Commissioner - Regular Meeting

to speak, please sign up at the information table out in the hallway. Comments longer than three minutes can be submitted in writing for the commissioner's review. We will now stand and be led in the Pledge of Allegiance by Commission President Jim Rand.

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

commissioners first up we have to approve the minutes in the agenda for tonight so our agenda for tonight's meeting August 25th along with the regular session minutes the closed session minutes the sanitary Commission minutes and the roads board minutes from the August 11th meeting have all been circulated for your review do we have any additions or Corrections yep make a motion to add two additional action items to tonight's agenda second

Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.

Opposed?

So moved.

Motion to accept the agenda as amended and the minutes from August 11.

Second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Okay. Thank you, Commissioners. So we just held a closed session under the General Provisions Article Section 335B1 for Boards, Commissions, and Personnel and Section 335B3 for Land Acquisition. So I do believe we have an appointment to make.

I move to reappoint Rick Sierra to fill the vacancy on the Housing Authority. This is a five-year term that will expire on June 30, 2031. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

So moved. Okay. And we had that government services relations contract. We have a motion for that, please.

I move to execute the Cornerstone Government Affairs Services Agreement effective October 1st, 2026 to September 30th, 2027. Second.

We have a motion and a second on this topic. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? So moved.

Thank you, Commissioners. That brings us to the press and public comment. This is our general press and public comment session. We appreciate all citizens for taking time to express views to the county commissioners. Comments are limited to three minutes per person. Comments longer than three minutes can be submitted in writing. This commission respects your desire and right to convey your message freely. When you come forward, please speak clearly at the standing microphone. State your name, your address, topic of interest, and in keeping with the dignity of our office, we ask that all views be expressed in a respectful and civil manner.

Thank you, commissioners. Jay Falstad, Queen Anne's Conservation Association. I want to make a comment first on Chesterhaven Beach, and I hope I can get through the whole thing. But I'd also like to just kind of put a placeholder for the last press and public comment, because I do have just a general sort of community announcement that I'd like to offer. And so I just want to make that known now, Mr. Chairman, if I can add that at the very end. Commissioners at the last commissioner meeting, Chester Haven Beach was on the agenda. You all voted to, not all of you, but by a 3-2 vote to extend the Public Works Agreement. I want to make you aware of something because I was shocked by this myself. I posted on Facebook, The outcome of that vote, it's on there for everybody to see. I urge you to go and look at my page. 46,000 views on that one page alone. If you go through the comments, there is not one favorable comment in support of Chesterhaven Beach, not a single one. All of them are negative. These are all your citizens that you represent. And so I think that there's an opportunity for you all to reconsider, and I'll tell you what that is. At the last meeting, you voted to extend the Public Works Agreement. but you did so without actually having the agreement because tonight the agreement's on the agenda. So you all made a move to extend an agreement that you didn't have the opportunity to read because it's on your agenda for tonight. And so it seems to me that that gives you a little bit of breathing space and I would ask you in light of the overwhelming negative support towards this particular development, in light of the fact that this thing has come up over and over again, in light of the fact that the critical area commission says that the developer does not have the number of lots that he claims, I think this gives you sufficient justification to not extend this public works agreement, and I hope that you'll reconsider it. At the last meeting, I wish I had the opportunity to rebut some of what Mr. Stevens said, but I'll try and take that opportunity now within just the last few minutes, the last minute that I have. He said that all this will come before the Planning Commission and people will have the opportunity to raise concerns then. He's absolutely right about that. but it is putting the cart before the horse because at the end of the day the overriding authority on this is the critical area commission and they say that the lots don't exist so you will be putting county staff through an enormous amount of work going through all different kinds of things when the authority has already said no. So with that, I hope you'll reconsider it tonight. There's no reason for you to continue on with this public works agreement. And on that basis alone, I hope you'll reconsider it and then reject it. Thank you.

Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak? There is nobody else signed up. Thank you.

