, because I think it forces an employee where no one likes it, but it does require you to be a more educated and better consumer of your own healthcare dollars than having just a card that you can give and it doesn't really matter. So our employees have become much more diligent consumers of their healthcare dollars, which I believe, although I can't quantify it, resulted in a positive impact on our plan we've just had a bad claims year 500 000 plus in high claims on some pretty serious illnesses uh mainly all dependents oddly enough i do have that information but i have no names and i have no idea who they are but i do know if they were members or dependents so one member and the rest were dependents but that's what this health insurance is for it's to help a family member whether they're a dependent or they're an employee so they can get well and come back to work and have a career with the town of bel-air and i know the town has contributed to the health savings account to try to you know make that a little less painful for folks so i know the old one was the premium was 100 paid and the new one is 95 5 split Correct The old deductible is the deductible staying the same We don't know yet It will go up by law you know the lowest high deductible plan I think is going up again a tiny bit I think $100 or something like that so it's gone up every year in the last few years by a small amount So there's a rule on that so what's the current high deductible deductible plan deductible

if i can say deductible any more times than that yeah a couple more deductibles in there for our plan right now michael i've got it 16 16 50 for individual and 3300 for everyone else okay and then we don't know exactly what the new high deductible is going to be because that's uh subject to legal changes as well as maybe negotiation with care first

we are this budget is assuming that we're not going with a higher deductible plan but we're reducing the percentage that the town contributes to the plan um of the deductible rather from 35 to 25 percent

Okay. So depending on whether you were in the 1650 or the 3300, the town used to give you 35% of that, but this year is going to give you 25%. Correct.

Okay. Correct.

And if you think of it this way, the, uh, Oh, I just had my calculator here a moment ago and I lost it. So family coverage currently is 2003 44 a month. Okay. So, um, Five percent, right?

Five percent.

hundred and seventeen a month you know and if you break that down for pay is it fair to divide that in half Lisa I'm sorry is it fair to divide the monthly in half so 117 divided by 2 would be 58 because we take it out 24 times a year right not 26 times correct you know so approximately $58 per pay And if we're increasing $20 times 2,080, whoops, I can't do a percentage there, excuse me. $20 times 2,080 is $41.60 divided by 2,080. 26, that's $1,600 per pay for a person earning $20 an hour. So you see the, if a person's earning $20 an hour, it's $1,600 per pay is their income. Is their income. And if you look at the number I just. And if you look at the number I just gave, that's the impact you will see on their income all pre-tax. I think that might have been what you were asking earlier. That is what I was asking, yes.

So what I would like to do is I'll send you all an email with the coverages, so single, parent-child, husband-wife, family, and what 5% of the premium would mean, as well as the 35% to 25%. So this is something that we had staff ask us about and you know Michael and I felt we we just were not there yet where we've been hoping Carrie would and it's not Carrie it's care care first she's she's she's beaten on their door to be able to provide so I prefer to do that through an email. If that would be OK with you.

Absolutely. OK. We are. I just want to get the big picture. Oh, I understand the premiums, the deductibles. And I know that the HSA has been something and I didn't realize the town had been doing that for like nine years. That's all. It's a long time.

It has been.

So if you've taken that HSA money that the town contributed every year for nine years or whatever, depending unless you're you're having really high

health costs each and every year you would be in a not bad spot if you think of the circumstance where you know less than five percent of the membership in the health plan is a result of the high claims that we're suffering this year through no fault of their own everybody gets sick you know we would never want to think poorly of that that's why the health insurance is there but for the average person who has benefited from this and has become good healthcare, good educated spenders of the healthcare dollars. They have really helped us over the years and they should have and I know many employees have saved significantly in preparation for knowing this day would come. Think of it, This way the person who has been healthy and has done all the things that that we don't Force people to do by the way I'm not interested in going down the path of forcing people to exercise or forcing people not to smoke or forcing people to go to the doctor forcing order to get that extra little benefit of a contribution to their health savings account I just don't want to be the health care police I think people should be able to do that on their own and at their own capabilities as well too so it does help considerably and we knew the state would come we just had hoped it would it would have been longer for now I would like to say and I think Lisa you'd agree with me I don't want to speak with you we are still fully insured, we're not self-insured and I don't recommend going down the path of becoming self-insured in terms of healthcare dollars because we're just not that big of an organization and with only about 80 plus people in the plan, for example, this scenario of $500,000 or more know in claims could really really cause a significant struggle you know for the town of Bel Air and while we're dealing with managing and maintaining this particular increase going forward I think these these increases in these high claims statistically do come in waves and and hopefully in the next year or so not unlike workers compensation when you have high injuries and we're just coming off few years of having a bout of some injuries and now we've had a few years with little to no injuries or very minor ones so it's I think we have to stick to our guns and and go through with this plan and while it is painful to ask employees to contribute to that 5% especially when they haven't been contributing in the past I would think most employees would understand because they have listened they have understood the circumstance where we've been at and you are right when miss mayor when you have said that it's unheard of to have the deductible that we have and it's unheard of to have the zero contribution to your premium comparatively across the United States, especially in the private and even in the public sector, dare I say.

