Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

See the note somebody left me. Huh? Look at the note somebody left me. It was on my spot. And the And it got sat right next to the lawyer's lamp. Yeah. Yeah. Hello. Good evening. Is this working? Hello.

We have to push it guys. How does this is is it working? Hello. Hello. Hello. Okay. Doesn't sound like it doesn't sound like it's on. Closer. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Just shake. Got it. Got it. Okay. All right. All right. Good evening. I think it went on. Good evening. We're gonna go ahead and get started. How's everyone doing? Excellent. Come on, do better than that. Good evening. How's everyone doing?

Awesome. I know it's been a long day. It sure has been for me, but we would like to call to order the February 19th, 2026 board of commissioners meeting. Note the presence of all three commissioners. I'd like uh Commissioner Spiegelman to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Not to put you on the spot, but we're going to do that. I think I know the words. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Great job.

All right. Um so good evening everyone. It's a pleasure to be in Abington Township. Thank you uh for having us and hosting us. Uh this is something that we try to do uh to ensure that people have access uh to our board of commissioners meeting. We know that they're typically at 10:00 a.m. uh every other Thursday and it's hard for community members to come out. So this is uh an idea that my colleague Commissioner Dello came up with when we first came into office. Um and so we're glad to be in Abington tonight. Uh, I want to first thank the Abbington School District for hosting us this evening. I want to uh recognize your superintendent, Jeffrey Fetcher. Is he here? How are you? Good to see you. Thanks for hosting us. Melissa Mauy, the president of the board. Thank you. Commissioner Spiegelman who did an awesome job, didn't he, leading us in the pledge and uh the entire Abington School Board Board of Commissioners. Uh it's really great uh to be here and thanks for hosting us today. I also want to acknowledge uh some of our county uh role officers. I believe that uh Dr. Janine Darby, our coroner, will be joining us. uh Lori Shriber who is our clerk of courts and also an abbington uh commissioner uh commissioner Jimmy Deacceto I see him in the back. How are you? Good to see you. And uh Jean Sorg, our recorder of deeds. Uh she is in the back. Thank you for for being here. Um I also want to uh acknowledge uh your chief of police. Um, I recognize that uh

this week uh a year ago um uh you had an awful fire uh at SPS Technologies uh here in this community. Um and your first responders from not only this area but throughout Montgomery County um did an amazing uh job responding to that that fire. And so I want to acknowledge your plea police chief who I was who I was with earlier uh this week. Uh Chief Malloy, thank you. uh and your team for the work that that you do to keep our communities safe. And thank you to all of our first responders for the work they do day in and day out. So, let's give our police chief.

I also want to do a special acknowledgement to my husband Kevin who uh usually is working. I was gonna have him lead us in the pledge, but he was late. So, I'll I'll talk to him about that later. Uh, but he doesn't often oftentimes get to see his wife in action at board meetings. So, thank you, Kevin, for being here. Um, so, uh, I have a few we we start these meetings with opening remarks. So, I have a few opening remarks and then I'll give my colleagues an opportunity to share, um, some things. But in a few minutes, you'll hear from again from Commissioner Spiegelman about all the great things happening in your community. Uh but before we get to that, I did want to share a little bit about what the county uh has been doing to support the growth uh for Abington's uh people, businesses, and and spaces. Recently, over the last few years, we've directed nearly $250,000 in pandemic relief funds to Abington Public Schools to help enhance mental health care uh for your students. Hopefully, our our administrators and teachers across the district have seen the impact of these funds uh for your students and and thanks to our Department of uh Health and Human Services, our office of veteran affairs, we were able to train um Abington law enforcement officers and first responders to join our veterans response team. This is a group of people who are knowledgeable and prepared to provide specialized services to veterans who are experiencing uh a a a crisis. There are in addition to many recent and ongoing infrastructure projects. Last summer we replaced county bridge 269. That's not a very good good name. We gota um which carries road over Sandy

Run. While that may have seemed like a long diversion for many uh that travel that road, we actually finished that uh bridge three months ahead of schedule. We've also supplied nearly $100,000 in grant funding to support transportation projects in the township, improving connectivity and storm water management along Washington Lane, Jenintown Road, Greenwood Avenue, and Meeting House Road. And we've invested nearly $80,000 toward the proposed installation of 6.5 miles of bicycle infrastructure, including signage and road markings. There's a lot of great things on the horizon in Abington, and we're looking forward to hearing more later uh in the meeting. Moving further north, I'm excited to share that tomorrow we'll be opening the c the county's new short-term supportive uh shelter in Lansdale. This will be a 20 bed, 247 emergency facility that's designed to get residents off the street and back on a stable path. It has the capacity to serve as many as much as 75% of those in need in Lansdale. It took the partnership of local leaders in Lansdale as well as a $1 million philanthropic donation from Mr. Toad to get this facility up and running. And it's one of three facilities that the county has worked on. Uh we opened a shelter in Pottstown last year, Lansdale this coming week, and we'll break ground on a new facility in Narstown later this month. We've made it clear that in Montgomery County, no one should have to sleep on the streets. And this is something that we've aligned on as a board and we are taking a clear and bold

action to ensure that we're supporting our unhoused friends and neighbors. Uh so this is a major milestone. Um so if you aren't busy at 2 o'clock uh tomorrow, we would love to have you join us for that ribbon cutting. Um, next up, uh, last week, uh, uh, the county's, uh, initiatives align with the governor, Governor Shapiro's new housing action plan, which he announced last week. This plan gives, uh, counties, municipalities, housing developers, and other housing partners the resources we need to facilitate new housing, preserve existing housing stock, and collaborate more effectively. Uh we look forward to working with our many partners within the Commonwealth to put these recommendations into action because we know there is not one single solution. We need to stabilize families today. We need to ensure that we have housing for tomorrow and we need to collaborate on long-term progress. Um yesterday I was grateful to join the governor for a major announcement with Johnson and Johnson. J&J announced it will be investing over a billion dollars into a biio manufacturing facility in lower Gwennet Township. This facility will develop individualized cell therapies and medicine that is truly groundbreaking. It's pretty amazing uh to think that the medicine of the future will be developed right here in Montgomery County. It's a reflection of the strength of our community. Some of the most innovative companies in the world have been choosing Montgomery County. We have an incredible workforce here in Monco and we are well uh connected to some major institutions of medicine uh and education. So this will be great for our local economy as well as our local workforce. And we're grateful to J&J for expanding their footprint here in Monco. I'm almost

done. I'm almost done. One more thing. Finally, in honor of February being Black History Month, I want to acknowledge that a few weeks ago, my fellow commissioners and I hosted um a meeting with the Montgomery Countyy's NAACP branch presidents. Uh two local presidents from this area joined us. Uh Dr. William Taylor from Sheltonham branch uh branch and then Maurice Davis from the Willigrove branch. We had a great discussion to see where our priorities overlap and where we can support each other as we try to make Montgomery County an inclusive and welcoming place for all. The county uh has celebrated Black History Month throughout February with special events happening every Wednesday. Next week will be our final program and it will be an in-person event that will be held on Wednesday, February 25th at noon at the Montgomery County Community College. It will feature music, performers, and many uh celebration uh acknowledgements of hundred celebrating a 100red years of black history. Uh those interested can uh register to attend via our website. So that's it for me. So I'll turn it over to my colleague, Commissioner Mckisha.

Um good evening everyone. Um and I apologize because I have a cold. I also have a two-year-old, so I'm just a little more tired than usual. So really it's not that different. But uh it's great to be in Abington, great to be back here. Uh the second most populous township in the county. I think we compete with Lower Marian, so sometimes we're ahead. Um we're going to talk a little bit about some of the parks and trails and the great things that the county has here in Abington. Abington has 300 acres of parkland, 230 of which are in the county owned park Laur. Uh it's where Foxchase Lmer trail links with county and Philly you all know it uh well we had a great ribbon cutting uh with a piece of that trail that was completed last year and uh all a lot of this stuff happens because of the great work of our planning commission. Uh they have a table set outside is Scott France here, director of our planning commission. Scott uh you may know the MONCO 2440 program. They implement uh fantastic grants matched with the townships. Uh all told, we've been three projects uh grants here in Abington totaling $350,000 recently, including 150k to Ardsley Wildlife Sanctuary so that they could expand ADA accessible trails, uh restore natural habitats and storm water features like rain gardens. We also awarded in 23 $80,000 to the township for the master bicycle plan, installing more miles of bicycle so people can get around through active transportation. Uh part of what's great about this partnership is our planning commission works with Abington CH Town Township uh in a collaboration supporting their land