All right, Commissioners, we have four emails tonight. The first one comes from Wendy Lillian. Dear Queens County Commissioners, I am unable to attend the upcoming hearing because of the short notice, but I want to make concerns clear regarding the proposed 48-month extension of the Public Works Sewer Agreement. How can the county approve an extension for a project when the courts have determined that the underlying growth authorization is illegal and void? The county and the developer should not be able to use the public works or sewer agreement to advance a subdivision when the underlying growth authorization was declared illegal because approximately 81 acres of the property are located within the resource conservation area of Maryland's critical area. If the underlying authorization cannot legally support the proposed development, what purpose does extending the agreement for another 48 months serve? The proposed extension appears to concern infrastructure for more than 80 homes that, based on the court's decisions, cannot legally be built. I also urge the commissioners to consider the financial and political consequences of moving forward with an agreement tied to a development that has already been found unlawful. County residents expect their elected officials to protect the county's resources, follow court decisions, and make decisions that are in long-term public interest. I hope the commissioners will also consider the history of development controversies on Kent Island, including the serious environmental concerns, pollution, regulatory violations, and litigation associated with Hovindian development. Those experiences demonstrate how costly and disruptive development disputes can become for a community and its elected officials. I respectfully ask that the commissioners to carefully reconsider any extension to this agreement and to explain how it can legally and practically justify given the court's decisions regarding the underlying growth authorization. I cannot attend the hearing, but I want my concerns to be part of the public record. I will be voting this year. I will be paying close attention to how this matter is handled. Thank you for your consideration. Wendy. Our next email comes from Dai Quinn Reno. I request that this statement be read aloud during the Press and Public Comments portion of the August 25, 2026 meeting as I am unable to attend in person. I am extremely disappointed by the vote to extend the Public Works Agreement for Chester Haven Beach. The negative consequences of this development for our local community and environment could not be clearer. Despite significant public opposition, the motion was approved with no commissioner discussion. My intention will be to speak at the polls in November and will not vote to re-elect commissioners who continue to support this development. Next email comes from Heather Skipper. I am ready to express my deep concern regarding your recent three to two vote to extend the public works agreement for Chesterhaven Beach for an additional four years. It is unclear to your constituents why the county is using public works and sewer agreements to advance a subdivision whose underlying growth authorization was declared illegal and void by the courts. Circuit Court's December 2025 ruling clearly established that the majority of this 101-acre property, specifically 81 acres, resides within the Strictly Protected Resource Conservation Area, the RCA, of the critical area. This legal realty will not change. Providing a sewer extension for a project that cannot legally be built is a contradiction. Furthermore, this decision sets a dangerous precedent. It allows dormant developers to game our planning system using antiquated 1950s-era plats. Queen's County has already consumed the vast majority of its state-allotted growth allocation. Extending agreements for the invalid projects undermines our remaining allocation and wastes limited county resources. It also exposes the county to predictable, costly, and avoidable legal challenges. Lastly, I urge you to remember why transplants like myself chose our homes on Kent Island nearly two decades ago. We moved here for the charm of tidal wetlands, the forest, the wildlife, and the open shorelines. Today, the island is being strangled by overgrowth, displacement of the wildlife, devaluing our cross-island trail, and wiping out green space. Please consider the long-term future of our county, the environment, and the voices of your constituents as you move forward. Sincerely, Heather Skipper. And our final email comes from Peggy Cantfill. It is unbelievable that Chester Haven is being threatened again. Given the court's ruling, why would the commissioners put this critical area in jeopardy again? The commissioners that voted for this do not care about the Bay or the world. Unbelievable this atrocity, and this is under consideration again. Peggy Canfield.

That's all the emails I have. Thank you. Would anybody else like to speak? Mr. Stephens.

Joseph Stevens, as you know, I represent Chesterhaven Beach. And in light of some of the comments that were made, I just need to clarify a few things. One is that the public works agreement before you is the exact same language but for the extension.

They can't hear you, they can't hear you.

The exact same language but for the extension in time that was requested. And two is that the court decision involved only the inclusion of the property in the county growth area in order for it to get public water. It had nothing to do with the lots of record, and as I've said many times, That will eventually, and as Mr. Falstaff agreed, will eventually get decided by the courts. So we ask you to act favorably and continue with the vote that you took two weeks ago.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Seeing none, we'll close press and public comment.