Oh, even in the public sector? I've never heard of any public sector that had a zero percent premium. I've not either. Never.

So it will erode pay raises a little bit this year, but also you have to look at all the things we do provide. I think we have an outstanding culture. We have still a wonderful benefits program and we do have a competitive pay program that we are continuing to try to improve as we'll talk about more as we talk about compensation going forward.

And the alternative, of course, is to be self-insured. And I agree with you 100%. The town's budget is too small. Because when you have swings like this and it has to come out of your budget, it is really, the town just can't weather that. The county, as far as I know, is still self-insured for health insurance, as is the state. But you're talking way, way larger budgets. And the way they sort of help. They're also self insured for workers comp is they buy reinsurance to take care of those, you know, pig in a python kind of situations. But I agree, I don't think that the count really is big enough to go down that road right now.

We did go down that path once. It was before Michael's time. Because Legit offers a kind of a consortium. So we did participate in that. We had several good years and then the consortium was abolished and we were left with, it was either a $300,000 or a $400,000 leftover payment that we had to make. So Michael and I, it's very painful, very painful. So Michael and I talk about it every year and every year we look at each other and go, nope. Just, you know, once you get burned like that once, you're just not going to go back. We also talked to Carrie about looking at We've been with CareFirst for a very long time. They've got a great network. And what, as you all could imagine, what providers will do is they'll, sure, they'll undercut their rates just to get you in the door, and then the next year they'll slam you with a crazy rate increase and that's worse than this because that gives you false hope that it's going to be something that it's not.

The disruption to our employees being forced to change doctors is something we value very highly and we want to avoid. I would not recommend chasing lower healthcare dollars in the hopes that we have a low claims year, running the risk that we might not, and simultaneously asking almost every employee to change their doctor.

I've seen those loss leader programs, and I agree with you. You have to be very careful about that. And one of the things I always thought was one of the perks of my job working for a governmental entity was that I had care first as one of my choices. And I understand the comfort level that people have with that, and I certainly didn't want to.

cause that kind of consternation i i um i think you've the town has really benefited from all the good years that it's had and had was just a expensive year so we'll have to figure out a way to deal with that yeah so more to come on this but um you know michael and i you know please know that we run every alternative to ground and we have every single year to make sure we're doing right by the town but also by the employee too And I've added that request for the premiums and stuff to the outstanding list. So I have that down. Dental and vision won't be much of a discussion because rates are remaining the same. So very easy there. Disability and life insurance. Of course, the town pays 100% of the premiums for both of these. Disability is non-job related situations. It is through contract. It's through Legit. Legit actually does the bidding for it. And we recently got information from them that they are moving to a new provider next fiscal year the contract was up and the good news is is that for long-term disability we'll see a 10 rate reduction so we'll have some savings there can you tell me what page you're on oh so i just picked a page so if you want to go back and look at page 56 okay sorry guys i i these remember the benefits are spread out amongst the departments

We had just lost the page.

And I was like, I don't see any of these numbers. No, you're good. You're good. Yeah, 56. So I just brought you back to the finance department. And we can look at the justifications there. So I'm at disability insurance. um so we'll see a 10 reduction in our rates um so there will be some savings in this budget for for that um the we'll come back to life insurance because it's on the next page but pension um again two separate plans civilian and sworn full-time only uh civilian is 8.7 percent of the employees base pay is the town's contribution for civilian and 9.4% for sworn officers. So then on page 57, life insurance, again, is paid 100% by the town. It's two times salary. It's term insurance. It ends, as does long-term disability, the coverage when an employee leaves employment. That contract is still through Legit, but they're going with a different provider. And we'll see a 10% reduction in rates for life insurance AD&D rates are remaining the same. So we'll see a little bit of savings in this budget because of that 10% reduction. We do offer a resident rebate for those employees who are full-time and own and occupy residential property in town limits. They must fill out an application every year to apply for it and meet the parameters within that policy. There's nothing budgeted in the finance department because we don't have anyone who is eligible, but you'll see that throughout various departments. The deferred comp program last year, we increased the town's contribution to $40 a pay as long as the employee contributes $50 a pay and we're not asking for any kind of change with that program. And then of course, workers comp, we have talked about our town's modification rate decreasing from one to a discount of .75, which is extremely good news. Again, based on the claims and experience for the last completed fiscal years, and then the base rates that are set by the National Council that we had. We have three classes, and two of those classes had reductions, and one of those classes had an increase. So overall, good news with workers' comp, and again, kudos to all of our employees and our risk management committee. who reviews the accidents and puts into place if we need to any other security or safety protocols. But it has made a difference over the years for sure.

