Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

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[clears throat]

morning. Welcome everyone. We will call to order the December 18th, 2025 meeting of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. Seeing all three commissioners present, I will ask uh the CEO of our zoo to lead us in the pledge of allegiance, Alzone. He's always the best dress to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Could hardly even recognize him standing back there. You need to wear something a little more flashy so we could see him. Okay, great. So, uh, good morning. Today we've got a lot of Sorry. It's fun. Let me take that off.

Um, so we've got a lot of exciting things to talk about today and, uh, it's our last meeting of the year. Uh I want to start with an initial update which is on uh our Lansdale transitional housing facility. So housing has been a priority for all three of us uh throughout this past year and through our first two years in office. Uh Commissioner Winder and Commissioner Dello, both of you have been instrumental in getting the Pottstown hoteling program up and running. uh clearing the way for the Nortown zoning board approval for the Nortown transitional housing facility, which I know was until 1:00 am that night, and of course breaking ground on the Lansdale transitional housing facility, which uh happened earlier this year. I want to thank uh Kaylee Silver for all of her leadership. we did not have uh an an expert like her uh who's absolutely committed and passionate about uh making sure everyone in Montgomery County uh has a place to call home. We wouldn't be uh this successful. There's a lot we're going to talk about in our budget for what we've committed to housing. It's one of the top priorities. What I'm excited to announce today is that the county will be receiving a $1 million uh donation towards the Lansdale housing facility uh courtesy of the Tony Foundation uh which is led by Nun Toad. He is uh president of pen manufacturing which is uh manufacturer in the Lansdale area. They make engine parts in the aerospace and other industries. But uh he was very generous. He wanted to learn about the work that the county is doing uh and felt inspired to give back. He really, you know, someone who lived the American dream, came to this country in

the 70s with uh little to nothing to his name and wants to give back. And what's incredibly uh uh just inspiring about that I think is is for our team to get investment from the philanthropic sector really says something about how government functions and works effectively. And that's something that we've all focused on in terms of our efficiency proving our uh ability to get better outcomes for every resident in our community. And it's so much so that we're able to get philanthropic funding for government uh which is something exceptional. So the facility is going to open early next year. It's going to provide uh 247 housing, 20 beds, four single rooms, eight double rooms, a warming kitchen, recreation spaces, uh laundry, and an office space for case management. uh when people stay at the shelter, they're going to have support uh from our team uh that and working with RHD, our partner to make sure that they can actually get back on their feet and whether it's finding a job or getting the health care access they need, working with landlords to find affordable rent. Uh it's really going to be an exceptional facility. And so I want to thank everyone, thank Commissioner Winder working with Lansdale and Commissioner Dell for his commitments and all the work uh and and collaboration that made it possible, we're excited to to open that next year. So I think it's also a really great example of how at a moment where the federal government had no budget, we didn't know what was happening. In fact, there's a potential loss of $5 million in the continuum of care funding for housing. Uh the state government of course had a stalemate for a number of months and uh we still got to advocate for housing funding there. Uh this is really an example of how the

county is stepping up and members of the community and leaders are stepping up as well. So, uh, today we're going to be here to vote on the entirety of the budget and Dean Dortone, our CFO, will present it a few minutes. Before he does, just want to thank all the staff. This is the result of months and months of hard work. Uh, many many meetings with department heads. Uh all of this is something that requires deep engagement uh from the three of us as commissioners and it's required deep engagement for the department heads and uh ensuring that we're meeting our goals as a county in terms of delivering services and trying to stretch uh to do everything we can with limited resources. So uh I think government's about compromise. We all came in with opinions about what our top priorities were. But there were certain things that we all agreed on which was h you know housing, mental health, substance abuse, addressing the top topics that are our residents are facing and I think you'll see that we're really proud of where we landed uh and the staff present that. So uh thank you again to our team. Um finally I'll have two quick u announcements. One is that we're having a sustainability committee. So, uh Davey, our sustainability officer right over here, uh is going to be uh creating this advisory committee for her and it's going to advise MCO on our countywide sustainability plan in 2026. So, that's a clear goal is to create this plan and uh applications will be open for this committee until close of business January 16th. So we welcome applicants from any range of backgrounds, environmental science, uh business and economics, uh any relevant disciplines.

Uh we really want to do everything we can to uh be good stewards of our environment for future generations. So uh again, that's until January 16th. Finally, uh tonight is the fourth night of Hanukkah. Happy Hanukkah. Uh, we've been celebrating at home with my son and I know many of you are getting ready for Christmas. I don't know if anyone heard my guitar solo yesterday. Uh, it was 5 seconds long, but um, happy Quanza, happy new year, happy holidays to everyone. Uh, we had a great choir concert. So, thanks again to all the employees uh, yesterday in the courthouse. No matter what holiday you're celebrating, we wish everyone the best uh, with their families. Thank you. Turn it over to Commissioner Winder.

Great. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. How's everyone doing? Great. Thank you. You know better than that? Good morning. Everybody doing okay?

Uh well, um thank you all for being here. Packed room. We need a bigger uh board space for everyone, but thanks for being here. Uh I want to start my comments uh today by honoring two members of our community who have devoted their careers to public health and medicine. uh they dedicated their time to the Montgomery County Board of Health. Uh Steven Patz and Dr. Jroj provided leadership, expertise and steady guidance to the board for many many years including the uh supporting the county during uh the difficult times of the CO 19 pandemic. Uh we want to publicly thank them uh for their hours of service to the board and to the community and wish them well in the future. uh next earlier this week. Are they here?

Yeah. No. Okay. Where's Oh, there you are. Come on up. I'm sorry. I didn't I didn't know you were here. I didn't see Dr. J. How can I not? Let's give Stephen a round of applause.

Thank you. We're in the middle. There you go. All right. Right here. All right. One, two, three. Thank you. Thanks. Happy holiday. Thank you.

All right. Uh earlier this week, we were joined with employees from Dormund uh products, an auto uh parts manufacturer based in Hatfield as they donated holiday gifts, homegoods, and other essentials for our holiday gift drive. Dormund has participated in our holiday drive for more than 13 years, and they are one of our longest, most generous donors. Last year, Dorman's facility building had a major fire and they were still able to provide donations. We are thankful for their continued support and help. Our winter collection drives are still ongoing for those who are able to donate. The toy drive goes until December 24th. We are accepting new toys and gift cards. Our emergency food drive runs through December 31st. We are collecting non-p perishable foods such as cereal, oatmeal, and canned meals. And our winter coat drive continues through January 2nd. We are collecting new coats, hats, scarves, blankets, and small space heaters. The greatest need is for men's and children's sizes. Drop off locations are available on our website. And last but not least, I want to thank every I want to wish everyone a happy holiday and a happy new year. I can't believe uh 2025 is coming to a close. Um and I want to just thank uh the community, our county team uh for for being my inspiration. Uh we can't do this work uh without all of our county employees. So I want to wish everyone a a a joyful holiday season and in this moment where um there is a lot of challenge in the world. Uh let the holidays be a reminder of the importance of giving each other grace, showing each other that you love them and being the light uh not only during the holiday season but all year long. So thank you for being here and happy holidays. Turn

it over to my colleague.

Okay. a lot of good stuff. Um, another exciting announcement, uh, for those that might not have seen it, uh, this week we preserved the 200th farm in McGomery County. Um, on Monday we celebrated the Sitco tree farm in lower Potts Grove. Um, so as mentioned, they u they are now the 200th of the of the farm preservation program. Um, it was awesome to see how much it meant to the family. um they they were speaking with them. They talked about how uh the the current owners, his parents uh always said that they want to ensure that this farm stays as is and never gets consumed by uh development. So they're really excited to be able to carry uh their family dreams. Um the current owners are the fourth generation. Uh the farm's been operating uh for over a hundred years. Um, so this uh with this preservation, it guarantees the farm to continue to be there uh for generations to come. And the cool thing about the um the way the pres preservation program works, even if they sold the farm uh to somebody else that wants to continue to have it as a tree, a Christmas tree farm or something else, it has to maintain. It has to stay a farm. So uh so they're really excited about that. We're excited to be there. And it was awesome to be able to preserve that farm because we're up over uh or almost at 11,000 acres in McGomery County of farmland preserve. Um so uh with that um also if you have been around the buildings, you know, at least over the last couple weeks or at certain events, you probably heard our amazing uh McGomery County employee uh concert choir. Um they've been singing their hearts out uh for the last few months. They've been practicing

pretty much all year and yesterday we had the the uh traditional holiday choir concert uh over at the courthouse. Um it's it's all volunteer with employees from many departments. Um I when I look around the room I I think I see a few that uh are part of a choir. Um and you know they're just amazing. I mean they're just amazing. They take time out of their day. uh they practice and they uh throughout the year. Um they're they actually practice in the conference room next to my office. So I get to hear them continually throughout the uh 12 months. Um they we did have a special uh guest that joined the choir for a song. Uh we all found out he had a new hidden talent uh played the guitar which I didn't know until yesterday. So, Commissioner McKesia jumped in and and joined the choir and played played along with him. So, it was it was fun. It was a fun day. Um, and I have now something to tease him about for a month or two, you know, but it's all good. Uh, so I too want to wish everyone as we come uh to the end of another year uh as we go into the holiday season, I want to wish everyone a happy uh happy holidays, a very merry Christmas. Uh, enjoy your families, enjoy all the good food, and most importantly, I hope Santa's good to everyone. So, um, happy holidays, merry Christmas, and and we probably won't see you again. So, happy new year as well. So, thank you, and we look forward to seeing you. We'll we'll expand this room if you all keep coming. So, we'll hopefully see you in January, too.