Okay. all right commissioners we can move into the presentations portion of tonight's agenda so first up we have uh our friends from the maryland association of counties mr michael sanderson and executive director and our president of mako mc keegan air so would you come on up to the uh to the table please yeah and there is a presentation in your books tab six pages one through sixteen and up on the screen as well welcome all right welcome yeah

Okay, do I press? Do I not press? No, it just turns on.

You press if you don't want to be heard, otherwise you're live.

Okay, that's it. First of all, I want to...

Here's a clicker for the presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for taking time to hear from us this evening. Appreciate your time, Michael and I. I appreciate whatever you did on the bridge, because we came across in lickety-split, so thank you very much. Driving to my husband's and my place in Bethany, sometimes we get tied up on that bridge. I also want to say I like the whatever the county decided to do where you're if you get off 50 you don't get back on I know it makes some people crazy but for someone who sits there and keeps with the screaming children in the back of the car and the dog threatening to you know do whatever It's good to know that if someone gets off, there's no way for them to get around the traffic and get back on, so appreciate that. As you know, and I am following in big shoes and I'm trying very hard to fill them. Michael and the President go around the state and visit with all 23 counties and the City of Baltimore, their legislative bodies, and have a meeting to discuss what's going on in Annapolis, what's going on at the federal level, and the thing that I like most is to hear from you all. What do you hear? clearly growth and development is an issue in queen anne's county as well as it is in frederick county um you don't have quite the same hot button issue that we have but growth and development is a problem you can keep the data centers in your neighborhood We're good, we're good. That is an issue we don't wanna bring up tonight. But it is a problem, and as you know, the governor is pushing all the counties to do more with developing affordable housing. to do more with educating our kids, to do more with repairing our roads and making sure that all of our people and their services that they need to be able to live and thrive in Maryland are operational. And that comes down to us. budgets and as you know we all struggle with making sure that we have enough money to pay for the services that our residents demand and need to be able to thrive but sometimes it gets a little tight so we are here to hear from you to hear what we can do to help you in Annapolis starting next January I am term limited, so I will be out in January. And Jack will once again be serving as past president. So thank you, Jack, for stepping in for me. And now I will turn it over to Michael to go through the particulars.