development and we've been able to just improve walkability and expand bike lanes and also promote affordable housing and sustainability as well. So, the county's helped Abington enhance a number of community spaces from uh Keswick Village and Old York Road as well as the design for Hollowell Park. Um, so clearly Abington's a great place to live for many reasons and township commissioner uh Spiggleman is going to tell us more about that in a second. So, look forward to it. Uh, I also want to acknowledge that it's been one year since the SPS fire and uh, all three of us just met with the SPS leadership, Dan Gear, the general manager, and Dave Dugan, uh, the, uh, government relations head. And it's great news that we are going to see the factory come back and be built right here uh, in Abington. And it's also important to note that uh it's not going to be the same. It's going to be a state-of-the-art facility and while there were 500 jobs, this is going to be 250 jobs due to automation. And one of the big topics that we are thinking about is how we prepare as public officials for the changes that are coming due to AI and automation including uh you know which jobs are disappearing, which ones are going to be new and how do we train our workforce for that. So one of the conversations that came up with SPS was how do we uh work with them and the community college to make sure we're preparing uh people for the jobs that are now going to exist in this facility. uh about a year from now and um one of the things I'll also say is a set of jobs that is growing are uh skilled trades union union work and uh the governor's announcement yesterday was fantastic uh not only because it's

bringing innovative life sciences here but it's also 4,000 union construction jobs I see Orville uh from the steam fitters here Robinson thank you for being here he was at the announcement as well but These are, you know, great paying jobs right here in our community uh where we're building uh these new facilities that are creating life-saving medicines. So, uh look forward to the same thing happening uh when SPS is coming together. Uh but uh I also want to celebrate uh I don't think I have these awards. Is this the right thing? Uh here at Abington Middle School, we're happy to celebrate a major achievement uh which is that the middle school has been recognized by the Pennsylvania Positive Behavior Support Network for outstanding efforts in creating a positive and welcoming school environment. This is made possible by the leadership and dedication of all the staff at Abington Middle School along with the strong support of the district's student services team. So, can all the folks uh who are here please stand up and be recognized? Principal Daniel File, assistant principal uh Sheamus Smith, assistant principal Julia Smith, uh Kinshasa Rogers, uh assistant principal as well, and then Dr. Matthew Wexler, coordinator, student support services. Please give them all a round of applause. You all for your work. Of course, it's not just the adults who made this possible. It's the kids who are living up to their full potential. And one part of the program is that the middle schools implemented a pledge of character. Uh, this program encourages more than 8,000 students districtwide to live by values such as kindness, encouragement, respect, and more. Every month, the school honors 24 students who

exemplify these values. And tonight, we're lucky to have uh some of the January honores who are being recognized for living up to the values of helpfulness. Uh so, all students in the room, please stand up. Uh I know we've got 11 here. uh you can come on up and we're gonna take a photo with you like to invite the PR principal file up uh with the students and we'll we'll take a photo and recognize your achievement. Is it up here? Can we squeeze in just a little bit? There you go. There you go. Perfect. So, next up is uh you may not know this,

but February is also National Library Lovers Month. Any library lovers here?

Libraries are a cornerstone of our communities. I often go to the library these days in in Binmar with my son. It's a great activity uh outside of home uh where there's few public spaces left where everybody's welcome at no cost. Uh it's a true public good giving kids options uh to learn to to read, access digital skills. Also for u adults looking for job research uh search resources, libraries are providing more resources than ever. And we wanted to just honor uh this month by recognizing uh the Abington Public Library executive director Elizabeth Fitzgerald. Elizabeth here. Um, we're gonna ask you to come up in a second, but for those of you who don't know, Abington's public library collection boasts hundreds of thousands of materials for loan, including a library of things such as board games, puzzles, tools, and even a pickle ball kit, which I'm sure is very popular. Uh, in 2024, the library became fine free, which sounds very progressive. I didn't experience that when I was um using libraries the most, but for most loans, uh it makes the resources even more accessible and membership with the county library system expands their offerings across the entire county. Fun fact, uh the library welcomed over 332,000 people last year, which is a 12% increase over the prior year. And the librarians answered 42,922 questions, which is just one question shy of how many we're going to get in public comment today. But Liz, thank you for being here. Thank

you for your whole team. And please come on up for the proclamation to recognize this month. He's gone. Thanks for being here.

Okay. Um, finally, I want to applaud um our police chief, Patrick Malloy, who is also the head of the Monco Chiefs Association. Uh, recently he signed a letter, did the work to get all of the chiefs, is that correct? all of the chiefs to sign on to a letter uh of a topic that's really important for people right now, which is uh regarding what's happening with uh federal agencies, regarding immigration enforcement, and many of the concerns that citizens have over uh actions being taken around the country. And the letter basically says, "Here in Montgomery County, our local law enforcement is committed uh to the safety and well-being of every resident and visitor uh in our community and that none of these police departments have signed on to a section 287g agreement with ICE, which means that they're all focused on local issues of safety. none of them have been deputized to perform immigration enforcement. Uh, and that's really important now when people uh are afraid to come forward uh if they're witnesses to a crime because uh they don't uh know if they're risking uh their uh presence here because of their immigration status. Uh there are also concerns just across the board about uh whether people are being detained appropriately given the changing standards at the federal government and uh a lack of due process. I've seen issues where people have been detained for months uh and just didn't see their day in court because the courts are also backlogged and the whole system uh is is deeply troubling uh in the way that it's

functioning right now. Uh but here in Montgomery County, uh it's really important that we can convey that uh we're focused on public safety every day. Uh it's it's not our local police's job to engage on issues of immigration. We're here uh to ensure everyone in the community is safe. And uh when crimes are committed, they're also thoroughly investigated. uh no matter who uh is uh the perpetrator, uh our local police and detectives uh are doing, you know, incredible job making sure that people are held accountable uh across the board. So, I just want to thank you for anyone who hasn't read the letter, it's up here. uh it's extremely thoughtful and makes clear that our local police here are committed to upholding the rule of law and that no one is above that and we're also keeping all of our communities safe. So, I just wanted to thank you, you know, publicly for that because it's not easy to get 50 chiefs on board with with anything and especially something that's, you know, at the top of the news right now, but this is what our community needs to hear. So, thank you. And with that, I'll turn it over to Commissioner Debella.

All right, everyone hear me?

The mic's on or not? So, as as as you've heard so far, it's really exciting for us to be here in Abington. Um, this is an initiative that we started back in 2024 to try to get to different townships from time to time. uh we call it our commissioner meeting on the road. Um and it gives it's our opportunity to give residents to talk to us more of from a local perspective like things that are happening that they particularly have concerns about that may not uh get to us at the county level in Nortown when we're there. So, we're really excited to be here in Abington. Um as mentioned by my colleagues, uh we were all here last year. I can't believe it's a year already. Um it seems like it was a fast year but you know it was a very devastating evening uh as we all know with the fire at SPS and and uh I know we covered a lot of it but that was an incredible evening the way when I say incredible not that SPS experienced the fire but it was incredible the way uh all the first responders from multiple counties multiple uh fire stations. I think it was 70 plus um apparatuses here at any given time. It was just amazing. And when you see the videos from uh that evening and you see the way the wind was blowing and the flames were being, you know, pushed in a certain direction, the the first responders uh did an amazing job because there was no secondary fires which was just incredible in itself when you saw the how intense the fire and the flames were. as well as uh when you see this, it's amazing when you you that no one there was no one no lives lost, no injuries. And and that just goes to show the professionalism and how fortunate we are uh with our all our first responders, all our fire departments, and our neighboring counties that they

they just came together and worked as one huge united team, which Yeah. Really, I know when I I was over here and I was in the command centers and watching and it was just it was how it was. You would think that they that they do this day in and day out together, but it's we know that's not the case. I mean, they help each other, uh, you know, but not like what we saw that evening and just watching in the command center and how everything was just coming together and how it was all orchestrated and the communication and and it just was it was flawless. Um, and if it's a if it's we could package that up and sell it, we would make a fortune for McGomery County because it was an extremely impressive impressive operation. And as mentioned, the good news is uh we got an update uh from SPS that that they're in the process of rebuilding. Um and that's great. That's great for Abington. They've been here for what over hundred years and they hope to be here for another hundred years. Um, and the facility when uh, Commissioner Mcka already touched upon it, but I'll just say again, when this facility is created, uh, finished, it's going to be a state-of-the-art operation. And it's just it's it's the opportunities for for SPS in this area are going to be endless for what they're rebuilding and what their what their future looks like. So, it's great to have them here. We're excited to have them continue to have a partnership with them and we look forward to, you know, working with Abington Council commissioners um and anything we can do to make sure that uh they they are up and running. I know they have an aggressive schedule and that's good and I hope it all comes all comes together for them um as as they as they their plans continue to materialize

and we look forward to being here uh when we have a big ribbon cutting because that's going to be that's going to be an amazing uh amazing amazing awesome day when they when that facility is up and running here. So, and again I I I want to thank all of our first responders and our police. uh they do an incredible job uh here in Abington day in and day out uh protecting all of us. Um so that's good. I we appreciate everything that you do. Um I'm probably going to go out of order a little bit maybe. I know I'll do this next. I I don't I don't stick to scripts, right?