Awesome. Great. Okay. So, next up we're going to hear uh from Tony Brew about our impact award winners. Good morning, commissioners.

So, it's my pleasure to present to you the winners of the first annual impact award. So, when I first came to Montgomery County, I wanted to make sure that all employees felt valued and recognized and this award is just a small way of doing that. So, the impact award um recognized county employees who have demonstrated deep dedication to making Montgomery County the best place to live, work, learn, and visit. This year, we received many outstanding nominees. Each each highlight their incredible talent, commitment, and the heart of our workforce. Every nomination is deserving of recognition, but today we honor a group of people who have shown that they have are dedicated as far as service, innovation, teamwork, and dedication to our community. With that being said, I would like to have Veronica Hillman stand if she is here.

Over here, stand up. So, Veronica's dedication to coordinating year-round donation drives has supported hundreds of MGM County families with essential supplies from school items to holiday meals, winter clothing, and toys. Her commitment and compassion helps turn generosity into hope. And her work reminds us that powerful impact [clears throat] one person can have on our entire community. So, thank you, Veronica. Our next impact award winner is Danielle Higgins. She's not here today because she's probably busy working,

but Daniel is um Danielle exemplifies going beyond um the call of duty from responding to an emergency situation, calming a frightening child, assisting injured visitors, and creating an innovative education program that that supports our community. So, she's not here, but but let's give her a round of applause. All right. Next is Lisa Noacker. Lisa, are you here?

There you go. Uh, my team works with Lisa all the time. She is wonderful. So, um, she's a leader who whose impact reaches far beyond her department. Um through innovation, mentorship, and integrity, she has modernized procurement processes, supported colleagues across the county, and strengthened our accountability to our residents. Her leadership both locally and statewide embodies public service, I'm sorry, public service as it is at its very best. So, thank you, Lisa. Our next winner is David Thomas from public safety. There goes, David. David hands-on leadership and problem solving has significantly improved the safety, efficiency, and reliability of public safety. By correctly maintaining and repairing facilities, he has saved the county thousands of dollars, which is always good, saving money, while ensuring our first responders have a dependable place to train and prepare. So, thank you, David, Amanda Kelly. There you go, Amanda. Amanda plays a critical role in behind the scenes in ensuring mgomery county communication is clear, transparent, and effective to all residents and employees. From shaping strategy to managing media and major initiatives, her work has strengthened both public trust and elevated the countyy's communication to new heights. So, thank you, Amanda. Our final impact award winner is Jackie Gdone from my department. I will say personally, I don't know what I would do without her. She keeps me

right when I'm here. She keeps me on schedule. So, I really appreciate her. But Jackie is the definition of a team player and leader. She is consistent and goes above and beyond to support our colleagues, bridge gaps, and foster collaboration across departments. Her positivity, professionalism, and dedication makes her a cornerstone of the organization and to the HR department. So, thank you, Jackie. So, I'd like all award winners to stand up. Go up front. We have something special for you. Okay. Thank you very much.

See you again.

I don't think we meet again. There you go.

All right. One right here. All right. One, two, three. Thank you.

Congratulations to everyone. and it's really really nice to hear a glimpse of everything that's happening in the county through your stories and the extraordinary work that's being done. I'm glad we can share that with everyone. Thank you Tony for taking the lead on that. Um with that, we're going to move on to the first public comment section. Reminder, this is only comments that specifically pertain to the pending votes, resolutions, bids, RFPs, and contracts limited to three minutes. I'm going to ask our solicitor to help me enforce that 3minut rule today. This is a very long meeting. So, we'll have to do that.

We'll save any comments we might have uh for the end of the period just because we want to get through this. So, any commenters? David Morgan.

Good morning, commissioners. I'm David Morgan from Amler. I'm here to represent the concern about tax increases for renters who are affected by homeowners, property taxes, and for businesses. So, we've had a quite a long streak of them. Before I get into that, I want to just say that there are some resolutions today in the agenda. H8 um has funds for a I can't pronounce it, a temple incorporated. And so, I was wondering if that could be explained sometime. Uh there's um also the term personnel use right with human resources. I like personnel, less typing, less paper used, more personal. U now back to the budget items. Um I have my graph you've seen before of the tax increases and one individual told me that well just the current commissioners consider but we're paying the taxpayers are paying no matter who the commissioners and so we've had this increase of 5 8 13 and 9.69% up till this year. Now, here's my add-on is to this side of the room to see. The add-on is for the 4% proposed, which um is for 2026 and raises our tax to uh for six years 57.9% increase in our taxes as homeowners. Sometimes it might go to escrow company. You might not see that if you're homeowners, but uh please get the word out that our taxes have gone very far up. And along with that 4% this year, there's a budget draw down, I believe, about $13 million. So, that represents a continuing liability. Um, I'm very concerned to hear that there's was a $55 million deficit and uh I thank Commissioner Debella for voting against that tax increase last time and uh for trying to bring it to our attention saying it was about 30 million 40 million but 55 million is quite alarming after that record amount of tax increases. So, it seems like the company was going

underwater really seriously. And why weren't we aware of this? Uh why aren't we told the new hires? There's a new positions. Well, new positions which come around on that back table. Why isn't on a consolidated list? We see the entire year because these new positions are going to be costly up to $100,000 or more with benefits um pension. So, uh why not consider how we can have that large cost not considered? this uh agenda has a $45 million uh charge for uh IBX for healthcare. So uh we have high costs with so many extra positions being invented. Also, we have not had uh update about the county campus plan uh since about this spring. And I'd like to see uh what's going on with this county campus with this building across the street and over there with a large justice center uh has been reported as supposed to be $450 million cap on that. Where are we? Because that's been a while. It's been in the press. I have an article from the reporter about that. So all these issues I'm really concerned about uh having uh our taxpayers bear the brunt of these. So please uh revise the budget if needed.

Thank you. Thank you. Um any other comments on the agenda? Okay. So we will move on to approval of minutes. Uh, is there a motion to approve the November 13, 2025 minutes of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners meeting? So moved. Moved by Commissioner Winder. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Commissioner Dello. All in favor or I? No board comment. Um, no board comment, I assume. Okay. All in favor? I. Uh, the minutes are approved. Uh, and then we move on to consideration of the budget. So we'll hear a presentation from our CFO.

Morning commissioners. So we have a number of budget related action items here and I'm going to walk through um each of them uh and explain the action that you're going to be taking. Next slide, please. Just uh an overview of the budget process. As you know, we started very early in the year back in the spring and um with our departments, we were reviewing cost containment strategies. Um many of that have been embedded into the 26 proposal. Um we had detailed departmental budget meetings um through the summer months which led up to the proposed budget that was um presented publicly on November 13th. Then what followed after that were two public hearings um which were well attended um good feedback from uh the public and this is all required by law and um it's led to this last step where you have to take action on the budget approve it um by the end of the year. Next slide please. So I'm going to walk through the resolutions. Uh the first one um next slide please. All relates to the general fund. So, you're approving the new real estate millage rate, um, which will be set at 5.462 mills. Um, this is approximately a 4% increase. Uh, and it'll generate $12 million of new revenue for the general fund. Um, as you know, the general fund budget is over 600 million. Um, so this is a small amount of money to fund the overall budget that we have. Um the impact on the average single family dwelling is approximately $36 more in 2026 versus uh what was paid this year. Next [snorts] slide please. The total expenditures for the budget in the general fund $632,700,991.

Um and you can see here by functional area uh what what is represented in that budget. I will point out that health and human services [clears throat] which is roughly you know 37% is primarily funded by grant revenue and you know if you look at the revenue side of this budget um almost 35% of the overall budget is um grant revenue money that funds this particular area of the county uh which is all restricted for those services. Next slide. So, we're going to move to the uh second uh action item, and this is approval of the non-general fund operating budgets. Um, and as you can see, they total $345,515,628. This is inclusive um of all of our uh major operating funds. Uh many of these are restricted funds that are uh you know set for specific purposes. Next slide, please. The third the third action item relates to the capital fund budget. You're only approving the one the uh first year of the five-year capital plan which is 2026. Um and the total amount of expenditures for that budget is 255 million754,388. That covers all the um capital projects that are anticipated for 2026. Many of them are ongoing. You know, they're multi-year projects. Some will come online in 26 for the first time, but this is what the total budget amount will be for the capital fund. Next slide, please. Um, so when you roll all that up, right, all the operating, the capital, the general fund, you're roughly at $1.2 billion um of budget dollars that uh the county manages, right? And you can see 50% of that is the general fund. That's our primary

operating fund. That's mainly where most of our personnel are funded from. Um and the other areas um that you're looking at here are pretty much restricted to specific uses like managed care solutions fund. Those funds can only be used for those services and and same with the others. Even the capital fund that's funded by bond proceeds that's restricted to just the capital projects that are included in the budget. Next slide, [snorts] please. Uh so moving to a final action item. Um this is the assignment of fund balance uh for a contribution to the employee pension fund. Next slide please. Um what we're doing here is we're taking about $5.3 million. We're signing it uh for the specific purpose of funding future pension cost. Um it's a safety net for us for the unknown cost increases that we may have. we we find out what our annual contribution is typically uh in June after an actuarial evaluation is done. So we have money in the budget slotted at current levels. However, um if it's higher, this safety net will be in place for the next two years to fund that uh expense. So I'm going to take a pause there. Um that's a lot of information um and turn back to the chair.