Good evening and thanks very much for making time on your agenda. I know you've got a busy schedule for tonight. I'm Michael Sanderson, the executive director of the Maryland Association of Counties. We're a nonprofit organization that serves and supports all the county elected officials and all the services you provide all the way across Maryland. We do advocacy work on behalf of all those local services in Annapolis and that's what I'll focus on for the most part this evening. As always, I brought a big thick presentation and I'm not going to click step by step by step through it, but some of it is just there, leave behind materials to illustrate some of the issues we've been working on. I want to be economical with your time and just hit a few big picture issues and if there's something I miss that you'd like to get in further, drill away. So I'll speak to a couple of things, sort of the big picture focus on affordability, the state's budget situation, and then a couple thorny things that we're still in the middle of as we speak. Affordability has just been an increasing drumbeat as a Maryland public policy challenge, increasing over each of the last several years. As you all have been on the campaign trail, you've been hearing about it, there are gonna be a whole wave of either re-elected or newly elected senators and delegates and county commissioners and council members and many of them will have heard most loudly and most clearly from their residents and their constituents about my electric bill. or about the price of housing or the price of childcare and affordability as a beleaguering issue here in Maryland. We've got a problem on a number of fronts, and what's particularly challenging there is there's not, in all candor, there's not a ton that these senators, delegates, commissioners, and council members can really do. to tackle those issues. It doesn't keep the General Assembly from trying on some of these matters, and we're gonna continue to see some of these areas as a focus in Annapolis. But that's peculiar, that if the number one thing you heard from residents is go tackle this stuff, and you find out that there's really nothing in the toolbox to address electric bills going up, that's a supply and demand issue that's bigger. than even the state of Maryland. It's a multi-state approval and so forth. There's a lot going on there. We did see electric rates as a target in Annapolis this last year. They sort of concatenated multiple different little bills and stitched them into one big one and passed it as a relief act. A lot of the rate payer relief will come from suspending some add on programs that were basically paid by ratepayers. You can take a break on a couple of those programs and give folks some ratepayer relief, but 12 bucks a month isn't what has got your residents concerned about their electric rates. If their rates are up $70 a month over the last year, that's the number they've got in mind. I don't know what the state might have in mind for ratepayer relief on electricity. There's only so much that you can do on that front. and in the midst of spiking demand, connected to technology and data centers and so forth, that affects the whole region independent of whether a data center lands in Frederick County or in another one in Loudoun County, Virginia, or if it's in West Virginia or in across the border into Pennsylvania, our region is still gonna feel The demand is high for electrons. It's very high for compute. There are big users of electricity. That's driving the market-driven side of these things. So expect that to continue to be hot, but I think once again, Annapolis will be in search of a solution without any particularly obvious candidates. In somewhat similar fashion, the battle over housing and our statewide shortage of housing units, some folks mostly focused on the affordable and attainable tier, but we have shortages at pretty much every tier of affordability in housing across the state. Depending on what study you read, we're 80,000 units short or 110,000 units short of what we need today or what we need five years from now or whatever, but almost everybody agrees that we're short on housing stock, and we're probably not building as many as we need to sort of bring supply and demand into reasonable flux. Interest rates aren't helping us, and there's nothing a Maryland state senator can do to change the interest rate environment for borrowing and financing projects, both on the financing the building and then for a buyer to buy a home. That's its own challenge. There's a number of other components. What Annapolis can do is come after our local permitting processes and come after local zoning and so forth. We ended up finding middle ground on a couple different bills that dealt with local zoning approvals and so forth. I think we ended up at a reasonable place on a couple of bills that made sense. A whole lot of other ideas were effectively shelled. I don't think this debate is over either. So a couple bills passed last year. I don't think we'll be able to count on two hands the bills introduced next year that will be on housing policy and in one way or another affecting local governments. MACO, as you would imagine, would principally stand up for community driven decision making is the best way to affect smart land use. You just can't do the block by block work of effective zoning from a committee room in Annapolis or from the Department of Planning in a central building in Baltimore or in Annapolis. Just can't do it. So try as they might, we'll end up having some tension, I think, over those issues continuing. And I don't know what happens on other matters with childcare and whatnot. Maryland is a relatively expensive place to live, to build a home, and so forth, for a variety of reasons, and that leads to affordability problems for childcare and a laundry list of other things. That sort of eases into the next point that I want to get into, and that is the state's fiscal circumstance. The arithmetic is bad. I would paint it this way. How on earth did this happen? I would say that For most of my time, I've been a fiscal guy for a long time. I did MAKO's portfolio of budget and finance things before I became the executive director. And I've been following state finances for 30-some years. And in an ordinary year, if inflation is 2% or 3% and there's little population growth and a little productivity growth, then Maryland's economy would grow by something like 4% or 5% in a typical year. And the state revenues would track right along with that, because the state's main revenues are income taxes and sales taxes. That's right now. who has a job right now, who bought a pair of shoes this week. It's not property taxes, which is a little slower on the uptake. So if you have 4% or 5% growth of a general fund budget that today is about $29 billion, 10 years ago was at 20 or something like that, You could be thinking, all right, a $20 billion budget. We grow by 4% or 5% a year. That's like a billion new dollars a year. The state could say, we have an ambitious education program, the Blueprint, and it's going to cost the state another $3 billion over this 10 years. Let's phase it in. And just mentally, we'll take the first 300 million of that 800, 900, a billion new dollars a year and just say, education's first, that's the bird that eats first and then the rest of the nest can fight over the rest. It's not a totally irrational way to think of a 10-year fiscal plan. But what happens when your growth isn't 5 percent, it's 1 percent? That's where the state is right now. State revenue is growing roughly 1 percent a year. Maybe it'll pick up to one and a half or two, but there's nobody out there forecasting green lights to four or five. If you've made spending commitments that basically say we need to keep pace with the things we're providing to the same people, we're worried about folks who might lose benefits because of federal actions. We've lost a bunch of federal workers and folks who supported and surrounded them over the last couple of years. That's been an impediment in the Maryland economy. We've got out migration to the south and to the west from here. You put all that stuff together and the math is just not mathin'. If the state is looking at growth of the revenues of only $300 million, they're gonna have the cruise control budget requires another 700 or 800 just to maintain. this also is the year that they run out of money in the piggy bank to pay for the blueprint program itself hasn't been really squeezed on the general fund they've had an education trust fund with casino money other things like that it had a fund balance it's been it's been drawn down it's going to be to zero and they need general funds this coming year their working number is over two and a half billion dollars short for the budget year ahead If you're a gambling man, I would think the number will be larger than that by New Year's Day. So the budget that needs to be presented is gonna have to resolve a problem to the tune of three, three and a half billion dollars. General fund, 29 billion. Three, three and a half, you're more than 10% of the budget. It's just genuinely short. probably ends up being a combination of all the usual suspects. Go back to the list of revenue raisers, you go back to funding commitments and promises that you've made, you see where can you move in all directions to find some middle ground. But those are tough times. The state never gets through a cycle this tough without bringing local governments to the table as a stakeholder. It's just a matter of fact. I'm not making an oddball prediction there. It just never happens. So what that looks like, another round of cost shifts. We've talked about that sort of thing before. That's been the flavor of the month lately to continue providing a service and then just build the county. Forgive me, I didn't look up the arithmetic on what was in your last Queen Anne's County budget that was basically just an invoice for state-funded services, but that's a meaningful number in your budget every year that you just have to pick up the slack. You don't have any other way to go. I don't know what that'll look like. It'll be difficult at every level. So the coming year is complicated just for the general fund. That's before you consider they're also broke on transportation. Transportation revenues are not keeping up with the cost of asphalt and the maintenance of subways, and they're not keeping up with their formula on highway user revenues back to the counties and municipal governments who take care of most of the roads. All that's upside down. They're also not keeping up with school construction. They've got some long-term liabilities lingering. Their budget situation is the worst I've seen. I've been doing this a pretty long time. So that's a little gloom and doomy, but I mean, that's what you want to hear, right? I mean, it doesn't make sense to come here.