Lisa, on the pension, what's the employee contribution?

So the employee contribution for civilian is 5.9 and the sworn is 10%. Is it sworn is 10%? Yes. Okay.

Excuse me, that's down from 11.9, I believe.

11.65, I think.

11.65, yeah. And if you remember the pension conversation, we're looking at that, the trustees are looking at that because the swarm pension is performing very well. So there's a possibility the trustees may recommend reducing the police contribution, but We'll do that only with lots of research and lots of communication. So it's premature to suggest that now.

And after the experience study, that is out. That is coming out.

Neither pension has a COLA?

No.

Colas can be extraordinarily expensive on such a small, young plan. I would recommend lots of caution in that area.

That's what put several airlines out of business, so I'm right there with you.

Yeah, yes.

And all of the employees pay into Social Security, so they have both their pension and Social Security?

Correct. Yes. All right, so we're going to move back to page 106 and finish our benefits. So OPEB for the town means Health Care for Retirees. The town did join the MACO OPEB Trust. Oh my gosh, it's been 10 years, so that's fiscal year 16. i was a the town was a founding member on that trust and i have sat on that board for the last 10 years and i'm happy to report that the way that the trust is is set up that i can turn that over to my successor and that person will continue to sit on that board. We just had an actuarial evaluation done as of June 30th of 2025. Unlike the pension that has to be done every year, this is the one that the plan pays for. OPEB, the requirement is every other year. So that actuarial valuation showed a contribution of almost $47,000, which is a decrease from the previous year, which means we're funding it. And actually, because we're a part of the trust, we've done very well with investments, because we're in the trust with larger counties, so we're taking advantage of that, the many things from that. um so again the budget's at 46 671 our policy health care for retirees does state that there can be an increase in the amount that's provided to retirees up to three percent um recommending we continue to to do that because again you want to keep up with the costs of health insurance and honestly three percent is a measly percentage but We felt that at the time that we put this plan together that we didn't roll out the red carpet and create too many unknown costs. So at the time, 3% was a reasonable percentage increase in what the town would contribute or reimburse to retirees. And you have to be here for at least 20 years. and you have to be 55. And at single coverage, if you have 30 years, then it's husband and wife coverage, and it goes to 65. So it's really for our long-term, long-standing employees.

So this is kind of like gap insurance to get to Medicare if you retire beforehand?

Yeah, I mean, we cut it off at the Medicare age at 65, and then they're on their own.

Right. Yeah. So this is paying for the premium for the current? No, no, no.

Just pre-65. It's a little bit, a few hundred dollars of pre-65. health insurance that an employee can receive if they retire prior to being eligible for Medicare. Because once they become eligible for Medicare, the town does not offer post-65 coverage. Many employees do move out of state. but this benefit is still available to them, and the finance department will ask that employee to send their bill and proof of payment, and then we will issue them, based upon their service, a few hundred dollars of reimbursement towards their medical premiums. Okay.

It depends on what stage you are. I mean, if you have individual coverage or husband-wife coverage, but we have... we've had several people come off this calendar year already and some are gonna drop off later this calendar year but I think I believe we have four retirees we just had we just added a new one and then we had several already existing so it's not as you could see with the contribution it's not draining it's you know it is a nice benefit to offer long-standing employees and it's not breaking the bank. And the last benefit account on there is that transfer to leave payout reserve. Again, it's by policy. It's arranged by policy. I always budget at the minimum amount with the thought that probably more will go in there at the audit time when you look at revenues over expenses. But we are at the maximum, like I mentioned, at fiscal year 25. Definitely be some usage of that in 26 and in 27 Any other questions on benefits? All right, we're gonna move on to miscellaneous then So we're on page 109 Tuition reimbursement is the first account. It's a new account and in this budget department, but it's not new. It's just been housed in the police department because the police department has had the employees request tuition reimbursement. A staff felt that it made more sense to take it from the departments and put it into the miscellaneous, and we can better track it there, see what's being spent. We put a cap on it, $10,000, that's it. So first come, first serve. Michael's shop really does the majority of the review and approval along with town administrators sign off, but it is being utilized by three employees for tuition reimbursement.