Great. So, thank you again, Dean, and to the entire county team. Your work is deeply appreciated. We've been talking about this budget for the last month publicly, and we've met with staff, you know, individually since March. And whether or not you've been following the county on social media, the comm's team has done a great job communicating what's in the budget. And we've had two hearings now in addition to this meeting where we've heard from the community. We also of course hear from people uh throughout the year. So thank you to everyone who made their voice heard and advocated for the parts of the budget uh you know that they either know intimately or or care about and thanks to the team for hearing everyone out and and coming to a space where you've worked with everyone. Um any other comments before the vote? Comments after too. Okay.

Okay. Like, so we're going to do each one at a time since the Yes. Um, well, I might say after do it afterwards. I'll make a comment after after the vote or before after the vote. After this votes, right now, right? I'll wait for the first motion. Yeah, it's the main one. Yeah. Go ahead.

Okay. I guess we could do the capital. Okay, so we got a couple here. Um, okay. So, is there a motion for the fiscal year 2026 that the tax military uh to be levied on all real property within the county that is subject to taxation for county purposes shall be uh 462,000. Is that correct? 0005462 mills uh on each dollar of assessed valuation of taxable property. Uh $5 and a point 462 on each,000 of assessed valuation of taxable property. And be it further resolved that for the general fund expenses of the county totaling 632 million 700,991 for the fiscal year beginning January 1st, 2026 are hereby appropriated from the revenues available for specific purposes as more fully itemized on the budget form attached and on the file in the office of the county commissioners. 's chief financial officer. Sound good, Ben?

Sounds good. Okay. Um, is there All right. Is there a motion? So move. Moved by Commissioner Winder. Is there a second? Second. Second. I'll second the motion. Any board comment?

Yeah, I I'll comment um real quick. The as as and Mr. Morgan raised up a lot of really good points as far as um where the budget has been over the last few years. Um I could understand his concern and many concerns of people as far as what the tax increases have been for the last five years, but um as a county commissioner who's been here for two years, I can't change what happened in the past. I could only focus on ensuring that Montgomery County is financially stable and and we have to be fiscally responsible. But as you can see, we're 1.2 billion dollar operation here. Um, and it's very difficult. It's a very hard thing um for any elected official when we're confronted with um a position where we have to take one way or the other as far as related to a budget and and potentially increasing taxes. Um, this was a difficult year. Um, and as mentioned, I've mentioned this multiple times, we we started out throughout the year, we we our starting point was about a $55 million deficit. Um, we knew that that was equates to about an 18% tax increase. We knew that that was nowhere where we could be at. I know that I wouldn't have supported it and I know my fellow commissioners weren't going to support something like that. and we worked very hard uh reducing that deficit by over almost at least $30 million. Um it was a big task. Um a lot of work went into that. There's things within this budget that I don't I still don't agree with. Um there's certain positions and different things that were added

through 2025 that I don't agree with. But more importantly, my position as a county commissioner is to ensure that we are uh have a foundation in place so that we don't see what happened in some other counties recently where you see 18 19% 20% tax increases. Um we are carrying over a probably a 12 to$13 million deficit into next year that we're going to continue to work on. But a couple things that we already have in place is related to we have uh a team that's going to be focused on uh and I we have such a long name for that team OS

huh OSP

OSP [laughter] we gota we got to shorten that but we we are we have a team in place and their their their job is really to to work throughout the county to look at all the spending and all the projects and all the initiatives uh to come back with recommendations and changes. We're bringing in a consultant to also look at, you know, uh contracts and and so there there's a lot that's in motion because we are um we all feel that, you know, this work has to continue. Um like I said, I'm not happy with where we're at today. Uh but it is a work in progress. Um, and I know that um, you know, we people like to make this political and I I've been in this elected position and I've held other elected positions. I've been doing budgets for for many years as elected official and I never make it political. Um, I make it about the almost 900,000 residents of McGomery County. Um, and that's what this is about. and we have to ensure that we have all the services that we're providing. Um and we will have to continue those services. We're doing a lot of good work in McGomery County. And um you know, I'll close with we we've talked about this before. For every dollar that people spend on property taxes combined, every dollar, 12 cents of that dollar comes to the county. 12 cents. Think about that. 12 cents of that dollar comes to the county. So, we're doing a lot with uh you know what I would say uh as best we can. We're also dealing with uh the last thing I'll sorry the last thing we're dealing with is that assessments are down and a major part of

the revenue source for for the county is assess assess values and we're we're down this those values are down. Um, and we had a lot of great comments during the public hearings. There's things that were mentioned that I'm have been looking at and we'll continue to look at trends over the last 5 years and seeing what we could do moving forward. But we have we're in a position where at this point we've done as much as we could do for 2026 and now we're going to be focused on uh even getting better for 2027. So, thank you. Thank you. If I can I'll save my comments. Yeah, you're gonna save your comments till after we vote. After we vote.

Yeah.

Um I think I'll can I do you mind if I um you know just reflecting I I also have been in other elected roles and and we know that passing a budget um with any government entity is never a simple task. And so I want to make sure that people u know that we take our fidiciary responsibility really seriously. Um, we know and we've seen it's a delicate dance. Um, it's balancing competing priorities, listening to a wide range of voices, and just making difficult choices. We are not doing everything that we'd like to do uh to deliver for the residents of Montgomery County. Um, I want to thank every participant, whether they agree with the budget or not, for just sharing their concerns. Our job is to listen to constituents, hear those concerns, um, and make the decision that we think is best for Monco. Um, appreciate our department heads, our row officers for being in this difficult dance with us. We recognize that we didn't approve everything that everyone asked for. Um, and grateful to the residents for taking time out of your busy schedules, for just voicing uh, your concerns, but also your um, your thankfulness for what we are delivering uh to the residents of Montgomery County. Um so, so what I would say is I want to thank our county team again for the work that they did, especially our office of innovation, strategy, and performance. I'll actually say it. We'll uh and we'll continue uh to be transparent about how we're doing financially. will continue to be open-minded to uh concerns that uh people have. Um and we're going to continue to work to ensure that Montgomery County continues to be a great place to live, work, and raise a family. So, uh thanks everyone for uh

for being here. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, with that, uh I will move to a vote. All in favor say I.

I. I. I. I. Um the motion passes unanimously. So, I'll just make my comment, which is that what just happened uh is something that has not happened in a very long time in Montgomery County. I think it's been the better part of a decade where we passed a bipartisan unanimous budget. And so, I want to first just thank my colleagues. Uh we really worked together on this. We committed to collaboration and this was a months monthsl long process but we both found significant savings across the board and we still invested in all the things that really matter to our residents. So this is something that's looted both Congress the PA general assembly in terms of getting a bipartisan budget done and done on time. So, it's really meaningful to show, I think it sends a signal to uh all residents that we're here working together and we're not just here to score political points, but we're actually trying to do what's best uh for the county. So, thank you to both my colleagues and Lee for uh all of the diplomacy it takes uh to get to this and the whole team uh Ben, Dean, uh everyone, Stephanie, our deputy cos uh and Tiffany, it really uh is something remarkable and and exceptional. So, I'll just say, you know, we found common ground on things like our emergency behavioral health center, which is going to be a first for the region and really support crises of mental health and substance abuse. Uh we are investing 5.3 million in housing priorities, including the shelters that I uh mentioned earlier, Lansdale, Nortown, and Pottstown, none of which existed uh before we took office. And uh

this is something that you know is not easy. Uh but we've all done this by working together and staying focused on the issues that matter most. So we've also invested in public safety. We've had a number of chiefs uh speak with us. Uh we had Chief Jackson come present. Uh this budget does have the purchase of new emergency radios for local police, firefighters, and EMS. uh they're going to be able to get to residents faster uh and more safely uh in emergencies. And one of the things that I really care about, one of the things that's best about Montgomery County is that uh we have 6,000 acres in terms of public property or 6,000 acres of parks, trails, historic sites. Three million people visit each year. We're going to have even more people visit next year. So, we'll be well prepared for that. Thanks to this budget, thanks to uh all the investments we've made. So, I will uh turn it over to my colleagues for any other comments on this.

Just no real real quick again. I mean, you mentioned a lot of things. Um and you know, we heard a lot of comments also and um we did have a reduction in staffing as well. So, I mean, we these were reductions made throughout the county. Um, and we actually also put it $15 million back into reserve that uh was from 2024 because there was there was a surplus and there was FEMA money that came. So this is this is very this is a very delicate balancing act as far as how the money is being handled and and the strategy you so none of us took this lightly and I know that as we I I know I I I can't speak for my my fellow commissioners but I'm sure they have the same type of meetings I have uh as well with with uh with Lee and Dean and that and I'm already talking about 2027 and looking at the budget and already starting to look at what we can do uh to continue working our way to get the to get the county uh on a very strong financial foundation.

Thanks. Absolutely. Okay. Um with that, we'll move on to the next uh vote which is part of the budget which is on a non-general. Should we just go straight to the vote? Yes. Okay. So I'll ask um for section two non general

is there a motion that nine operating budgets with expenditures noted in the budget resolution and on slide seven of Mr. Dorton's presentation are hereby adopted that the proper county officers are authorized and directed in accordance with county purchasing regulations to expend funds for the fiscal year 2026 within the limit set forth in the budget resolution. So moved moved by Commissioner Dell. Is there a second? Second by Commissioner Winder. Any board comment?