No, you don't. So, another huge accomplishment here in Abington, and I'm sure a lot of you are aware of this, but your Abington High School uh boys soccer team uh had an amazing amazing soccer season and they were crowned the PIAA uh 4A uh boys soccer champions. Uh state champions, right? It's state champions. So, that's that's I was uh you know both Commissioner Winer and myself were on school boards and and and I uh the school board I was on one of our teams won a state championship so we we were able I was saw the entire season and the process getting to that and when you when you see it and that the dedication of the parents the players the coaches the school it it's it's all that has to come together for a team to have an amazing season and have that and bring home the state championship uh here to Abington. And I believe it's your their first uh state championship in 41 years. Um and and again that that comes to I mean the players are are phenomenal. Um, but it takes it takes it takes players, coaches, parents, school administration, teachers, students, all of it, all that together is what produces state championships. Um, and to be to have a state championship here in Abington. It's exciting and we're excited to be here this evening so we can welcome the high school soccer team. We want to recognize them. But before we bring bring everyone up, also we were told that coach Gerber has decided to retire. He's only been doing it for 31 years. I don't understand why he's retiring. He's

he's still a rookie. Uh but uh I know that 31 years is is a lot of dedication. Um and uh that itself is is is amazing or 30 years. I guess it is over 30 years um as a coach and educator. So that that's a lot of dedication to to the to the community, to the school district, the students as well. And we want to first recognize uh Coach Garver to uh for being everything that he's done for Abington uh and the school and the boys soccer. And I'm sure you're going to be missed. Uh but I'm sure you're also looking forward to spending a little bit of time, a little free time uh when when soccer season's back up and running. could sit back and say, "Well, you go watch from the stands. I'm sure you're not going to be able to walk away completely." So, is co coach here? Yep, there he is.

So, come on up.

You going to do it all together? Yeah.

Okay. So then and then as mentioned, we're going to recognize the boys uh soccer team as well with a proclamation from the county and their success of bringing home the state championship. I think I have to do it. tips. Aren't you sure? There we go. All right. One, two, three.

I hope. All right. And I just hit one more thing real quick. Pico customers uh they have their 2026 uh relief fund uh that's actually expanding from their 2025. Uh they launched this program last summer to help offset costs for families with households uh household incomes that were just above the poverty line. Uh this year they expanded the program to include lower income families as well and they added an additional $2.5 million that's available to be granted to their customers. So the total is up to $12.5 million. Uh so applications are open again uh for all PICO customers that would uh fall into that criteria and it open on March 2nd. Uh so we know that it's it's you know especially with this winter some people uh could have fell on some hard times or their bills getting what they say in the rears. Uh and this is an opportunity to uh work with Pico uh and they're going to do everything they can to ensure uh that uh they could provide some relief to to their customers. So uh please make sure uh to contact them. The application you could go Pico online. I don't know if we have the website up. we could go peek online as well and it'll direct you to uh where you could go uh to fill out an application. Uh so please if you if you need don't hesitate to contact people the money's there uh to help you everywhere they can. And then finally um this past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday

and which means for those that practice the Catholic faith, Lent is underway. Um, so I want to wish everyone a peaceful Lent season that celebrates. Um, and remember no meet on Friday. Um, for those that was drilled into us if for those that might have went to Catholic school too, that was drilled into us as as young young kids. But uh, you know, Easter will be here in uh, several weeks. And uh, so we just want to wish everyone a happy Lent and look forward to seeing the Easter Bunny as well. And I think that's all I got.

Good. All right. Um, before we continue with the the meeting, I wanted to just uh share if anybody wants to sign up for public comment, they can sign up. Our lovely I can't see you. Okay. Okay. Um, you can sign up with uh Megan uh if you would like to give public comment. All right. It's finally the star of the show. W the welcome to Abington by by Commissioner Spiegelman. I'm a person of few words, so you know I'll keep this my typical brief fashion. Okay.

Um no, uh Chair Winder, Vice Chair McKa, Commissioner Deello, uh everyone from the county team and our county row officers, um our wonderful hosts, uh our our school district in this incredible space. uh in the spirit of partnership and cooperation and the shared sacred duty of local governance and also friendship. Uh it is my honor to welcome you all to Abington Township. Thank you so so much for being here.

Uh we do have a PowerPoint that was prepared by by two of our incredible township team members. uh vice, excuse me, assistant township manager Ashley Mackane and director of uh manager of communications uh Grace Scalooi. Uh and we're going to we we'll go through this. I hope hopefully I will be able to use the paper correctly. Um but uh they they put together some some facts about Abington. Uh as you said, we are the second largest municipality in the uh in the county. We're just behind lower Marian. Um, but we have a tremendous amount going on here. We have two hospitals, including uh the one of the county's uh only two level true trauma centers. Uh, we have two universities. We have one of the best school districts you will find anywhere in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Um, and uh, hey, we have we have three Chipotles. We really and a mall. Um, well, we have a we have a lot uh we have a lot going on in Abington and uh we pride ourselves on uh listening to and serving uh our neighbors,

the folks uh the folks who who put us in office and what we do uh would not be possible without partnerships. Um you know, as we all know, this is uh we're living in interesting times, as the expression goes. um and uh you know a lot of folks are are having some difficulty to put it mildly um in their interactions with our federal government. That makes it more important than ever that on the most local levels that we respond to the folks we serve and that we work together. Um and it is such an honor to be able to work together with our county partners. You really done you do so much for us. Um uh one example on one example on the second slide. No, going backwards. One example on this slide. Um uh recently a major uh storm water uh and trail improvement project wildlife sanctuary uh was completed and that was due heavily to

uh MONCO 2040 grant funds. Um that's uh that's that's the kind of partnership that makes what we do possible.

Um which really uh it's it's incredible. Um uh as you see, we recently acquired some property on Eastern Road, which is our township's only county road. And uh uh this is going to be used. This is uh something that uh was a dream and vision um spearheaded by uh my friend, our Ward 14 commissioner and of course our county clerk of courts, Lori Shriber. Um and the fact that this property uh right on a right on our county road um is going to be used for community purpose is really again it's it's a it's a dream and vision come true. Um you can see uh so much of uh so many of the incredible investments we've made into our uh into our park system um due uh heavily to uh our our allocation of ARPA funds for that purpose. Um you already talked about I'ming on my computer. Uh you already talked about our library. Um uh I could go on about our library all day, but nobody wants to hear me go on all night. Uh our library is the soul of our community. um the way they serve all residents and are a welcoming space uh for everyone. They provide they provide access to books um uh encouragement of literacy and so so much more. They are uh they really are a hub uh a hub for our hearts in uh in this community. Um you talked about the work of our first responders. Um the it's incredible that it's been a year since the uh since the SPS fire. uh our all volunteer and fully accredited Abington Township Fire Department uh are absolute heroes. What what they did leading leading the charge to to put out that fire and prevent loss of life, loss of property and unfathomable disaster. They are absolute

heroes. uh and who were one of the first mut mutual aid agencies to come to to help our township and our our heroic volunteers county hazmat uh we would we'd be talking about a very different situation if it hadn't been for the help of Montgomery County and I remember remember all of you being there think commissioner deella that's the first time we met y um

and I will say our police department is second to none uh again fully accredited in every possible way. And not only is our chief Pat Malloy the president of the Montgomery County uh Chiefs Association, he is now going to be the incoming president of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association, which is a huge accomplishment.

And uh uh I just I will say one more uh I'll say one more thing and then I'll let let us get on with the evening. Um uh one of the many things uh the initiatives we have going on the separated uh bike uh separated bike lanes action plan um that is possible because we had help from county representation in the advisory group. Uh so really we are so grateful to work with you um I anybody wants to talk about Abington please feel free but I know there's a lot else to get to. Thank you for uh indulging me this time. Thank you for being here in Abington. Thank you for being our partners and our friends. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Uh so first up is our first public comment um section of the the evening. Uh this public comment uh time period is for pending uh today's pending votes only and we'll limit it to three minutes. David Morgan person. He's not. No.