It has to be job related and it's capped according to your degree, but if a person's pursuing, for example, a police officer who is pursuing a degree in criminal justice, even though they may have an elective for, I don't know, arts or something like that, it's still an elective fulfilling their requirement towards a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, so we will approve that, and once the money is expended, they're no longer eligible for any additional funds. And so far we've only had a handful of employees take advantage of it, it's been affordable, but I think out of an abundance of caution, Lisa made some excellent recommendations and we moved it to here and put a cap on the amount. And then we'll have to amend the policy to see how we approve it.

always good to have a cap too bad we can't do it on medical costs that's why you always want to have one just in case you have like a bumper year I suppose they not only does it do you prove it in advance like you know you're gonna take this class and we will pay for it when it comes when you come back and it's just some kind of grade requirement it's a reimbursement and is there some kind of grade requirement they have to pass they require proof of their passing grade

And what about in-state, out-of-state? For example, would we prefer them to take a Maryland course or a community college course as opposed to Virginia Tech or something?

Well, the policy itself kind of encourages you to take, if you're getting a bachelor's degree, at a institution that has a more reasonable cost. Because if you select an institution that has a much higher tuition, your dollars are gonna be used up in one or two classes. So it kind of self-regulates from that regard.

Yes. Yep. The next account, the general insurance really is the bulk of this department. Where, as you know, with legit, it includes a variety of insurance from general liability to police, to our vehicles to crime, property, environmental, volunteer, Legit has provided us with a preliminary overall liability rate increase of 10%. Some up, some down within those, but we're budgeting $220,000 for our general insurance. On page 110 are our list of contributions and donations. So we've yet to hear from the Historical Society, LASOS are the two here. The rest, the only one that's really new is the Harford Land Trust with Grow Wild. We did a $500 contribution with them this year and added it to the budget for next year. Kite Day, of course, is in here. The Haunted History Tour flashlights, we don't have to buy them every year. The last time we bought them was in fiscal year 24, so it gives us a couple of years, but we believe we'll need to purchase those in fiscal year 27. And then the funding for the pump park is new here, so that is on the outstanding list if we need it or not. And I made a notation under that column of amounts that winter wonderland submitted a budget request requesting a waiver up to $10,000 in public works and police department personnel costs. So I just I didn't want to get I didn't want that to get lost. And we've yet to hear from No, Donna was here. Donna was here. Volunteer recognition, again, is just our department's way of recognizing their volunteers instead of the volunteer party. Some have a small departmental dinner, some provide shirts, some provide gift cards. It's really left up to the departments on how they want to thank their volunteers. On page 111, the other account seems quite large right now. So let me explain, especially for Gavin and Kristen. So the way we budget our proposed COLA is instead of taking the time to spread it amongst all the different departments, we house it in one location. So within this other department is a 2.9% cost of living for all employees. It amounts to almost 309,000 And then when we get to the very last budget work session, I will ask you all for a preliminary or kind of an unofficial decision if you're comfortable with that. Because then what I do is I take that percentage and I spread it amongst all the departmental salary and budget accounts. So it just transfers out of here to all of those different accounts.

and in some years we've had questions from the public about what's this big giant lump of money right and because it sticks out like a sore thumb but that's what that big giant lump of money is correct and then it's a parking spot this is the coal industry that I give you all every year

And so the 2027 salaries that we have are before this 2.9%? Correct. Cola, okay.

They include a merit. Right. Yeah, but not the cola. So this has just been a running history for, as you can see, quite some time for the, as best we can do for the Baltimore region. They really have not, they used to be separated, now they're not. But the cost of living site that I use for as of December of 2025 had a 2.6% cost of living. We're proposing a 2.9% cost of living. One reason for that and Michael can probably expand on this is we felt it was important to get the labor hourly rate to $20. You all may have remember us talking about that last fiscal year that we couldn't quite reach that. but felt comfortable that we would be able to reach it in fiscal year 27. So that is reaching it. And we feel very, that's very important for us to do.

Thank you, well said.