I think we're just I'm sorry. I I want to make sure people understand a lot of this money is the different kind of funding sources that come into the county. This is part of the general operating budget. It's part of the 1.2 million that you mentioned. But what we just voted on previous is not this is other monies that come in. It's outside of the general fund outside the general fund restricted uses, right? and they are very they're very restrictive uses. Okay, great. Um, any other comments? All in favor? I

I motion passes. Is there a motion that the capital fund budget for the 2026 fiscal year is hereby adopted in the amount of 255,754,388 of which 131,652 uh sorry 131,652,874 shall be funds of the county and be it further resolved that the proper county officers are authorized and directed to proceed with the capital programs is described in the budget resolution and on slide nine of Mr. Dartton's presentation subject to all applicable federal commonwealth [clears throat] and county laws, ordinances, regulations, and policies.

So moved by Commissioner Winder, seconded by Commissioner Della. Any board comment? All in favor? I motion passes. Next, uh we move on to approval of assignment funds for the contribution of the employee pension fund. Uh is there a motion that the proper county officials in accordance with the authority conferred by law subject to the approval of the county solicitor hereby approve the assignment of 5,335,000 of the general fund unrestricted fund balance to Montgomery Countyy's actuarily determined contribution to the employee pension fund. So moved by Commissioner Deello second that seconded by Commissioner Winder comment. All in favor?

I I motion is approved. Uh finally um is that really on the community college? I'll make you can make a few points.

So back in 1963 the state passed the Pennsylvania Community College Act which is still in place today. That act assumed, [clears throat] it framed out that funding for the community college would be divvied up a third, a third, and a third. A third would come from tuition and fees, a third from the state, and a third from the local. We're the local sponsor. Um, back in 2017, the county established a [clears throat] dedicated real estate millary specifically for the community college. That's, you know, that funding goes, it comes through the county, goes directly to the community college. Um the proposal in front of you today um is to uh increase the millage rate from 39 to 049. That'll raise about 6.2 million of new revenue for the community college operations. But what it will do also is that it's going to bring the allocation closer to the state or in line with the state. Um so we're getting getting better at the third and the third. We're not quite there there yet, but we'll be in line with the state in 2026. As you can see, in 25 the state's about 24%, we were 20%. Great. Okay. Is there a motion for a purpose of funding the Montgomery County Community College that the tax mill rate of 049 be levied uh sorry uh be levied? shall sorry tax mill rate to be levied shall be 4900s mills on each dollar of assessed valuation. Is there a motion?

So move moved by commissioner winder. Is there a second? Second by commissioner de comment. So I just want to real quick again that dollar that we showed that when we said about if you look at a dollar you know all property taxes that are levied against one we're talking about one cent right if I have this correct one cent of that dollar is going to county community college roughly right

and and so McGomery County Community College is is probably is pro is the top community college in Pennsylvania, probably the one of the top community colleges in the country. And we've had many presentations where uh um president uh she came and talked about for every dollar spent in the county by the county like was it like $9 comes back uh long term or something like that. So, it's an investment that we're making that will have a return um as as we continue to move forward. And it's it's a it's a great asset for all our all our kids, anybody because there's people of all ages go there and it's a great asset uh for the county and uh and uh you know, it's something that we we have to we have to do our our fair part.

Yeah. No, absolutely. um President Estste came in and really just uh showed us how the community college is leading in the whole country has been recognized and uh is [snorts] you know it's exciting to see what they're going to be able to do in the coming years. Um all in favor I

I motion passes. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Great job going through those numbers. Thank you. Okay. So, I will move on to resolutions. Uh, first resolution, Scott France will briefly describe on uh planning assistance contracts in East Greenville, Douglas, Chelenham, and West Norton.

Thank you, commissioners, and good morning. I will be super brief. Uh, this time of year, we have renewals for our community planning assistance contracts. These contracts are typically three years in length, so it's a steady stream of uh communities dropping in and out. 35 to 37 in recent years has been the total municipalities uh involved with this program which is a high water mark uh since I can recall the history going back to 1970. [clears throat] Uh the four we have before you today are Douglas Township, East Greenville Burough, Cheltonham Township, and West Norton Township. In the interest of time, I won't go into specifics of each, but their scopes uh vary somewhat to include things like revitalization plans, open space plans, walkability audits, active transportation support, zoning, and salo uh ordinance uh amendments and code updating along with general planning services. Um the specific details of these contracts, I'll just read into the record. All of them begin January 1st of 2026 and run through December 31st of 2028. Douglas Township is a total amount of $86,70 with a municipal share of $43,35. East Greenville Burrow $63,118. Total municipal share of $31,559. Chelnham Township total cost is $137,36 with a municipal share of $68,568. And finally, West Norton Township at $120,480 498 with municipal share of $60,249. And this resolution is before you today.

Great. Uh is there a motion to approve resolution number one as described by Mr. Scott Frank? Moved by Commissioner Devel. Is there a second? Seconded by Commissioner Winder. Board comment. All in favor? I I motion is approved. Thank you for your work. Thank you. Appreciate it. Uh next we'll hear from Bill Hartman, our open space planning manager.

Good morning, commissioners. Thank you for having me. I have a very short presentation to uh to give to you this morning. Today we're going to be seeking your approval of two MONCO Forever Green open space grants. Clip on the next slide, please. The first is a $220,000 county grant to lower Morland Township for the fee acquisition of a 43 acre parcel that's located at 2560 Feders Mill Road immediately adjacent to the PennyPac as well as the Penny Pac Trail. It will be owned and managed by the township and serve as publicly accessible passive open space. Lower Morland is providing the required 25% match of $55,000. The second grant is a $160,000 county grant to Lower Salford Township for the fee acquisition of a 1acre parcel located on Maple Avenue immediately adjacent to the 39 acre Harley'sville Community Center property. It will be owned and managed by the township and serve as publicly accessible passive open space with potential future trail connections to the community cent's trail system as well as Maple Avenue. Lower Southford is providing the required 25% match of $40,000. The county open space board unanimously recommended approval of both grants last month. An acquisition of these two parcels will eliminate their potential for residential development and permanently preserve them as open space for public use going forward. If you could flip to the next slide, I have a couple of maps just to give you a little context on both of these. You can see the site in Lower Salford on the left and the site up in Lower Morland Township on the right hand upper corner of the county map. Next slide, please. Zeroing in on the lower Morland project, the red polygon is the parcel that will be preserved. You can see that to the right, it's immediately adjacent to the PennyPac trail that runs uh north and

south in this slide with the yellow dash line. The Penny Pac is the blue uh dotted line to the left of the red parcel. So, you can see how it's sandwiched between the two. And Brennan Burrow owns property immediately to the south as well. Next slide, please. Jumping to Lower Southford. Again, the red parcel is the parcel that will be acquired by Lower Southford Township. The Harley'sville Community Center property that I mentioned is immediately to the east. That's 39 acres. Lower Southford also owns a parcel to the southwest of the parcel that's being acquired. That's about 2 and a half acres. And you can see that the school district, the Serton Sounderton area school district has a 31 acre immediately uh to the north as well. So, there's a lot of potential users and public open space that already sits around this parcel. Both of these projects represent the first two grants to be awarded through our recently created MOCO Forever Green open space grant program, and we're super excited to bring more open space preservation opportunities to you in the coming year that will benefit Montgomery County residents and visitors alike. Happy to answer any questions. [clears throat] Any questions?

Uh, is there a motion to approve resolution number two as described by Mr. Bill Hartman? So move. Second. Moved by Commissioner Wander, seconded by Commissioner Deello. Are you second? I'll have a time after.

Um, I I'll just say thank you uh, Bill and the planning commission for launching this grant program back in July. I know it's really important for a lot of residents in our community. Connecting with nature is uh one of the best things that we've got going in Montgomery County in terms of the opportunities, the parks, the trails. It's really something uh to be proud of when we build new spaces and and and expand on that. So, these two projects are the first in the program, but it's uh a continuation of the open space program and all the great work that we've done for a long time. So thank you. You're welcome here. Thanks. Anybody else? So that we'll move to a vote. Are there all in favor?

I I motion is motion is approved. Thank you. Oh, actually that was one. We'll do two. We'll do one more motion, but you you explain both. So on the second motion, is there a motion to approve resolution number three as described by Mr. Bill Harpin? So moved by Commissioner Devel. Is there a second? Second by Commissioner Winder. board comment. All in favor? I I motion is approved. Uh next we will hear from uh Lisa Herbstenski on the zoo.