Any good news?

No, not much, in all candor. It was a lovely evening to drive over and spend some time with you. I love the library. The weather's great today. Yes, exactly. The weather's beautiful.

You're on the right side of Maryland, let me tell you that.

Right. Let me drop two more crumbs on issues that I heard a lot of conversation around during our conference a few weeks ago that I'll mention as ongoing issues. One deals with state guidance for funding of revenue from cannabis taxation that gets sent to each local community. It's the Community Restoration and Repair Fund. um we are months late in getting the specific guidance from the state on exactly how the money is to be used we have a deadline coming up that each county is supposed to match and have a plan together and so forth we have counties all over the map some have said well we're just we're just going ahead and trying to get the money out the door to worthy recipients and nonprofits in the community and so forth. We have others who are saying, we don't want to make a misstep and have to pull money back. I understand both points of view. We have been promised that clarity is coming soon, and I hope that's true because we really need it. We really could have used it about 90 days ago so we could meet our deadline that's coming up in a few weeks. But nonetheless, I'm hopeful that we'll get some additional flexibility and clarity coming soon on that front. Another area that's a bit confusing from the state is the paid family leave program. Family and medical leave insurance program makes it FAMLI. Nominally, this program is supposed to start offering benefits at the beginning of calendar year 28, meaning they need to start collecting payroll taxes from employers January of 27. Your county and all of your counterparts across the state have expressed an interest in being part of a cooperative to try and provide this service outside of the state system. Don't do it like unemployment insurance, just pay your own way, that sort of thing. We were never the principal motivation for this program anyway. Counties already give good benefits. We're not the ones leaving folks without the ability to take a sick day. We're still wrapped into the program. I don't know what the state's going to do here. We still don't have the guidance documents on that. We have until November 15th to make a decision on whether we're in or out. And we are right now being weighed down by some bad experiences in other states. Minnesota state is hemorrhaging cash. Minnesota is a state about roughly the same population as us and some of the vaguely similar demographics and so forth. Minnesota is hemorrhaging cash. They're a year or two ahead of us on this. And some of the providers who got in bed with cooperatives and so forth in Minnesota don't want to bid in maryland for fear that we'll end up going down the same path i don't know what happens there i don't know what can happen in time for our decision by november 15th we along with our partners with the maryland association of boards education municipal league are all running in circles trying to get this sorted out we've got an online webinar tomorrow we've got somebody from each county is pledged to attend that um but i'm not we're going to have more questions than answers for the for the weeks ahead nonetheless something we're putting effort into Is there still an opportunity to delay or defer or deep six the whole thing? I don't know in all candor. It's been delayed a couple of times already. There's a lot of folks who are very enamored with the goals of this program, but it does cost the state tens of millions of dollars to fund for their own employees too. A roundabout way of saying things are challenging, it's a tough environment, the voters are having their say in a variety of ways and will continue to do so. Godspeed for the work you do and all the things you deliver back home. We'll continue to support and represent you in Annapolis as best we can, but that's never an easy task. Glad to be here to spend time with you on that cheery, cheery note. I'm not traveling with you anymore.