And we also have not a lot of employees, but several employees that are at the end of their scales. There are 1% longevity bonuses for them. It's just a one-time bonus, so cost of living is very important to them. So you have to think merits for performance, cost of living, adjustment, or for the cost of goods and services out in the real world. So we all know how much costs of things have increased even over the last year. So super important to be able to keep up with that cost of inflation the best that we can.

And to that point about merit being for performance, how are those decisions made?

I'm gonna defer that to Michael.

We have annual performance review process. It's codified, not codified, it's in the Lexapol policy, the online policy manual, and it basically takes a person through a traditional five-step ranking, and you have to be satisfactory or above to qualify for your merit increase.

Got it.

And ultimately, is that up to the department heads, town administrator, HR?

department heads do their reviews. In the larger departments, some supervisory personnel may do the employee review, but ultimately it still goes through deputy chief or police chief or in the public works department, deputy director and director. They all see it all and they all sign off on it all. Very infrequently have we had somebody denied their merit for poor performance but it can and has happened but very infrequently And I'm assuming you can appeal your poor performance evaluation to the town administrator or something There's a very robust appeals process, as a matter of fact, already in the policy manual.

I figured there was. I just wanted to confirm for anybody that wasn't sure if you do get a bad job evaluation and you aren't getting a raise, you can appeal that.

So Lisa, the document that you handed out, am I to take this to mean Actually, I'm not sure what I'm – take this to mean. So could you – because I'm looking at that total, and I'm realizing now that as I was reading it, that is not – that's not telling me what 100 percent of today's change rate compared to the 1986 dollar is, correct? That's talking about increase over 1986.

Correct.

All right. All right. Because I'm looking at that, and I'm like –

we really are you know we our dollar has melted seven percent off of but i'm i'm with you now okay no no it's just giving you the cumulative increases i see since 1986 compared to the town just so you can see it's just a quick glance at a total and then you can look at it on a year-by-year basis

We were so conservative in the 2015, 2016, 2017, 18, three years of 0% COLAs, and that was following two years prior to that, 2011 and 2012, also 0% COLAs, and then three years of 1% COLAs. the town has really gotten behind the eight ball a little bit in terms of keeping up with a competitive rate and we do see that and we still encounter that in terms of hiring well and in the massive inflationary year 2023 we took a major hit which

there's that opposite side of ARPA that we were talking about and stimulus money so the conversation has come full circle I mean that you know that that six and a half percent Delta there's is huge so that makes sense and I will thank the board and any other previous boards that have acknowledged this and have given

priority to the COLA to allow us to have a comparable wage. I wouldn't say competitive. I'd say private sector still wins, but we have been able to maintain a good benefit package. Private sector does not have a pension, and people who value and understand what a pension is and what a municipal career can provide when you reach retirement age, still an excellent place to work.

And I think, you know, we've worked very hard, you know, especially Michael as HR, in trying to keep us competitive with other jurisdictions. So, you know, if you don't keep up with the cost of living, you're just gonna get further and further behind. So any changes to the pay plan, like what we just did in FY26, you kind of throw that out the window. if you don't continue to keep up with cost of living. Now, things do happen, right, in life. covid recession stock market crash where it can't be helped but we've always tried to have the goal to at least meet um that ratio that that we have that i get december of 2025 and improve on it if we can and we felt that that was one of the priorities this year um of the town administrator was to get to that twenty dollars and and michael of course to twenty that twenty dollars an hour for labor so it we weren't too far off if we would have stayed with the two point

six but that 2.9 was able to get us there and we just think that's super important from a competitive standpoint and from you know hiring standpoint and maintaining employees I know that labor position was just posted constantly when I first got on the board and now I know tonight the only open position currently is for a police officer so we're making progress we're going in the right direction we are

I mean that was still a problem even when Steve and I got elected I remember at least for the first couple months that we were always talking about labor or position and then somewhere around the first I don't know eight or nine months we stopped seeing it so frequently and now I can't really remember the last time that we've gone

Well, we have an outstanding team. So hats off to them. And I know you compliment the public works crews exceptionally frequently and very highly. So we all feel similarly. And this will hopefully be able to retain them as well as attract new employees should, should and when the time comes.