Good morning, commissioners. Uh I'm Lisa Herpski, the assets and infrastructure de deputy director. Next to me is David Clifford. He is the parks, trails, and historic sites administrator. Before you this morning is a resolution providing authorization for the county to enter into two lease agreements. The first is a lease agreement between the county and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to lease the Narstown Farm Park located at 2500 Upper Farm Road in Narstown. The property is 720 acres comprising of agricultural fields, meadows, wetlands, and historic structures. There are close to 300,000 visitors to the park annually. The proposed lease has a term of 35 years. The lease provides for potential reimbursement from the state for a portion of operational and capital improvement costs up to $500,000 a year. The second agreement provides authorization for the county to enter a sub lease agreement with the Narstown Zoological Society doing business as the Elmwood Park Zoo to acquire and maintain a portion of the Narstown Farm Park, specifically the historic Caster House property. Uh here to talk more about the subleas is Al Zone, the executive director and CEO of Elwood Park Zoo. Um and Dave and I are available after if you have any questions. Thank you. Thank you so much. I want to thank all the commissioners for all their great work and uh this is an exciting project for us. It's something we've been very interested in uh for a long time. I want to thank Lee and the staff. Uh you guys have done an amazing job of helping navigate this through. Uh the zoo team is here today. Uh Stan Husky and Eric Husky uh were a major part in this along with Jen. They uh head up our de development team and have done a great job with helping us uh craft this. and

uh my president and vice president Share Howorth and Don Mard. Um it's been an exciting run um coming on to I think 15 years now at the Elmwood Park Zoo. I am born and raised in Narstown. Um and I tell everyone I'm Narstown before the zoo and that means a lot. My main involvement with getting into involved with the zoo is the fact that uh it was such a jewel here in our county, but more importantly in Narstown and I wanted to see that strive. In 2011, the zoo was on the verge of closure. We had about 114,000 visitors, generated about $1.4 million a year. We are well over 800,000 visitors a year. We are the most populated zoo in the state of Pennsylvania today and generating about $25 million a year. I I can't thank you guys enough for your involvement in our in in our our zoo and and your investment. This in particular project, if you could change the slide there, um is uh that little orange dot there at the top. Um our property uh is is everything you see there now in green. Uh and after this uh if uh all goes well, we'll include that little bit of an acreage up top. Our property kind of went around it. Uh the building is up in your top left corner there. was built in 1802 and hasn't been abandoned for many years. Uh and and costing money uh to to upkeep and maintain. Uh we found a uh a great interest in this building. We are going to leave 99.9% of the building as is. Uh we're going to do works on the grounds. We're going to open up the building to talk about the education of a farm park and the connectivity between us and and the farm park. Um and then host some events on the grounds. Uh if you can go to the next slide there. Uh our our plan is to build a a a greenhouse conservatory uh next to it uh to work with our students in the area to to build food and and browse for our animals uh inside the zoo and really

help with education. Uh so it's going to be a great component allowing us to move into an area uh to to become more sustainable and grow our own uh our own stuff there. Um, a really cool part uh of this uh is on the other side of our campus. We're about to expand into 22 new acres. The bridge is being built as we speak. Uh, construction hopefully will start uh within January uh when the the zoo's wildlife comes to a close, but uh there's going to be about nine of these acres that are free to our our residents and to our community. Uh we will have our barnyard on the other side of the campus uh completely free to the public. If you're in the farm park and you want to come down and groom the goats, uh you'll be able to do so. There'll be a walkive walkth through beehive exhibit to learn about the importance of pollinators, but also to talk about Narstown and why Narstown chose the beehive as their seal. Uh and you'll be able to walk through that. It'll be a large exhibit about a 20 by 20 uh which will be great. Now, this is on zoo property. This isn't right next to the caster house. It's just a part of those amenities. Uh there will also be a nature playground on that side of the campus. free to the public. Uh we had a great year this year with doing the half price admission with all county residents. If you get to the zoo on this side of the campus where we're going to be expanding our North American, we will uh let you in at half price because you got there in a green fashion, you traveled by bike, you you ran through the farart or even on the Skookula River Trail. Really excited. This was a project that Beth uh who was with the county uh for many years presented to us and we were excited to uh to jump in there. I I just appreciate you allowing me to do our work and we're having a lot of fun with it. So, thank you so much.

Thank you. You're you're doing a fantastic job at the zoo and just, you know, it's it's such an amazing place as you said, not just have in Montgomery County and Nortown particular. I know our kids love the zoo and yeah, feel free to Yeah. No, I was going to say we we talked about this when I first became commissioner three years ago and you told me how long this conversation had been happening and u I'm just glad that our county staff and the state works so that we could get to this place so we can bring that vision to to life. The master lease was the bigger part of that and getting through that is where why we're here today. So, it's been great. It's been a long effort but it's worth

Yeah. that I was going to mention. I mean, it's been a long process of, you know, the lease, the master lease, the sub lease, and all that to get to this point. Um, I didn't grow up in this area, so I didn't see the zoo many, many years ago. I've heard a lot of a lot of stories about the zoo many years ago, but from what I could see and what's happened in the last what, 10, 12 years or so, I mean, it's how it's expanding and evolving and uh the stuff that you're doing there is just amazing. And I think that um if we're not there, we're going to be there very soon, but I think we're going to be outd doing the Philadelphia zoo. Um and it's it's definitely uh it's incredible uh to see everything that's, you know, just recently with the whole veterary uh hospital that was that was built there. And so this is just another big piece uh that's going to continue to make uh the zoo just an amazing amazing place and a great destination for people to come to. And you're doing a great job um as well. Well, your whole staff, everyone is, you know,

a great team. Yeah, great team. Well, if I listen closely, I think he thinks we're already there, right? That's right. What was the stat that you provided in terms of where the number state in terms of size, population? Yeah. So, our our current zoo inside our gates is only 16 acres. Philadelphia Zoo is about 42 acres. Pittsburgh is about 74. Uh and we are the largest populated zoo with attendance. uh well over 800,000 visitors a year, which is exciting. Uh we will hit a million visitors this this year. Uh we're up 24% overall for attendance and 47% up in just our wildlife alone. So, it's exciting. And is the program still running that uh the reduced?

Absolutely. And if you buy a membership in the end of the year here to renew, you get it at half price for next year. You get it for a whole a whole second year, which is great. And that's for all Monco residents. All Monco residents. Yeah, put that out there again. Thanks again. Thank you. Appreciate it. Uh, so we'll move on to the vote. Is there a motion to approve the author authorization as described by Miss Lisa Herbski? So move by Commissioner Dell. Is there a second? I'll second that. Second by Commissioner Wer. Any board comment? All in favor? I

I motion passes. Uh, next we'll hear from Steve Forester. um on the IDA. Good morning, commissioners. It's my pleasure to introduce a man known to all, your McGomery County Treasurer and chairman of the board of the Industrial Development Authority, Mr. Jason Sales, to present.

Thank you, Steve, for uh for letting me pinch hit for uh for you this morning. Uh good morning, commissioners. Uh I uh I'm here wearing my hat as the chair of Montgomery Countyy's Industrial Development Authority Board of Directors. Uh and that board is authorized by the county under the Pennsylvania Industrial and Commercial Development Authority uh law uh which allows a life of up to 50 years for uh for such authorities. Terms of bonds that we issue, taxexempt bonds cannot extend beyond the life of the IDA. Uh most bonds uh that are issued have a 30 to 40year uh uh uh term. Uh the last renewal uh extension of life that the county granted was back in 2007. Um uh uh before any of us were here I I think in in these roles um MC the IDA's current life expires uh on October 29th 20 57 50 years from that 2007 extension date leaving it with a remaining life of less than 32 years as of this October. We have been approached by a potential substantial borrower uh who would like to issue a bond with a 35year life. So that 35 years is longer than the 32 years uh that we currently [snorts] have left in our life. Um, so we're here today to request uh that you uh again extend our life um uh uh for a total of 50 years which would take us out to 2075 or 2076 depending on when the articles of incorporation get uh filed with uh with the state. Um so I believe you have a resol resolution before you and I'd respectfully ask that you uh consider it and approve it.

Great. Any questions? Okay. Uh, is there a resolution? Is there a motion to approve resolution number five as described by Mr. Jason Sal? Moved by Commissioner Dello. I'll second by Commissioner Winder. Any board comment? All in favor? I approved. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for serving on the board, too. Mr. Chair. Um, moving on to Moren Calder on the library. Go ahead.

Thank you. Um, you will recall that this board adopted a resolution in November authorizing the submission of a grant application to the Commonwealth for a Keystone grant to support the revitalization of the Norstown Public Library. Specifically, the grant funds will be used for a new HVAC system and towards ensuring ADA compliance. And if the grant is awarded, the Commonwealth requires that the county affirm that it will be using the building as a public library for 50 years or the useful life of the improvements, whichever is shorter. And the resolution before you provides for that commitment.

Great. Any questions? Is there a motion to approve the resolution number six as described by Miss Moren Caller? So move moved by Commissioner Winder. Is there a second? Second by Commissioner Dell. Any comment? All in favor? I. The motion is approved. Thank you. Moving on to uh Jeffrey Stewart, our assistant solicitor, on a bargaining agreement.

Good morning, commissioners. I'm here this morning to present approval of a new collective bargaining agreement between the county and Teamsters local 384 covering approximately 200 correctional officers at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. The current contract with correctional officers expires the end of this month, December 31st. We have entered into or we have agreed on a new contract that will cover January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2028. So, a three-year contract. The union ratified this agreement overwhelmingly by a 4 to1 margin. Um the prison board has also reviewed and recommended this unanimously. [clears throat] The contract, couple highlights, will increase starting rates for correctional officers to $54,000 in 2026 and up to over $57,000 by 2028. This will help Montgomery County remain competitive with its neighboring counties, which was one of the goals that we have. This contract also is a milestone in the fact that this is the first time that the county and this union have been able to reach agreement at the table since this union was formed in 2013. So, four contracts now. This is the first one that we've been able to successfully negotiate. Um, personally, I want to thank uh Warden McGee for trusting me to go into negotiations with a different approach than what has been done in the past. Um, and I also want to thank members of the negotiating team. Um, Dean Dortone, our CFO was part of the team, assistant warden Tom Burgerer, and uh, county employee relations manager Fran Bartusus. Um, they all worked very hard to get this to the finish line, so I wanted to make sure that they were recognized. Um, if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. But

we thank you for getting up. Thank you. Appreciate it. Uh, is there a motion to approve resolution as described by Mr. Jeffrey Stewart, assistant solicitor? So moved. Moved by Commissioner Winder. Is there a second? Second by Commissioner Dell. Any board comment? All in favor? I. Motion is approved. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, we'll hear from Deputy Typton on the Baratheia Cultural Learning Center. Good morning. Um before you today is a resolution uh to approve a grant. Um uh the grant is uh in total $500,000. This is to um support the temple in their um uh building out and expansion of their cultural and learning center um which is an extension of a previous ARPA um related grant that we had provided to them previously. I'm happy to answer any questions.