Good evening, commissioners. I'm David Morgan from Amort Burough and uh it's delightful time to be here. I was at the lower Maran meeting and uh it's uh my role often at meetings to look at the agenda items and see what's costly to represent the taxpayers. And uh I notice in B8 which is page two of the agenda there's a contract renewal for supervision services which uh uh makes you wonder about zerobased budgeting. Do we need supervision services in certain ways like voice um recognition? Um, so I was wondering about that item. Uh, $27,000 and then there's uh also uh the large cost for uh election voting system support of $66,000. So uh I think that looking at at all these aspects there's uh three parts of this uh to really see that it's uh being wisely spent for our taxpayers to afford things. We have uh to uh realize that uh over the last say um six years our tax hike has been 57.9% in the county tax and uh the April bill line A and so that's my calculations and that's been looked at by other people in math. Uh I I know we have a convergence of factors going on in affording these items on the agenda. uh one is uh the fact that these taxes increases have uh included the 4% which was bipartisan, the latest one, but there's then again a draw down of reserves of 13 million. So that's going to be faced sometime in the future. Um we had um a 13% that was voted on by Commissioner Winder when she was on the board. Then she was joined by the two other members, her colleagues for 9.69% and then with the four 4%. So, uh, we have these to bear as citizens and I know there's a convergence of other factors in Abington. Um, we have the

fact the fires happened mentioned many times tonight and there's the loss I imagine the tax base for the the running of that facility and and everybody who was uh involved with that and their jobs and I think that that's uh going to be weighing on the taxpayers. also in Abington the middle school has been proposed to be rebuilt and so that's going to be a cost that some people have mentioned in earlier meetings for the county commissioners so um beyond that we have uh the county campus uh program with the justice center uh was conventionally known as 415 million uh and that was in the newspaper uh and reporter newspaper now it's going up to 480 million as high as that so we got to find that gap of some 65 million uh we also have no chief financial officer now in the county. Uh Mr. Dean Dortone has left his job. So, we need to really get down to um transparency so we really know what's going on with our budget. And I I'd really like to have that really first in our minds as we go to meetings as our commissioners keeping it easy enough to afford life. Now,

Mr. Morgan, your time's up. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks. Thanks for being here. Rooney. Mr. Rooney. and good evening ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for being in Abington and welcome. Thank you.

And uh like Commissioner Spiegelman said, it's a great place. It's great to live here. It's worth working for and it's worth fighting for. So uh I hope we have a nice crowd tonight and it's wonderful to see you here. Uh I just had two items on the agenda. Um the first one is G4. You you listed uh members for the MONCO Human Relations Commission. So my question is is there any either intellectual or political diversity uh on the MONCO Human Relations Commission? So I know people actually applied for it and they were never responded to Ras interview. So um I was curious about it. There isn't any in Abington. So I'm curious whether there is any in the in the county. And the second one is uh and this this also relates back something that Neil said. Um, on G5 it talks about uh putting somebody on a prison board. So, um, when you referenced the chief's letter, I don't think it was represented exactly correctly. So, I'm asking the county, do we take criminal illegal aliens who are being released from our prisons and turn them over to ICE or do we turn them back in where they can prey on members of our community in both Montgomery County and in Abington? Are we concerned about the public safety of our citizens here? And uh I think that's a really important thing that uh that should be addressed. Thanks.

Thanks, Mr. Rooney. Anyone else? We have a third person, but unfortunately none of us can read this. So for public comment, did anyone else sign up for Yeah, come on up. So sorry. Oh, I Okay, great. Go ahead.

Sure what I'm supposed to say, but no, I I really just had the same comment or question that Mr. Rooney had, which is what do we do if we arrest someone and find out that they were also child molester, rapist, uh murderer, or or some other criminal offense. Do we in our county and in our township put that person out on the or do we have them uh turned over to appropriate aart

you want to finish your comment first or you that is my comment okay it's a simple question yeah oh well if I need to make a comment obviously I don't think that we should be putting murderers, rapists, child molesters, uh or any other sort of criminal uh that they should uh be taken care of inappropriately by the judicial system. That decision ought not be made by uh by I guess even a commissioner. I don't even know. Maybe it is the commission. We don't make those. We don't make those decisions. Well, what happens? Whenever you're done, I'm happy to answer. Okay. Okay. But but yeah, if we'll answer once everyone takes. Thanks.

Okay. So, you can have a seat. Uh commissioners don't have anything to do with that process. You can have a seat.

Um if someone is uh alleged to have committed crime, uh police can obtain a warrant readily. It happens all the time, every day. And with that warrant, a person can be arrested, detained, and the same due process requirement exists for ICE if they seek to uh essentially extradite or or uh take someone out of one of our facilities, right? So, or someone who's departing our facility that they would pick up. So, uh if ICE produces a warrant, we follow the law. everybody everybody uh essentially has to and I don't know if you have anything to add. So u there's I mean there's a lot of scare you know there's just fear-mongering out there uh and this notion that uh people are put at risk because we simply follow the law and judicial process. But uh these are actions and procedures that police officers follow every day for every sort of crime. But

I think to bring it around to the direct question that was asked, all of those crimes are a matter of criminal justice. And none of that is a matter that the commissioners make direct decisions on. That's our judicial process. And the punishments that the judicial process decides are those that get meed out. Yeah. Any

Let me answer the question. I think what I'm hearing, and I could be wrong, but this is if somebody is in our county lockup and they are released out of county lockup, if I or any other federal authority or state authority or other county authority has a retainer request for that individual for whatever reasons, we will hold that individual for 4 hours. And when they when they come, they have they basic have to produce the paperwork, which is the same thing no matter what. And with that paperwork, that person is then released into the custody of the authority that's requesting that detainer. I think that's what every

I'll just clarify that. That's if there's a warrant. That's why I said they have Yeah, but the paperwork is a warrant which is distinct from a um civil detainer is the only clarification I want to make. Okay. Any other public comment? All right. Um, next up, approval of the minutes. Uh, I'd like to make a motion to approve the February 3rd, 2026 minutes of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners meeting. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Commissioner McKa. Any board comment hearing? None. All in favor?

I. Motion carries. Uh, next up, resolutions. Uh, number one, authorization to enter into an agreement for a safe streets for all grant. Ma Matthew Popac, thank you for being here.

Thank you, commissioners. Good evening. Hopefully, we can be pretty quick with a few of these, but uh happy to have time before you tonight to discuss the county's safe streets for all grant. Uh just briefly um for the general public, uh what is the safe streets for all grant in the first place? Uh a grant program was enacted as part of the uh infrastructure investment and jobs act or bipartisan infrastructure law back in 2021 uh with the sole purpose of dedicating funding for planning and implementation grants to prevent deaths and serious injuries on the nation's roadways. So safe streets for all the QR code is available. You can uh visit the US DO's website to find out more information about the overall program. The main point and outcome of the planning grants is to come up with comprehensive safety action grants which can be used then uh the idea is to use them for future implementation grants if our um if the planning grant is successful. As Commissioner Spiegelman mentioned um there are county roads in Abington but there's 75 miles worth of county roads across the entire county. And our roads vary dramatically in terms of character. You have Eastston Road in a fairly dense urban setting in Abington. We have some major pikes, Bridge Pike, Germantown Pikes, uh Somnitown Pike, some rural roads such as Swamp Pike in Garyville, and even some in uh outer reaches of some of our parks. Our intention applying for a safe streets for all grant in the fall of 2024 was to develop a comprehensive safety action plan for all 75 miles worth of roadways. Fortunately enough, we were selected by the US DOT in fall of 2024 uh to receive $400,000 for part of uh that particular grant round. Um and we are now coming to you for essentially approval and final sign off of the grant agreement. It was under review throughout much of 2025 uh to make sure that there was compliance with

the updated terms and conditions under the current presidential administration. Um but the county solicitors have reviewed it at this point and are ready to move forward with it. Um the county will be matching $100,000 of this grant with um some funds that are from the ARPA uh allocations that are left over. So we are looking to uh go out soon with an RFP for engineering firms. $500,000 will hopefully get us a complete comprehensive safety action plan for all 75 miles worth of. So we're uh seeking your approval of this resolution to have Lee sign the documents and it will go back to FHWA and we'll get underway. All right. Thank you, Matt. Um, I'd like to make a motion to approve resolution number one as described by Matthew Popcac. Is there a second?

Second. Second by Commissioner Dello. Any board comment? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Motion carries. Thank you. Um, next up, authorization of a grant match for the Montgomery County Fire Chiefs Association. Brian, come on up.

Thank you, Commissioner. Uh, good evening, commissioners. This resolution authorizes Montgomery County to provide the local match required for a federal fire safety grant. The Montgomery County Fire Chiefs Association applied for and received a fire prevention and safety grant from FEMA with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The purpose of this grant is to improve public and firefighter safety through prevention, training, and education initiatives. The grant will fund smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, bed shakers, and a countywide mapping program to help ensure that these detectors are offered and installed in areas with the greatest need. It'll also fund training for fire companies, EMS partners, and police departments regarding juvenile fire starter education and prevention programs. And lastly, it'll fund certification training so emergency service professionals can become youth fire setting intervention specialists. FEMA awarded $587,8952 in federal funding for the project and as with many federal grants, a local cost share is required. The required non-federal match is $29,39048, bringing the total project to a $617,200. This resolution approves the county's contribution of $29,39048 to meet that match requirement allowing the fire chiefs association to fully utilize the federal grant funds.