Any other questions on on that? Okay. And then of course that last account is the transfer to capital reserve that 20,000 is the minimum and the policy requirement very similar to the leave payout And we talked about the reserve balance at 2025 so lastly debt service So that's on page 120 and Three different accounts, the first one being equipment and vehicles, and on page 121, you can see the last two debts that we have. One will actually be paid in full in fiscal year 27, and then the other will be paid in full in fiscal year 28. both super low interest rates, so that's why we've left them, because it just didn't make any sense. And we were so close to maturity. And like I said earlier, you know, we've, We've changed our philosophy, I wanna say, within the last three years or so of utilizing the capital reserve more, making it work for us. And I think we've made better strides for that. And this is one of them, because now we're not throwing our money away at interest payments. So back to 120, the second account is the Johnson Control Energy Project. This is at a 2.79% rate, so still low. The final payment won't be until 2032, but this almost $76,000 does represent principal and interest payments, It was for our energy performance contract at our different town buildings separate from the parking garage. And the whole idea was that the savings from those was going to pay for the debt service. And that still is happening. So that's the good news. And then lastly is the PD town hall renovations. It was an $8 million original debt. We pay principal and interest payments. It's at a super low, in my opinion, interest rate of 2.673. That was done through the infrastructure program at Department of Housing and Community Development. And that final payment will be 2051. So quite a ways out into the future. But we'll get there.

I look forward to attending the party that they throw here when we own this building free and clear.

So that's debt service. And that's the last budget department that I have to present this evening. I don't have an outstanding list to hang out. hand out to you because there was no change so it just be a waste of paper but do you all have anything to add this evening as I mentioned the only item that I have was related to health insurance and I think we took care of number two on that list I was gonna say I think we can strike number two okay all right very consider my suggestion withdrawn anything else that we need to add

I just have sort of a operational question. Let's say, for example, one of us identifies a project to fix a sidewalk, install a new sidewalk, or a pedestrian safety measure. And let's say that happens in July or August, so the budget's already been passed. Will we then have to wait until next fiscal year in order to pay for that?

Yes. Okay. No, no. No, no, okay. it's money we don't joke about money well my response honestly to that is hopefully it won't be July or August but maybe later into the fiscal year because July or August I don't know what savings we have yet Once we get later into the fiscal year, I have an idea as to, okay, we saved some money here, or this is coming in more than what we expected, I'll have a better idea. At least the first three months of the fiscal year, I tell my department heads, don't bring me anything that you want that's not in the budget, because I just don't know if I have monies yet. So let's just say that is after September. then that's a possibility, but it would be a discussion. Of course, it would depend on how much it costs, what kind of priority it is for you all, if the finance director can find the money through savings somewhere else, but we would certainly have that discussion, but the first three months in the fiscal year is just too soon to tell. Does that answer your question? Yep, that makes sense.

To color that in, there were a couple items that were going to be in the budget for this upcoming fiscal year that Lisa was able to find current year operating revenue that we had saved elsewhere and that we were able to fund that way. Like the police department had a rather big ticket item.

Yeah, their trailer. The trailer, yeah. $80,000.

Yeah, so that was, you know, we saved and we were able to fund it this year as opposed to next fiscal.

Yep, yeah.

Gavin, you have a potential project or you just don't know? You were just hypothetical.

Well, for example, at Bond Street and Gordon Street, we're waiting to hear back from the state about pedestrian beacons where they'll hit the button and it'll flash up because I figured there's going to be a lot going on in that area of town here pretty soon. I don't know when we'll hear back, though. So I'm imagining it's going to be after we pass the budget. That's just our luck. So I didn't know if we would then have to wait 12 months, which doesn't sound like we would have to, but it's just a matter of how much it would cost. So that would be a problem we could look at then.

Yep.

okay i mean yeah but i thought that would be a state program wouldn't it that's state highway well or no it it it could be state but i was also thinking you know if if it wasn't a priority to them it's a priority to us so maybe we could go in half 50 50 do you know okay if they weren't willing to pay 100 for it just something to consider anything else on budget anyone

All right, so Thursday's our next budget session of two this week. Just as a reminder, okay?

We'll all be here on Thursday. And now, may I have a motion to go into closed session?

Yes, Madam Chair. I move that this portion of the meeting will be closed under the provisions of the Maryland Open Meetings Act General Provisions Article 3, Section 305B7 and 8. The topic of discussion will be to consult with counsel to obtain legal advice and to consult with staff, consultants, or other individuals about pending litigation regarding the Hartford Circuit Court case number C-12CD-25001030, Harford County, Maryland, versus Town of Bel Air, Maryland, et al., and the Harford County Bel Air Park and Garage Work Group request. The reason for closed session discussion of the above topics will be because public discussion of confidential information and legal strategies can compromise the attorney-client privilege and inhibit the ability of the public body to receive candid and uninhibited legal guidance. Thank you. May I have a second? Second.

All right. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Unanimous. And we are now in closed session.