500,000 is ARPA money, right? Um it is not directly related to ARPA. This is part of um a assigned fund balance that we had brought in previously from um funding that we had left over from previous ARPA money. But it's all it's all part of the same project. Yes. The clear way to say it is ARPA money reclaimed. Yes. Thank you. Right. So that we're we're we're putting we're using the the funds that came from ARPA originally. It was reclaimed and now we're using it for that. Yes. Thank you. Uh is there a motion to approve resolution? Sorry. The authorization as described by Miss Stephanie Typton.

So moved. Moved by Commissioner Winder. Is there a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Dello. Any board comment? All in favor? I. Motion is approved. Thank you. Thank you.

Next up, we will move on to commissioners board appointments. Um, we got a number of boards appointments. Uh, we'll do them in one fell swoop, but I'll just read which ones we're covering, which is the Food Policy Council, the Conservation District, the Workforce Development Board, the Local Emergency Planning Committee, uh, Montgomery County, the Valley Forge Tourism and Convention Board, Community College Board, the Board of Managers, the Montgomery County Youth Center. Um, and that should cover it. So, um, is there a motion to approve the board appointments as described in resolution H9? Before we uh make that motion, I don't know if the published agenda did we are all all of those listed because

Yes. All right. I just want because the agenda that that we have with the links to everything didn't have the food policy on it. So I just want to make sure the public all of it. Okay. I that's I just want to make sure that um so did you get a motion? Yeah. So moved. So moved. I'll second that. Uh seconded by Commissioner Winder, moved by Commissioner Dell and seconded by Commissioner Wer. Uh any board comment? All in favor? I The motion is approved. Next up, we'll hear on the personnel list from Tony Gro. [snorts] [clears throat]

Morning commissioners. You have fun the final copy of the commissioner department's personnel list. It is a three-page document dated December 17, 2025 for the time stamp of 11:31 a.m. All positions have been reviewed and accounted for for your consideration. Okay. Any questions? Is there a motion to approve the December 18th, 2025 personnel presentation as given by Mr. Tony Bro? So moved by Commissioner Wonder. Is there a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Dau. Any board comment? All in favor? I I motion is approved. Thank you.

Next up, advertisements of bids and RFPs. Is there a motion to approve the advertisements of bids and RFPs for Montgomery County Exhibit A? Moved by Commissioner Wer. Is there a second? Second by Commissioner Develop. All in favor?

I. Motion is approved. Uh moving on to awards of contract. There a motion to approve the contract awards, amendments, renewals in Montgomery County on attached exhibit B. So moved by Commissioner Wer. Is there a second by Commissioner Dello? I'll make one comment. Wish I had said this earlier. Uh item 31 is a reimbursement agreement that PENDOT uh has for our electric vehicle charging infrastructure. This is really exciting because it would have been very expensive for us to do uh with the county funds and we're now saving $2 million by getting this through grant funding. We're going to be looking at more than 40 locations for electric vehicles and I know many of you are excited about that. Uh we wanted to transition our fleet and part of the uh you know part of the way that we do that effectively is first making sure that there's chargers. So, this will more than double the size of the county's er EV charging infrastructure. We'll be in installing phase 2 chargers, which are faster than typical at home uh garage chargers, and they will be used to power the county's EV fleet and will be available to the general public at certain locations as well. And we're working with municipalities to determine some of the best locations, including trail heads, parking lots, and county owned facilities. So reminder to our municipal partners that our planning commission also launched this EV mapping tool which is a great resource uh for those who want to develop uh EV infrastructure in their municipality. So um it's my only comment on those. Any other comments? All in favor?

I uh motion is approved and the contracts are awarded. Um, moving on to the advertisement of bids and RFPs for the Southeastern PA task force exhibit C. Uh, is there a motion to approve the advertisement of bids and RFPs for the Southeast PA task force? Exhibit C. Uh, move by Commissioner Bell. Is there a second? I'll second by Commissioner Wer. Any comments? All in favor? I. Motion is approved. And then moving on to section M. Is there a motion to approve the contracts board's amendments renewals uh for Southeast PA region task force on attached exhibit E?

So moved by Commissioner Winder. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Commissioner Dell. Any board comment. All in favor? I. Motion passes. We now move on to the final public comment period uh which is limited to three minutes and is still limited to business that's germanine to the county. I'll ask our solicitor to help me enforce the threeminut rule. Uh any public commenters? Good afternoon Darby.

Hello. Good morning commissioners. Um hi I'm Dr. Jannine Darby. the McGomery County Coroner. I just wanted to um tell y'all thank you so much for your support um during the budget um season and also just supporting the coroner's office. Um the things that we do there is so important to our community here in McGomery County and you know um I'm sure the county and the community has seen all the things that we do provide for the community. Um the other thing is um just uh you know thank you all for passing the budget and um I hope our ask were um were uh accepted um you know because all the acts that um we did put in the budget is not luxurious things. These are ne necessities so we um we can support our dedicated team at the coroner's office and also supporting um the McGomery County community and doing um quality work um for the community. So I thank you'all again for the support of the coroner's office and the administration and the OISP helping us as well and um Dean Derto making sure our cost containment is um intact as well. So just wanted to say thank you. Thanks so much.

Jay Bergie.

Good morning. My name is Joy Bergie and I live in Springfield Township. I speak this morning to thank you for creating the county sustainability committee. Um, I had the honor last year of co-chairing the sustainability transition team for commissioners Misha and uh, Winder and I've also served on Springfield Township's environmental advisory commission, the EAC since 2019. My co-chair on the transition team was Zach Davis of Upper Marian's EAC. We led about 20 environmental advocates in creating a set of recommendations for you. Our top recommendation was the creation of the office of sustainability and we're delighted that you've appointed Dave Ram Cassoon as the chief sustainability officer. I can't imagine a better choice. Um, another of our leading recommendations was the creation of a sustainability committee uh to provide recommendations to you and relevant departments. So, of course, I support this effort, the creation of this committee. The county is fortunate to have a number of environmental professionals on staff to guide the committee's work. I'm also pleased that you'll extend the committee beyond staff. I suggest that you look for members in existing networks where municipalities and EAC's already share knowledge and experience. I know of two such networks. of the EAC network coordinated by we conserve PA holds regular events where EAC members share best practices. Dozens of MONCO munis participate in that network. There's also the ready for 100 network comprised of mostly EAC members from the 20 MONCO munis that are already committed to getting to 100% renewable energy in their municipal operations. Uh, this

kind of network involvement has helped Springfield arrive at the decision to put solar panels on our municipal buildings. We'll invite you to the ribbon cutting early next year. Uh, by tapping into these networks, county staff and management can learn what works and what doesn't work without having to reinvent every wheel. And the county can help support and further the work of the municipalities by expanding everybody's base of knowledge. So, I applaud the creation of the county sustainability committee and uh Monco's ongoing and expanding leadership in this area. Thank you very much. Thank you, Zach Davis.

Hello everyone. My name is Zach Davis and I'm a resident of Upper Marian Township. Over the past nine years, I've had the honor of serving on the Upper Marian's Environmental Advisory Council, the past eight of which I've been the chairperson. This has led me to make deep connections across the county, including the opportunity to serve as the co-chair along with Joy Bergie for the sustainability and climate change transition team for commissioners up in Winder. I'm just a passionate resident that got involved wanting to make life better and cheaper for his neighbors across my township, across my county, across the count Commonwealth. At its core, this is exactly what the county sustainability committee will do. During a time where energy costs are climbing and people are struggling to keep up, the county sustainability committee, led by chief sustainability officer Davy Ram Cassoon, can help residents and municipalities both reduce their carbon footprint and their energy bills. Montgomery County staff and residents working hand inand making life better and cheaper for all residents and by extension the entire Commonwealth. There's a deep network of passionate residents mentioned by Joy that has already um been serving and have been waiting for a moment like this for a long time. They're ready to serve and ready to work with the county handinand to make life better. A public committee will also allow the residents of Monco to hold the county accountable for advancing these sustainability initiatives that a majority of our public supports. This will add a level of transparency that the public will appreciate and we deserve. Article 1, section 27 of the PA Constitution states that people have a right to clean air, pure water, and the right to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic, and aesthetic values of the environment. We're just one of three states in the entire nation that have this enshrined in our Constitution, and we must do everything in our power to uphold these rights, not only for us, but for generations yet to come. The formation of this committee is long overdue, but as the proverb that is perfectly relevant to the situation says, best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. Second best time is today.

So, I applaud the commissioners and staff for taking the steps to create the county sustainability committee, and I'm looking forward to serving in any way that I can. Thank you all for your time, and I greatly appreciate you all taking steps to make the more the county more sustainable both environmentally and financially.