Great. Thank you. I'd like to make a motion to approve resolution number two as described by Brian Macauen. Is there a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Dell. Any board comment?

Just quick comment. Um, obviously you heard earlier why why as a county that we support these types of grants and um it's an actually you you put out $29,000. What I I want to reverse that a little bit to actually talk about percentages because it's a 95% uh federal funding to 5% county uh match basically. And I think for 5% it's an incredible program and we're really excited to uh be able to support that initiative. Great. Moving any I was saying great deal. It's a good deal. It is a good deal. Um moving to a vote. All in favor?

I. Motion carries. Thank you, Brian. Uh next up, authorization for TERA TERA approval for Axe Management Services. Steve.

Good evening, Commissioner. Steve Forester, director of commerce. Before you today is a request by Axe Management Services Incorporated seeking a resolution approving the issuance of an amended note in an amount not to exceed 11.5 million. Axe is a nonprofit operator of continuing care retirement communities or CCRC's. Uh they opened their first community in 1972 at what is now Fort Washington estates here in McGomery County. today acts as one of the largest notfor-profit operators of CCRC's in the United States with approximately 28 communities in nine states with five of those right here in McGomery County. The new note is an amended and restated note from a previous 2021 note issued by the UpperWinned Township Industrial Development Authority and has been approved by that authority pursuant to a TEA hearing and resolution adopted February 4th of this year. The hearing was properly advertised in the reporter more than seven days in advance of the repro approval because the refinancing is for a McGomery County based entity. The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 or TERA requires approval by the highest elected official in the county where the funds will be utilized. Approval of this note will benefit the health, safety, and welfare of residents of McGomery County by improving the management company's balance sheet, extending the term of their debt, and preserving and retaining existing jobs. Neither the general credit nor taxing authority of McGomery County are pledged as security for this note. Thus, the county takes no financial risk nor obligation in this transaction, and it does not impact the county's balance sheet in any way. I therefore request your approval of the resolution as presented by the solicitor approving the issuance of the bond or the note. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. Um I'd like to make a motion to approve resolution number three as described by Steve Forester. Is there a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Deello. Any board comment hearing? None. All in favor? I. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Um uh next up, amendment to the resolution creating the Montgomery County Human Relations Commission and Commissioner's appointment to the Montgomery County Human Relations Commission. I'd like to make a motion to approve the amendment and board appointments as described in resolution G-4. Is there a second? Second. Uh seconded by Commissioner McKesia. Any board comment? Hearing none, all in favor?

I motion carries. Um, next up, commissioner's reappointment to the Montgomery County Board of Prison Inspectors. I'd like to make a motion to approve the board reappointment as described in resolution G-5. Is there a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Dello. Any board comments? Hearing none. All in favor?

I. Motion carries. Next up, uh, Tony Brew for personnel. Evening, commissioners. Um, you have in front of you the final copy of the commission department's personnel list. It is three-page document dated February 19th, 2026 with a time stamp of 3:52 p.m. All positions have been reviewed and um and presented for your consideration. Great. I'd like to make a motion to approve the February 19th, 2026 uh personnel presentation as given by Mr. Anthony Brew. Is there a second? Second.

Second by Commissioner McKesia. Any board comment? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Motion carries. Thank you. Um, next up, advertisements of bids and RFPs Montgomery County uh, exhibit A. I'd like to make a motion to approve the advertisement of bids and RFPs for Montgomery County on attached exhibit A. Is there a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Deello. Any board comment hearing? Go ahead. on on number two. Do we have to get the ducks in a row first before we Lee made me do it? Don't Don't encourage me. What? It's for ducks cleaning service.

That's so funny. This guy's a comedian. You did. All right. It's been It's a long night. Um, any other any other board comment? All I'm moving to a vote. All in favor? I. Motion carries. Um, now you threw me off, so I'm on exhibit B. Awards of contract Montgomery County exhibit B. I'd like to make a motion to approve the contracts, awards, amendments, and renewals for Montgomery County on attached exhibit B. Is there a second? Second. Second by Commissioner McKisa. Any board comment here?

I just I'm sorry. Uh, again, Mr. Morgan, you raised really good Where'd he go? Where's he at? Oh, there he is. you raised really good points and I always like to respond to your comments when you ask specific questions on some of the agenda items and um although it seems high um the the the number eight that you referred to there's a lot involved in that and with monitoring services ankle bracelets all the kind of things associated within the judicial system with arrest and all that and with the prisons and so um I asked that question as well And it there's there's just a lot packed into that 200,000. Um and number nine, um yes, it's unfortunate when we see large numbers associate with the the voting, but then when you think about the number of voting precincts and voting machines and all goes into that, um it it does kind of balance out. Plus, there is offsets that we get from the state uh for our for the voting systems as well. So, but I'm I appreciate you pointing them out and I always try to like to respond to your questions.

Any other comments? Moving to a vote. All in favor? I. Motion carries. And next up, awards of contracts. Southeast PA Regional Task Force Exhibit C. I'd like to make a motion to approve the contracts, awards, amendments, and renewals for Southeast PA Regional Task Force on attached exhibit C. Is there a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Dello. Any board comment hearing? None. All in favor? I. Motion carries. Um, next up is public comment. A limit to three minutes. Uh, this is general public comment, but we ask that it is germanine uh to county business. Do we have anyone signed up for public comment?

Liz Ferry. Hi, good evening, commissioners. Good evening.

Uh, my name is Liz Ferry and I'm from Upper Dublin Township and I'm here this evening representing the Montgomery County Public Committee to request that the county's mail-in dropboxes be placed indoors at municipal facilities that are open during normal business hours. Unfortunately, voters from both parties increasingly have lost trust in the election process. Montgomery County has 18 drop boxes, many of which are located in municipal buildings or libraries. However, there are numerous dropboxes that are located in public places outside and available at all hours of the day and night. The cameras provided are not monitored and often don't capture a clear view of the boxes. Delaware County's dropboxes are all located in municipal buildings or libraries. County's drop boxes are all located in government buildings or libraries. Chester County's dropboxes are all located in libraries. Montgomery County is the only county in the region that has dropboxes located outside. The Nortown area street parking lot is located outside and with within close walking distance to the county building. There is no need for this to be for this box to be located outside. The skipac 4 center box is located in an open secluded area. The Royers parking lot across from Victory Park is an open area with little traffic. Upper Dublin Township, where I'm from, has two drop boxes, which is unnecessary. And we know that a case was brought to DA Steel regarding the head of the Upper Dublin Democratic Committee, who was caught on camera putting multiple

ballots in the box during the very early hours of the morning. To capture this fraud required hours of volunteer time. The worst offender is the dropbox at Green Lane Park, which is located in a dark wooded area with nothing around it. Americans are increasingly distrustful of government at all levels. Having dropboxes located in public areas available at all hours only adds to that distrust. Moving these boxes to indoor locations is easy to do and municipalities would welcome it. We urge you to make the mail and ballot process safer, safer, and more trustworthy. In addition, I would also like to raise the issue of the county van. For all intents and purposes, the van is a polling place. Polling places require a judge of elections to oversee the polling place and ensure in compliance with election laws. Inspectors assist the judge and help manage the voting process. Clerks are responsible for maintaining records and assist. Your time's up. Thank you for your comment. Thank you for being here.

Bob Jazzy,

Bob Chznowski, Abington. I want to thank uh Tom for suggesting this uh going around to the different townships and getting out to the people. Not many people can go on a Thursday in the in uh Norristown at 10:00 in the morning, especially working people or taxpayers. So, I want to thank you for coming here today. Um, I got my new tax bill and um, you successfully have now have a larger tax bite than my local tax which pays for my um, libraries, my police, my fire, my uh, all the other things that um, as you go through tonight, you always have all these different spending bills that you have all lined up and everything else. And then at the end of your physical year, you scramble around trying to figure out how to cover all the bills that you've racked up over the year. And it becomes a surprise. I don't know why because if you spend more and spend more and spend more, you're going to keep doing it. I would recommend that on on the agenda every month that you have a line item for trying to cut items or see what needs to be done. And what Joe and D had talked about before, one of the costs could be um treating the the county of um uh non-citizen criminals that the government the federal government is willing to take off your hands. The prison systems cost a lot. We have a lot going towards uh non-citizen programs and other things and diversity programs and these other types of programs. There's just programs after programs. have no problem doing that. And I ask that you do something to um put a line item to cut and restrain spending so at the end of the year you're not dipping into the rainy day fund and raising our

taxes. Um Abington has the same problem. Our taxes keep going up and up and up and you're making it unaffordable. The word of the day is affordability. And no one talks about how the taxes and insurance and everything else just keep going up and up and up and you're going to put the seniors and people that are on fixed incomes um out of Montgomery County. That was my comment. Thank you for your comment. Next up, Jacqueline War. I'm sorry,

Jacqueline. Jacqueline Sorry, I'm not tall. Um, hi, my name is Jacqueline. Um, I live in Abington Township in Huntington Valley. Um, I'm not here speaking on behalf of any fancy groups or anything. I'm just speaking on behalf of myself and my neighbors who live on a road where there are no sidewalks. Um, I'm really concerned about the speeding that's happening on our road and roads like ours we live. um behind Huntington Pike, which is a major route, and people use our road to get um from point A to point B, skipping the lights, especially during rush hour. There's many children on our road. We have many animals on our road. We have active adults living in our neighborhood, and there are no sidewalks to keep us safe from the cars. Um, over the last few years, people have driven into telephone poles, fire hydrants, fences, and most recently, someone just drove into a small ditch a few weeks ago. Um, on our road, people walk, people run. Um, children are waiting for the school bus. This morning, I was almost hit by a jeep waiting for my child, waiting with my child for the school bus. Um, I'm not asking for unattainable resolutions to these types of issues, but I am asking for partnership to help figure out a way to reduce the speeding on our road and roads like ours um for our safety and the safety of all of the uh neighbors on my road.