It was better when Jack was with you, I think, when we heard the story. It was pretty depressing.

The numbers just keep getting bigger. So Michael, real quick, can you speak to the latest, I guess, shoe to drop on the budget with the tech tax being basically negated now and what they may have to pay back and what they're actually going to lose in projected revenue?

We've got two different sort of novel ideas from the state of Maryland on how to raise revenue. Both of these have come in the spirit of saying the Maryland economy, or just the modern economy, looks different than the economy of 1970. But for the most part, our tax system is still mostly the 1970 tax system. You tax income, you tax property, you tax sales. We've had a sales tax that's based on buying goods and services, the shoes. You buy shoes in a shoebox, you pay tax on that. But what about I just bought a video game and I downloaded it from a streaming service that has no physical presence in Maryland, all that kind of stuff. This has been an iterative process to try and be smarter and say, if we tax A and this thing walks like a duck, maybe we tax it the same way and so forth. Two things Maryland has done in recent years that are both in legal difficulty. One is an advertising tax for online advertisers who have a large presence in Maryland. Companies like Facebook or Meta, who may not have a physical building in the state of Maryland, but still have surely hundreds of thousands of users who access advertising and other things that are being delivered in the state of Maryland through ISPs here and so forth. So do they have a presence here where that economic activity could be subject to a state imposed tax? That's been in the courts for several years and was effectively just thrown out in federal court that probably is the end of the debate. I'm not sure I would swear to that because we're sort of drowning vampires here that don't never quite end the story. But I would say the state has been penciling in revenues there, has been collecting some revenues and has been penciling in forecasts to the tune of maybe a couple hundred million. a couple hundred million dollars in almost any setting is a ton of money, with the state's whatever, $3 billion problem, it's still like a meaningful chunk of a $3 billion problem. If it's 200 million worse, that's just one more shovel of dirt on the big mess. So that situation, maybe not completely resolved, but the news is bad. The second one is just a couple of years ago in the 2025 session, the so-called tech tax, the idea of a half rate sales tax on business to business technology services was floated and passed, but without a particularly well-crafted, in my judgment, a well-crafted definition of what was gonna be subject to the tax. and I honestly remember on the floor of both the House and the Senate, various specific members would stand up and say, hold on, is this tax gonna apply to, let me ask you about this particular thing or that particular thing. The answer to every one of those questions seemed to be, no, that won't be taxed here. but somehow the state thought they were gonna find a half a billion dollars of revenue in business to business taxes paying a 3% tax rate. So this was like cloud storage and online cyber security and software as a service agreements and other things along those lines. Some of which I'm sure you can make an analogy that they are, comparable to going to Circuit City and buying software in a box on a CD and installing it. In any event, the revenue from that, instead of being to the tune of several hundred million dollars, looks like it's coming in at like 20 or 40. So the definitions may have been in practice way too narrow, or this may just be an area where the ability to elude, like these are all transactions happening in cyberspace, in the cloud, in transactions that maybe you have this be deliverable to your Virginia branch or to your Florida branch or your Tennessee branch or something along those lines. I don't think we have the full story on what's happening there, but you put these two together, and it's kind of like two swings and a miss at the idea of let's modernize the tax structure and have areas where we're growing and where there's a lot of activity make their contribution as well. It's harder to pin down than it's met the eye. So both of those are partially baked into the current forecasts. The latest news, just a couple of weeks old on the federal courts on the interstate advertising tax is another layer on top though. So we should know by October what the first picture looks like and I suspect the details will fall together sometimes, maybe middle of November sounds about right. We'll see the details shortly after the election. Somewhere in that ballpark. Along with, by the way, an analysis of how the blueprint is working and whether there might be areas where that needs to be ratcheted and clanked here or there.