Thank you, Ed Moy. Good morning. Good morning everyone. Merry Christmas and uh it's the season to uh celebrate birth of our savior lord and lord and savior Jesus Christ. My name is Ed Moy. I'm from West Norton Township. I I'm here again with this same issue as far as a welcoming uh situation here in McGomery County for illegals. Now, I think it's a bad idea in essence to roll out the welcome net for illegal aliens while refusing to support the men and women of ICE who are only trying to do their jobs within the laws. We are a law of nations or a nation of laws, excuse me. There's been a 1,00 150% increase on ICE agents as as far as assaults and there's been an 8,000% increase on as far as death threats. I personally know what that feels like being former law enforcement. I'm retired from the Pennsylvania State Police and back in the 80s when I was on the job and we had the big cocaine boom going on in this country. Guess what? Guess what the uh the drug drug cartels did in Mexico? Any uniform police officer that that you can prove that you killed, we'll give you $2,500. We had a we had a uh target on our backs at that point in time. And I I I know what these guys feel like. So, what's what's going on? Um headlines, criminal illegal alien being charged with assault after he savagely bit an enforcement officer in attempt to evade arrest. This is the reality of what our ICE officers are facing every day as they go to work to to simply do their jobs and enforce the law, said Assistant Secretary Church Mclofflin. Man arrested for throwing Molotov

cocktails at federal facility embracing attempt on on ICE attack. Then there's the uh shooting in Australia. There's the shooting here in Brown University. There's a terror plot stopped in New York for uh uh new New Year's Eve, a terror plot, four people arrested. And to top it off, there's a there's an a um well, moving right along, there's an organization called a public interest legal found legal foundation. It is an American conservative legal group based in Alexandria, Virginia, which is known for suing states and local governments to purge their their voter roles, etc. Their investigation revealed and that PA officials admitted that for decades the Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles allowed non-citizens to vote through the PA motor voter system. According to Tom Fitton and this group there, this group they they admitted that there are or they found that there are 100,000 non-citizens registered to vote in Pennsylvania. This is not just illegal but it's dangerous in my estimation.

Thanks for your comment. Reverend Peter Martin. Go ahead.

Hello, Reverend Peter Martin uh with First Presbyterian Church of Norristown. I didn't have far to come. Shout out to the burrow for salting and shoveling. I didn't slip once on my way over here. I'm here to offer a different perspective on the welcome policy. I'm not uh unlike my brother in Christ back here. I'm for it. And I'm not here as a representative of any political party. I'm here as someone who seeks to serve and my church seeks to serve Montgomery County. Obviously, we draw from more than just Nortown. we draw from the wider county. Uh this is the season to talk about outreach, handing out toys to those less fortunate. I can attest to a higher branch of government that has interfered with that. A year and a half ago, Governor Shapiro h Governor Shapiro handed down uh actions that restricted actually eliminated outreach at the transportation center. our mission partners were not able to do what they needed to do in partnership with us as a church because of his actions. And now we have something that may even be more serious. We have federal agents in our community and they are disrupting the possibility of worship. Uh ICE agents have yet to enter a house of worship, but it does appear we are getting closer to that. and executive actions as I've mentioned before to this group in my only other time here have permitted them to do that. Indeed, we talk about holiday, we talk about a season of joy, we talk about worship, but if a branch of government is interfering in county business and threatening houses of worship, well then I don't know how much joy we have in that. Again, I can't even mention the services, ministries, and other worshshiping congregations that we partnership with, we partner with

because this is a public comment area. So, I can't even get a chance to speak for them and certainly advertise what they do. Uh we believe in checks and balances in uh this government. I'm a Presbyterian. Uh checks and balances are a big part of what we do. We call it decently and in order. If sheriffs were interfering with our ability to do our ministry and worship, I would be going to probably people from the federal government about that. Fortunately, that is not the case. I'm talking to you here at the county to say that we have a branch of our government that has overstepped its bounds and interfered with what we are doing here as a county. The welcome policy other people have talked about, other people will continue to talk about it. It's specific. It's actionable. It's not saying abolish ICE. And it's not violent. You'll be hearing more from them in the future about it. But I'm coming to you as a fellow partner in serving this community. Please, please come alongside us to serve the community of Norristown. Don't let the federal government interfere with it. Thank you. David Morgan.

I'm David Morgan from Amler and uh I am happy for the National Adoption Day observance in November 21st from Orphansport and off the children and youth. um often speak for children and I'd like to say that this is amazing testimony one person had in Ohio uh Senator John I believe it's Husted uh has said um um courage and love my mother chose life at a difficult difficult time she entrusted me to a family in northwest Ohio who gave me loving home and every opportunity that experience planted in me a long life lifelong belief every child deserves a chance to live, to be loved, and to thrive. So, when we talk about adoption in the Senate, it's not just another policy issue for me. It's deeply personal. So, I find uh that's um an area of the county which uh if we can encourage uh promote um kind treatment of children. Um at the same time, I'm I am concerned mentioning about issues of cartels that children have been exploited and human trafficking has happened. whatever we can do to help children be safe and uh we appreciate the um attention that's been given one time in the year about March there was a congregation of uh county officials uh concerning that. So everything we can do to help children, those uh born and and on unborn, I appreciate I appreciate the county's uh having the parent and infant resource guide with uh many um um pregnancy resource centers uh in listed throughout the guide. So uh I've toured them and I think they're just absolutely amazing helping children and their parents of course. So uh those actions of the county I commend. Um and we really have an a statistical concern in in America because on average it's 1.6 births per per couple. So in

worldwide there are less and less children our most precious resource for the future more than we talked about money today. That's so much less significant. Uh how much is a child's life worth? So I encourage commissioners to support life with uh your communications [clears throat] with the Harrisburg officials. Um, some proposals have been out there in Harrisburg which concern me and so anything that they you can do since you've got got it so going so well with adoption, you've got it going so well with parent resource guide um to have a transformational outlook towards that. And if you're following the biblical account this time of year, Mary and Joseph had to travel far was hardship being pregnant and having taxes to be addressed at a far away place. hardships we can maybe turn around. One example has been President Trump's uh savings accounts for families starting out with a privately invested individual who has a company uh managed to start these from the youngest born ones. Anything we can do to help these children. Thank you.

Thanks so much. Merry Christmas. You too. Okay, we're moving on to Zoom with Jasmine Dange. Jasmine, can you hear us?

Hi. Yes. Um, I would like to talk about the budget. Um, I raised my hand earlier, but it seems that it didn't go through. Um, your budget allocates $0, not one penny, to immigration services, language access or community integration programs, $0 for translation service, $0 for staff training on your own nonCE non-ooperation policy, $0 for accountability mechanisms to ensure these policies are followed. But you did find $768,000 to create to create an new external affairs uh department. Apparently looking welcoming is a lot more important than actually being welcoming. Let's talk about the budget. Law enforcement is getting 8.6 million more. The sheriff's office is getting 1.2 million more. The district attorney is getting 2.7 million more. The correctional facility is getting 3.4 million more. The weapons facility went from 687,000 to 758,000. That's an increase about of about 10%. But where's the funding to train these employees on your internal policies? Where's the accountability system to prevent what happened in Bucks County where the sheriff signed a 287g agreement with ICE in April? Your op-ed says that you oppose 287g agreements, but your op-ed is not a safeguard. Without formal policy, training re uh and training resources, what's stopping your sheriff from doing the same thing? Meanwhile, you're cutting services immigrants desperately need. Mental health services down to 7.6 million, drug and alcohol services down 1.6 million. That's 9.2 million in behavioral health cuts. services that immigrant communities disproportionately need due to the trauma from displacement and family separation. You're expanding the office of housing and community development by 4.8 million. That sounds promising until I ask, are these services accept accessible to undocumented immigrants? Do your

applications unnecessarily collect immigration status? Do you uh are the intakes process multilingual? Your budget doesn't say the early language devel uh re resource center is getting 8.4 4 million more. Again, wonderful. But can undocumented children uh parents of um children of undocumented parents access these services? Will the staff be trained in trauma-informed care for kids experiencing immigration related stress? The budget is silent. You created a director of immigration affairs position in January. Show me the line uh for that office's programming budget. Show me the resources for community partnerships, for outreach, for actually doing the work. It doesn't exist. Here's what Lancaster did to become Pennsylvania's first welcoming city. They passed a formal a uh ordinance, not an internal policy, not an op-ed, but a public enforcable ordinance. They required language access across all city departments. They established a complaint process. They budgeted for training. They partnered with over 40 community organizations. They built infrastructure of inclusion. They invested

a comment. Can you also just name your municipality? Your your Sorry, what was your I got muted for some reason. Um Amler. Thanks. Um are you stopping? No, you ran out of time. Thank you. Um Okay, great. Yeah, and I think there's a lot in the budget that is not in a line item, including plenty of translation services and supports for immigrant communities. So, you can look deeper. Feel free to meet with our director of im immigrant affairs who's doing a fantastic job. And I'm sure