Thank you. Thank you for your comment. if if you could just uh give your uh information to the team so we can about where where you live, what road and you want to hand handle No, Jacqueline, if you if you don't mind staying to the end of the meeting, I'd love to talk with you about Okay. Sorry. Thank you. David Morgan. Oh,

David Morgan again from Amler. And uh to continue on about the pressures that taxpayers face. Uh one other part of the county process is to add new positions. And there's a paper you'll find at every meeting you attend adding new positions which I wonder if are funded in our budget. And uh especially this evening we have one new position for voter services voter registration clerk uh salary ranging from 40,000 to uh 60,000 62,000. So um these type of positions uh I asked the commissioners if they can consolidate them. So see we can see the rate of increase in all these that's a pressure there's a pension involved also in benefits for each of these individuals. uh we have uh possibilities of really going into deep uh holes in our financing as in last spring we were $55 million behind in uh in trying to make ends meet and so was turned around through the whole year. So I'd like to have that addressed quickly. Um, also I uh want to say that um perhaps and we know commissioner wer I mentioned about sharing the chair and perhaps um with commissioner dello and not having opportunity yet over it's going to third year perhaps creative way of having him have role the chair sometime. Uh and then um beyond this I like to say uh for uh my advocacy for things the county is doing really well. One thing is uh you'll see tonight uh the parent and infant resource guides out there, health and human services has and there's loads of great uh resources for uh people who are expecting a baby especially um through many pages of this uh because white people decide they'll have a baby if they have emotional and financial support. So, this is a really great thing to have the county um also a county movie was put out uh talking about women coming back from the hospital and maybe they have a cardiac issue and there's uh reprints I'm going to give each commissioner so I mentioned it before from the inquir uh it was from the let's see 2024 July 21st and it's

about a pen medicine program uh where uh monitoring can help uh a woman really quickly get in touch with care if she needs it after having a baby. Um then um also uh just the hack mention of the Monaco mamas program which helps minority birth outcomes be more successful. We haven't seen a pro a presentation that's the word presentation from them in quite a while. So often it was in November which is also national adoption month which the county also does. Uh so I encourage the county in these areas to uh foster life. And so perhaps soon we'll have a meeting with Monco Mama's presentation in Liver Marian that mentioned a grant of something like $80,000 through a consultant to help Monas with doula support and all those things. So uh I think that's really very worthwhile uh to support and uh the planning commission had this first mention to me in their uh 2040 report to have this kind of support available. So I'm glad that the planning commission had something to do with So there are really fine things and uh one thing that's uh especially notable for cost is the pregnancy resource centers are often privately funded.

No tax. Thank you Mr. Morgan.

Joe Rooney. Um, I'll start off by saying I hope you all come back. It's been a good meeting and I think everybody here enjoys it and get an opportunity to see you face to face. So, I think this has really been great. Thank you. Um, first uh for chairman chairwoman Liz Fry, thank you for that presentation. Uh, I too am worried about those dropboxes. I' I've shown Neil multiple multiple illegal voting that's gone on at those drop boxes and every illegal vote is stealing legal vote. That's what it is and the county's done nothing about. Just to let people know about that. The second one, the J&J investment is awesome, but let's never forget President Trump and his administration for the focus that they have on making our American economy great for Americans and Dave McCormack for voicing that for helping that along. Also, those are uh they were important movements in that thing right there. And uh Bob Jazz and Mr. Morgan both kind of stole a little bit I wanted to say, but I'm also interested in taxes. So, you're in Abington. So, between 2020 and uh 2026, our taxes for the township, that's it. Not for the fire, not for everything, went up by 33 and a half%. Uh in that same amount of time between 2020 and 2026, our county taxes went up by 58%. Mr. Morgan said half a percent or something like that. And here's a question I have for you all and for everybody. What's the core function of our county government? It's not a rhetorical question. I know I'm not going to give an answer because it was a great presentation of all this stuff and I picked up a pen from uh Mr. Dean out there and there's all kinds of other stuff that's my tax dollars filtered through the government and coming back

to me in a pen. In our township, the chief has gotten a load of accolades tonight. the core function of town the township government public safety public works trash street maintenance which is street facilities snow removal stuff like that we know that now there's a lot of other things but everybody knows that that helps us literally every day so we're paying 58% more than 2020 I can't answer where that is and the compounded annual growth rate for the county is 7.9% so that's higher than CPA since 2020 so it's going somewhere. Mr. Morgan hit the t nail on the head when he said you all are hiring people that nobody knows what they do and we certainly don't see any results from. That's a place to focus. Just a suggestion. So, um that's all that I had. Got a little time. I'll say thank you very much and I do hope you all come back. Thank you for taking the time to drive here.

Thanks, Mr. Rooney. Linda Weaver. Hi, Linda Weaver to Woodmont Court, Schwanksville, Limmerch Township. First of all, it's great to be back in Abington. Prior to retirement, I was the president of the 16,000 public school educators in Bucks and Montgomery counties. And although I'm not supposed to have favorites among my 41 school districts, I'm here now in my favorite district, the district where my my family has chosen to raise their children. So, thank you to Abington for being what you are. Now, I have two things I would like to share this evening. First, kudos to McGomery County for an article published in the Philadelphia Inquirer on January 13. The county's office of innovation strategy and performance helped identify $14 million in savings over the last year and it reduced the deficit in the county by half. This represented significant savings for taxpayers and I want to say thank you for that. Second, a video posted on Donald Trump's truth social account on the night of February 5th, 2026 depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as monkeys. The response from Democrats was swift and clear, while the response from many Republicans was muted or absent. I would like to quote from a statement issued by Democratic officials in McGomery County. The president's decision to post a video depict depicting the Obamas as monkeys is an unmistakable act of racism shared during Black History Month. It was not

accidental or careless. It was meant to provoke, divide, and degrade. At last count, 32 elected officials in Montgomery County signed on to this statement, decrying this act and calling this out plainly and publicly. Republican officials were invited to sign on as well. So, I want to thank you to commissioners Winder and McKisa for signing this statement condemning what I see as a blatantly racist act by a sitting president. So, I ask all of you, where was the Republican outrage over this overt racism? I really wanted to know. So, of course, I went to AI and I asked chat GPT. I said, "Please search all platforms and find an official statement from the Republican Party condemning Trump's video portraying the Obamas as monkeys." Here was the response. I could not find any official statement by the National Republican Party or the Republican National Committee RNC formerly condemning the video. Reporting indicates that there were criticisms from individual Republican politicians, but not a single unified official party condemnation. So individual Republicans condemned this video and said so now I would like Commissioner Dello the opportunity to speak out against this video as well.

Thank you. Thank you Monica. Monica Havau I'm sorry. Do you want to speak Monica? Do you want Do you have a public comment? Um, it was the third sheet, ma'am. It's It's the third sheet. Okay. All right. Next. Okay. Are you Monica? Oh, okay. Hi. Um,

just hold it. Okay. Hi, I'm Monica Herrow, Cheltonham Township. I first just want to thank all the commissioners for having this evening meeting because it is very hard to get to Norristown um on a work day. Um so my comment is about the county's health department and um first responders. My daughter is a Pennsylvania licensed EMT. She couldn't be here tonight because she's down at the station, but um uh a few years ago she was in her training to be an EMT and she got a last minute directive to go and get a TB test. So I called the county health department to see if they could get her in and they said she the person I spoke to said she'd either have to be exposed or she had to be an immigrant. So then I went to the commissioners and told the commissioners what had happened in that exchange. They said that somebody from the county would get back from me and to and I did. I got a call from a a woman at the county and she said that was the policy because there were a lot of um immigrants from the Ukraine coming in at the time and they were testing positive for TB. So that's why they had the policy for immigrants and um exposed people. So what I'm asking is can the county please reconsider that policy and make the TB tests available for all um county residents, taxpayers um and US citizens, especially people like first responders who get exposed to a lot of different um diseases and such. So, I would just hope that you would you would make it a more inclusive policy for all residents to be able to access those kind of services.

We can look into that. Thank you for sharing. Joe Dunn.

Uh, good evening. My name is Joe Dunn. I'm from Abington. And, uh, I really appreciate you coming here to see us. Tom told me he was going to do it. They brought you here. Well, it was a collective effort. It was interesting. I'm sure it was. I'm sure it was. But there's always a point person

and I thank you for that. I would like to also congratulate the soccer team. It was so nice to see a a team achieve that. You know, I was an athlete myself and I got so sick of all the participation awards one after another. And to actually see a real team do a real thing and and all it takes to do that. I'm glad that was brought up in this. So, it's good to school. I did watch the um state of the county today,

which you sort of did over again here, so I knew it was what was going to be said. And um I I noticed that um they have uh Commissioner Widner I appreciated what you spoke and said and talked about collaborating together and everything but then I was a bit confused by I Neil I don't want to call you Neil Commissioner but I don't want to destroy kind of confused me a little bit when you were talking about the way that the county is going going to deal with ICE. It very I found it quite confusing that

and I know that police chief who I back 100% always he's really a great guy and I'm sure our police chief will do whatever's best for the people and the citizens which I and I kind of got a little bit of clarification when Mr. Deello spoke back about how it's going to work. Although I saw you kind of not shaking your head no when he was saying how they were going to work. That's typical for the two of them. Like I said, it's still I still find it quite confusing. But

um tax-wise, I was running for office and I spent a lot of time in my ward for talking to people and the main thing I heard was about the taxes. Taxes. taxes are going up up up up. Up until yesterday, I had talked to people about it and I saw the the um state of the county thing how you had worked to bring the the county taxes down like a good percent. They did.

It seems like the county is going down and Abington is going up. So, talk to these guys, will you? see if they can do what you're trying to do because between the taxes and that whole school building the new school thing is just unbelievable to me and people are starting to see it. People that I know went along with it now going I didn't realize this but I didn't realize that. So I'm hearing people really frightened out there. They're going to lose their homes and I know you're worried about the homeless thing and it looks to me like you might have a homeless problem sometime in the future. So thank you for your comments. Thanks for being here. Appreciate it. Thank you.

I'll I'll just add um thanks Yeah. Thank you for your comment and we collaborate all all of us on many different issues including within topics that we might disagree on. Um there's programs that we do on elections that are educational that are informative that Mr. Dell and I have worked on. Uh there's, you know, on the topic that you raised of, you know, ICE, uh, you know, you might think of it as something that is somehow controversial, you know, and divisive and therefore is at odds with the idea of collaboration, but I don't think being collaborative means being silent on difficult issues. Uh, I think it means working through them. And in Bucks County, we saw that where all three commissioners unanimously, bipartisan uh made clear that they do oppose uh warehouses being used to detain people. And that's something that I commend. And if something like that were to happen in Montgomery County where we saw an indication of that, uh as we have in Burks and in Skooll County, uh I would work to oppose that and that's what I said. um at the state of the county and it appears that uh many people across party lines feel the same way in in townships across the county.

Anyone else? Yes. Um Rabbi Elise Wetcherman.

Hi, good evening. Thank you for coming to Abington. It's really great to see you here. Um I actually am not here to ask you anything tonight. Don't worry. I'm just here to give you an update and report that um as of today we know that there have been 116 uh people residents in Montgomery County who have been um confirmed to have been detained by ICE and another 41 suspected. So 157 people who are missing from their homes who are um fathers, brothers, um workers, um all sorts of people and including taxpayers. And uh I just wanted you to know that that's the number where we are now. They've been ripped out of their homes. And I also want to just uh clarify that of that number, we can confirm two had judicial warrants for crimes. Two. Thank you. Have a good evening.

Thank you. Okay, Regina Litman. Okay.

Hi, I'm Regina Litman. I live in Abington Township. My mailing address is in Huntington Valley, which means I live near Lower Morland, upper Morland Townships and also Bren Athen Burough. And there's a bridge on Feders Mill Road that connects Turwood or Fitzwater Town, it's Turwood at that point with eventually Huntington Pike. That bridge has been out for a few years now. I think it was repaired and broke again and it would if it could be fixed it would really alleviate some traffic congestion in the Bethair's area like where Huntington Pike intersects with Welsh Road and Filmont Avenue. So, I wanted to know if there's any plans to fix it and uh if when and I don't know whether I thought I heard it was up to the county, but maybe it's one of the jurisdictions and it's

we can we can check on that for for you. I don't I don't know if that's a is do we do we know? We we'd have to look into it, but we will check. We're also looking forward to having the bridge near Lauropen soon. And I just want to say I was a seventerm judge of elections in Abington Ward 2 district 2. I'm looking forward to the Montgomery County Trail Challenge this year. And I remember the commissioners once having a meeting in Hatboro on a night at night and it was so long ago the two Abington residents were twothirds of the commissioners, Joe Hoffel and John Fox. Okay. And we've also had Josh Shapiro on the board. So Abington has contributed to your commissioners. Thank you. Thank you for coming.

Thank you for your service as a judge of of elections as well. Desiree Whitfield. Desiree. Good evening, Commissioner. Sorry I'm late. Um, coming from downtown President's House rally.

I have a concern that I need your assistance and I need you all to tell me right now you're going to do something about it. For the last three months, I have been a faithful volunteer at the TLC cold blue shelter in Norristown. As you know, the county is already 35 beds down. I know it's not. You cannot blame NIMBI not in my backyard because what I experienced, what I saw, what I heard from all of the guests that come there about how this housing situation is going in Montgomery County. All of them say that they were told that they are in a rapid rehousing list. There's no rapid rehousing list. Number two, all of them are told they're going to be seen by their crisis person, their their people. They're not seen. Now, when I look at these people, everybody cannot be lying. One thing I do know is about the shelter that is in Horscham, the one that the county is spending thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars for 35 rooms. a hotel that is the county is running that is chocked coordinated housing homelessness outreach center they're supposed to be there for 90 days and then they are supposed to be housed what I do know and the Horscham detectives have the paperwork in front of them they are not given the opportunity to seek housing in 90 days why Because when they walk in the door, they think they are being coming into chalk. No, they are illegally being put

into CTI, critical time intervention. They don't know what it is, but re um RHD re um RHD is putting them in CTI so that they can get double the money. everyone that is there. CTI means homelessness and um mental health. There is no doctor there that is saying that they need to be there. This is a multi-million dollar fraud scheme. You sit there and allow this to happen. Yet you have people that are really want to go into housing, but this is where your money is going. If you don't believe me, call the detective. I can't think of his name. Okay. They are using a doctor's name and ID from years ago on their paperwork. Okay. Thank you for your comments.

I need you. Okay. I need you to look this up. Happy happy to look into it. Thank you.

Okay. Last person is Joe O'Brien. One thing I want to address about ICE. If you cross our border illegally, you have no rights and ICE is going to deport you. If you cross the border from United States to Mexico, you will be put in prison. If you cross the border of North Korea, you are sentenced to death. If you cross the border of America, you're sent home. Okay, that's what this is about. You violated our law the minute you cross the border. You can come through many other ways legally, but if you cross the border illegally, ICE is going to send you home, and that's what they're supposed to do. The other thing is the taxes going up is crazy around here. And the Trump video depicted a whole bunch of people in Congress as animals. It wasn't just the Obamas. There were I don't know how many people were depicted in it, but it was they were all different animals. So, they pick one thing and again drive that. Okay. But if you cross the border, ICE is supposed to deport you. That's their job.

Any other comment? Okay. Um, any closing comments? I have just a couple real quick. Um the the budget and the taxes I'll I'll address quickly. Um yes, taxes have gone up in McGomery County. Uh yes, they went up last year by 4%. Um we um I I never talk about previous boards, so I'm not going to go backwards. Um, but I will say that, you know, last year, um, we started early on in the year, um, and we worked extremely hard. We we had a 55, as mentioned, we had a $55 million deficit, which equates to about a 18% tax increase. Um, a lot of lot of work went into reducing that as far as we could get to, including a reduction in resources. Um, so when you see new positions, we're we are it's very well thought out. We're not just haphazardly adding positions. Um, and no one was happy to increase last year. Uh, we're already working extremely hard on this year for the 27 budget. Um, I think ultimately our goal is to be at zero. There's a lot of things that are outside of our control. I've mentioned at some of the budget meetings that we see expenses grow organically by 3 to 4% and that means if we do nothing and that's expenses that just grow including we've has nine nine and a half% increase in healthcare. Um so there there's just a lot that goes into it. The core it was a great question what the core operation is for the county. Um it's everything that you've mentioned that the townships does, but think of that 62 times.