I've emailed actually multiple times and I have repeatedly

comment periods over, but we we'll get your information. and I'd be glad to um make sure you connect with our director of immigrant affairs, but she's working with public safety. She's working with health and human services, uh making sure every department is accessible to every resident and I think is doing a fantastic job and need to underscore this again, but um we don't enact policies uh to enforce a negative, right? We couldn't we couldn't enact a resolution that says we're never going to do this bad thing that nobody supports, but we would spend all day passing those resolutions. So, uh, we I think, you know, I'm really proud of the work that we've done to support immigrant communities in Montgomery County. It extends, uh, you know, to real funding, to training, to support for Nelly and her office. And uh I think there are very few counties that can say they've done anything close to Monco. Anything else? That's it. Okay. Um with that closing commissioner comments, uh I'll just say thank you again to my colleagues. I think this has been, you know, long budget process and we should be extremely proud that for the first time in seven years, we're passing a bipartisan budget. Uh we worked together to find serious savings uh across the board through the office of innovation strategy and performance, but also uh just today we got uh $2 million grant for EV infrastructure. Uh we got the philanthropic donation. Uh there are things that are happening to make sure that we are doing more with the resources we have and serving our residents effectively. Uh and I am, you know, absolutely confident that there's

no other county where people are getting more bang for their buck in terms of what they're putting in in taxes and what they're getting in services. and especially going into next year. We mentioned this, but the investment in parks and trails and uh the kinds of spaces that uh people are going to enjoy both as visitors and they'll come back, but also all of our residents. Uh that's going to be really special. So, thanks again the whole team for making it happen. Thanks again, Lee, for enduring the back and forth and presenting to each each of us individually. Uh and yeah, this is is a great way to end the year. So, um we've been here long enough, but uh it it has been um it's been a challenging year, right? Um, and but in spite of all of those challenges, we continued to focus on making Mon MCO great. And I think some of the the highlights are a reflection of that. And we couldn't do any of this work without our our county team. So, um I'm glad, you know, looking forward to putting 2025 behind us and continuing to do things that challenge the status quo, that innovate uh the way that government works for people and continue to um make MCO proud. So, thanks to my colleagues, the whole leadership team couldn't do this work without you.

Comments.

Uh as Commissioner Winer said, it was a challenging year. a lot um a lot of hard decisions had to be made. Um things that we may not all agree on, but we knew we had to get to a certain point. I want to thank Mr. Morgan for being vigilant coming to the meetings and asking your questions about the budget uh each meeting. I I really appreciate that. I I I would wish and hope more people would come and ask because it's a very complicated budget. There's a lot going on. Um, a lot of people don't even know that we're at$1.2 billion dollars overall. Um, so when we start to present these things, um, I think it's very informative. Um, and I think next year we're going to try to do an even better job of having some more uh, quarterly or whatever updates and briefings uh, related to the spending uh, within the county. I do know we're planning early next year an update on the justice center as well. Um, so a lot of good stuff is coming. A lot of hard work is coming as we go into 2026 because I mentioned as I mentioned, we just finished up the budget for 26, we're already going to be starting and looking at uh after the holidays for budget uh for 2027. So again, I want to wish everyone a happy holiday. I want to thank everyone for all their hard work and have a merry Christmas.

Thank you. Happy holidays everyone as well. um our upcoming board meeting dates. So, our board meeting is Thursday, January 8th, 10 a.m. here. There's also a reorg meeting. Should I say that? Uh January 5th, Monday. Do we have a time? No. Well, not yet. Time TBD. Um but that'll also be here in the boardroom. And with that, uh, is there a motion to adjourn the December 18th, 2025 meeting of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners? So move. Moved by Commissioner Dello. Is there a second? Second by Commissioner Wer. All in favor?

I. Meeting is adjourned. Uh, we'll briefly have a salary board meeting with our controller. Thanks. We just tweaked tiny little language here. Okay. So ignore this. applying the transformation. You ready for the holiday?

Yes. So, we're just making the center of I appreciate you very much. No, I'm fine. Well, you got one minute. I went over there. I know. I

All right, we'll be very quick. Good news for all the employees in this. Um, we'll be real quick. Just one motion and then we're done. Um, is there any salary board public comments? David Morgan. David Morgan.

David Morgan from Amler. Regarding the new positions, I do have this morning this new position paper from the desk over there. If they could be cumulative in terms of the cost, uh, this is where I see it going past budget and so we have might have been the $55 million problem that could develop. So this was just the positions from last January one meeting happened and some of them I really wonder uh if you counting them how effective they are perhaps they're saving money perhaps these are like sustainability be saving us a lot of things we have things like policy and direct assistant director of policy [cough] and um intergovernmental mental affairs intergovernmental affairs community engagement things like that in here that perhaps a good evaluation could be done so that the public really is aware fair transparent list of what's what's the cost of all these new positions which seem to me some are funded by federal money and f and and state money but those we have to take us a back tax burden that's where I have a concern to just not be peacemeal but we see an ongoing just like commissioner do mentioned the quarterly reports thanks

thanks okay any other comments yes um Jeppi Msina Msima I'm Jeppi, that's Jeppi back.

Okay. I'm Judge Brana uh here at the Court of Common, please Montgomery County. And I'd like to say a brief uh few brief words about Jeppi. Um Joe was a court crier. He's retiring after 31 years of service um here in the county. He is uh he served 15 years uh for former president Judge Corso and then the last 15 years for me I retired a year ago as an active full-time judge. Uh I was born and raised here in Nortown and my dad was a police sergeant for 20 years and then after that he became a court crier uh for uh both judge Surkus. He did not think of it as a job. He thought of it as an honor and he thought of it as a profession. And it is that mold that Joe follows. He is the last, I would like to say, last of a dying breed. He's actually the last of a dead breed. Uh there are no more full-time court criers in Montgomery County. He's the last one and he's gone. Joe as a court crier viewed it as a profession and he did his work magnificently. He managed the courtroom. He got to know all the lawyers. He treated everybody with respect and in return received respect back. He is somebody who will be sorely missed in this county because he did in fact act as such a professional. Uh, on the personal side, Joe is somebody who was a friend to everybody. Everybody loved Joe and Joe loved everybody back. If somebody needed any help within the county family and Joe

knew about it, he was always ready to serve. In fact, he used to joke that if you need any help, just call 1800 MSINA and um Joe would be there for you to help. So he is a man who is uh immigrated to this country as a kid from Italy. He's um done a magnificent job and I just want to commend him and ask that you all commend him for a job well done for 30 years. You guys, please.

Well, that's going to be extremely hard to top, but I I 31 years. That's That's awesome.

Congratulations. Nice to see you. Good to see you. All right. Right here. All right. One, two, three. Thank you. Thank you. I'm still working.

All right. Any other comments? We have one more on Zoom. Yara Pompea. Yara, can you hear us? Unmute. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes.

Okay. Sorry. My comment was for the public comment before the salary board, but I guess they didn't see my hand raised. But hello, commissioners. My name is Yara Pompea. from the administr Daryl Austin's estate. He was a Montgomery County resident who lived in Narstown. As the county moves forward under the approved budget, I want to raise concerns about how Montgomery County funded public safety departments coordinate and follow through when jurisdiction and responsibilities overlap. So, quick thing, sorry, I think you're speaking at the wrong meeting. This is for the salary board. So, the comments only relate to the salaries that are being approved today or not approved. If do you have anything related to that?

Uh they didn't I guess someone missed my hand for the last one. I've been trying to reach to them and then they added my name to this list. Do you do you want to say anything or we can take your comment in writing but it's it's it's for a separate meeting. Thanks so much. Okay. So we will hear from Mr. Tony Brew, our chief human resources officer uh on the salary board.

Good afternoon, [clears throat] members of salary board. You should have in front of you the final copy of the salary board list. It is for five page document dated December 17th, 2025 with a time stamp of 11:31 a.m. All positions have been approved and accounted for your consideration. Okay. [clears throat] Is there a motion to approve the December 18th, 2025 salary board presentation as given by Mr. Tony Brew, chief human resources officer. So moved. Moved by Commissioner Winder. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Comm uh Controller Hart. Uh any board comment?

I just make a quick comment. Uh the position that Mr. Morgan's referring to uh with this this agenda is a a grantf funed um position. So it's required associate to the grant that we have to hire uh that individual. But I also as per your other comment I might as well say now with with Anthony coming on board as our new director director of HR is that your title or chief of human can't keep track of [laughter]

but he's doing a he's doing a an amazing job and he's act he's looking at a lot of different ways for us to really look at a lot of positions and performance management and all that. So, yes, there's a lot of your suggestions, you know, Anthony is definitely looking at and going to be making recommendations. Thank you. May throw that in there. Thank you. And he's dressed very nice today. Oh, thank you very much. [laughter] Appreciate that. Isn't that an HR violation? [laughter]

It's a not really. So, is there a motion to approve the December 18, 2025 salary board presentation as given by Mr. Tony Brew? You already have it. I already have the motion. Second comment. All in favor? I I Okay. Yeah, that's right. Seconded by Bob. All right. Um Okay. Next.

All right. The second action I present to you today is for the pay increase for all non excuse me on nonrepresented employees in the amount of 3% and 2% increase for certain elected officials. This a cost of living increase um which is included in the 2026 budget that was presented for all qualified full-time and part-time employees that will be effective as a pay period beginning of December 20th, 2025. Is there a motion that effective December 20th, 2025, except as restricted by statute or otherwise by resolution 22-sm.1 relating to the salaries of certain elected officials, a pay increase of 3% be granted to all qualified full-time and part-time employees. Be it further resolved that pursuant to resolution 22-sm.1, a pay increase of 2% be granted to county officers at as set forth therein. Uh, is there a motion?

Second move by Commissioner Winder. Is there a second? Second. Second by controller Hart. Any board comment? All in favor? I. Motion passes. Great. Thank you. So, is there a motion to adjourn the December 18th, 2025 meeting of the Montgomery County salary board? Moved by Commissioner Devel. Is there a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Winder. Any board comment? All in favor? I it is a journ. Happy holidays.