Also, uh the judicial system, the county clerks, the sheriff's department, uh not the court, uh cler the courts, not clerks, the county courts, the justice department, the the uh the prison, uh juvenile services, probation services, health and human services. Uh we're a $ 1.3 billion dollar budget. 600 roughly 650 million of that is operational. Um and I believe that none of us want to be in a position um and we're doing everything we can. We inherited some of these bigger projects. Our job now is to get get them done. Uh we're doing everything we can to streamline uh as much as possible. Um, but we're not just spending all year and then trying to figure out how to deal with it frantically uh at the end of the year. Um, yes, there was tax increases going back to 200 I I think somebody mentioned 2020, but we we don't have we can't go back and undo decisions that were made in the past. What we're trying to do is to understand those decisions that were made in the past and and try to rectify or and become more efficient or um even and make reductions where possible. We're on a good path in McGomery County. Um we were at 9% the the previous year. The previous year before that I forget. I think it was 11 or 13%. Um but we got down to 4%. None of us, including myself, I've said it numerous times, I hate it. I didn't want to be in that spot. Uh, but we also have 900,000 residents that were trying to do everything possible to provide uh all the necessary services and I we will

definitely look into u the statements that the the last person made, I think the second to the last person that made regarding Horscham and and the facilities. Um, but there is just a lot going on. Um, I'm committed to doing everything I can to get to a zerobased budgeting. Um, and I truly believe we will get there. Um, but it's take it's a lot of work and we're committed and we're doing everything we can. Um, so we are not just spending haphazardly. Um, and I I will support all all our efforts including the the uh teams that we put in place. We even have a consulting firm that's looking at contracts. And I mean, we're we we're going at this in every every angle because ultimately our goal is to put McGomery County financially stable and in a very strong position and to the point where we don't see uh additional increases in the future, but we're working towards that. Uh the comments related to dropboxes, I I have brought this up before. Uh, I did mention we have some dropboxes, uh, at the one comment at Green Lane Park, which is a beautiful lake. Uh, there's a lot of recreational things to do while you're there, but dropping ballots off in the middle of the night in a park is not a smart move. I asked I said that we should move that. Um, and the one in Worford on Second Avenue, it's in a it's sitting in a parking lot, very poorly lit. Um, again, we have people that may use these boxes later at night. And my concern was all along from a county perspective, what is our responsibility if something happens there to somebody that's using those dropboxes in the middle of the

night, unsecure locations, unmonitored. Um, and I agree we have enough county facilities in McGomery County that we could do uh very similar to what our neighboring counties are doing with having these dropboxes. Um, and I'm not going to get into debate about if they're we should have them, not have them. I believe that we should have them. If we're going to have them, we should have them in secure building locations. Uh, and like I said, we have uh enough there's enough bu uh county buildings where they could be located inside securely and where people could feel comfortable going in dropping off their ballot and and leaving without being in in deserted parking lots or park parking uh parks or whatever it may be. Our our neighboring counties are doing it and I don't believe there's no reason why we shouldn't have uh our dropboxes in a similar place. And I've also, you know, I don't even think it came up, but I've said this before. There's no reason and we and we know this that they're not they're not being used and at in the middle of the night and there's no reason for our dropboxes to be open 247. Um, as well as our neighboring counties do have uh staff uh monitoring those dropboxes. They're there. Um the county at one time did do that and then we stopped doing that and I think that we should seriously consider that as we move forward. I think we should consider moving the dropboxes into buildings, county buildings in secure locations and I believe we should consider not having them open 247. Any questions coming? No, I'll just uh I'll just say thank you

everyone for being here. Thank you to the staff for showing up in the evening. Thank you to everyone who, you know, has got their kids at home. I'm going to try to do bedtime over FaceTime in a second, but um you want us all to say good night. Yeah. Behind you.

Funny. I don't know if Rachel wants to just pop into a meeting like that, but um but no, it's uh it's an honor to serve. There's a lot of things we could talk about. I could talk about all my views on dropboxes. Uh I think they're very convenient and fantastic because the USPS is not always reliable and dropboxes are the best way to get your ballot to us on time. Uh and be confident that they're going directly to the county, that they're going to be counted. So, uh I'm grateful that they're going to be open when the ballots are available, which is something that uh we've been working towards. And uh yeah, I'm excited. Montgomery County had such a fantastic turnout this last year. Abington was a big part of that. We had 310,000 people vote. Typically, it's 200,000 in Montgomery County in an odd year election. So big big deal. Absolutely. Give yourself an applause and for that. Um, and yeah, I'll just say, you know, we've got another election coming up soon. So, uh, hope everyone, uh, finds the easiest way that they'd like to vote. Uh, mcoes.com, you can find all that or monopa votes.gov is the official. It's the same thing. Uh, but, uh, we're always here to serve to help you exercise your rights and perform, uh, or deal with all of the core functions of the county, which there are many. there's not, you know, not as perhaps straightforward as the local, but 911 is something we didn't mention. Brian's here who runs that center. That's one of the easiest things that I point to that the county runs and coordinates because everyone understands the importance of that. Uh, but many other things behind the scenes from planning and infrastructure and human services, ch children and youth, all of the HHS department. uh very important things that we're providing every day and grateful to work with my colleagues to do so in the most efficient manner possible. Go ahead.

Thank you for um thank you for your comments. Um thanks everyone uh for being here. Um we're really excited to be in Abington Township. Uh we are committing to doing these uh more more frequently. So stay tuned for our next meeting on the road. Um, always appreciate people coming out and sharing their perspectives. Uh, that's the only way that we can hear what's on people's minds, what's keeping people up at night. Um, and so, uh, appreciate everyone that came to the podium to share their reflections and their views.

I think I would just challenge us in this moment. Uh, our national politics are really, really challenging. Um, you turn on the news, regardless of what station, you go on social media, we are deeply divided as a nation. And one of the things that um I've been stressing as we entered into a new year, especially with this board, is that regardless of our political affiliations or political differences, we have a responsibility to serve the 900,000 residents uh that call Montgomery County home. And that's what we strive to do every day that we walk into one Montgomery Plaza. Um we try to put our political uh differences aside uh so we can do the good work uh for the residents that uh call Montgomery County home. And what I would just implore uh folks that came up for public comment or or people that are concerned what's happening with our national politics um be kind to one another. Uh give each other grace. Um take time to learn uh someone's story uh learn a different perspective because I think the world will be a much better place if we just take the time um to be kind to to one another. And so we can have our differences. We can agree on ICE. We can agree on who we want to be uh dis or disagree. We can disagree on ICE. We can disagree on who we want to be president of the United States. We can disagree on roads and bridges. Uh but let's do it in a way uh that's kind. So I want to thank everyone uh for your for your time and attention. I too uh need to get home to do bedtime with my 5-year-old. Uh we're going to have a short salary board meeting. So I'd ask that everybody uh stay in their seats while we just wrap

up a few closing things. Um next board meeting will be March 5th uh back in our boardroom at 10 a.m. in Narstown. I'd like to make a motion to adjourn the February 19th, 2026 meeting of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. Is there a second? Second by Commissioner Dell. Don't say that so fast. Are you ready to get out of here? I want to get you home to your child. Yes. Okay. Um um any board comment? No, you did that at home. No. Yeah, you're good. Yeah, I'm good. All in favor? I. Motion carries. We're going to do a quick salary board. Uh come on up. Our controller, Bob Hart. Is there any public comment for salary board? Great. Bob, walk a little. You got to walk a little faster.

Okay. Uh Tony Brew. Good evening. Uh members of the salary board, you have in front of you a final copy of the salary board list. It is a four-page document dated February 19th, 2026 with a time stamp of 3:52 p.m. All positions have been reviewed and and accounted for for your consideration.

Thank you. Our corner has public comment. Come on up. Give me Give me Thank you for that. Hello. Hi, Abington. I came to the east side to tonight, so glad to be here. It was a long drive, but it's okay. I'm here um because I have two things on the salary board and um just want to thank the commissioners for um considering it. And um just wanted to say that the coroner's office has been neglected for many many years and we're trying to get up to speed. Um we are doing great work for the whole um county and um you know adding these additional um positions. will definitely continue to um serve our um county with um quality service and also advocate for the staff that has been um you know uh we get burned out every day. So um we we definitely need um more staffing to be able to continue our service. So thank you for considering these two um positions and that's all.

Thank you. Thank you for coming. Um, so I'd like to make a motion to approve the February 19th, 2026 salary board presentation as given by Mr. Tony Brew. Uh, is there a second? Second. Second by Commissioner uh, McKesia. Any board comment? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Motion carries. Um, thank you. I'd like to make a motion to adjourn the February 19th, 2026 meeting of the Montgomery County Salary Board. Is there a second? Seconded by Commissioner Dello. Any board comment? Hearing none. All in favor? I most