Michael, of the $3 billion for 2028 projected at the bottom here, it says of the three billion 2.6 is blueprint roughly so I distinctly recall the governor at Mako saying we're gonna pump the brakes on blueprint can do we know what that means so the governor governor

In my judgment, to his credit, the governor tried to get ahead of this. And two years ago during the 25 session, came to the MAKO conference and said, I support the goals of the blueprint. I'm sure most of you do too. We're running into some affordability and we may need to make some tweaks. I don't want to get super deep, but the specific thing that he said was, we're having trouble filling all the teacher jobs we have today. one tenet of the blueprint was hire extra teachers so each teacher can spend more of her or his time out of the classroom with professional development and curriculum design and other things like that. And that'll make the profession more attractive and that's one of the goals of the blueprint. He said, maybe that's a piece that we should defer because we can't hire the, at the time the number was like 15,000 more public school teachers, we just can't hire them. So maybe that's a thing that rather than have that be a deliverable that happens in 26, 7, 8, 9, maybe we could have that be a 29, 31, 2 thing. We just push a couple of these things back a bit while we fill out the other pieces. The General Assembly initially said, forget it. And then finally buckled and said, we'll give you $0.30 on the dollar. We'll do a partial delay, but only a piece. And we'll give a little more flexibility to the school systems. But eventually, we want to get there on time. I think something along those lines almost has to be part of the solution ahead for this coming session. In my opinion, I think this is the year it all comes together. I think they bite the bullet and actually do raise taxes and raise some revenues. I think they'll go back and say some of the promises we've pledged, we just can't sustain them.

Raise taxes on what?

I don't have any idea. Everybody thinks it's gonna be the sales tax. I mean, that's the easiest thing to do is to say we tax effectively 6% on that pair of shoes or that restaurant meal. You make it seven, we would not be an outlier state if we had a sales tax of 7%. The states around us are mostly in that territory. A lot of them have local add-on sales taxes that turn into eight and a half or nine or 10 or whatever. Sales taxes are regressive. There will be a number of members of the legislature who don't like that as a matter of public policy, but a penny on the sales tax gets you a billion dollars cash. Not an elusive in the cyberspace, maybe if it happens, that's like a billion dollars of real stuff. So I don't know what it will look like. I think it's really hard to imagine this resolution not including some revenues and some spending cuts.

But he's increased the fees and taxes a billion dollars last year and the year before. And now we're talking about doing it again. So after the election, of course, is over. I know it's not you.

Right.

It's just frustration.

I mean, it's a perpetual tension in every state. There's the question about what level of services do you want to offer and provide and support, and then how do you find the means to do them? And there's a partisan debate there. There's a philosophical debate there. that debate is going to get connected to Maryland's affordability issues and if there's three or four billion dollars a year at stake and whether we're spending less or taxing more some folks will say well this is our opportunity to do something about affordability right here let's spend less other folks will say but you know but this service but this family but these kids I We've all seen that debate play out, small stage, large stage. It's gonna be full circle. What I hope though, is whatever the resolution is, that we don't have 27 be yet another year of kicking the can. Because they're awfully good at doing the bare minimum and saying, we'll come back in a couple of years and see maybe the deus ex machina, the hand from God and suddenly everything's fine. We grow our way out of it. So I think just do the thing. Tear off the Band-Aid. Get it done, whatever it is. And if we have to eat our lumps, just do it and get on. I don't love saying it that way.

And the challenge that passing down all those unfunded mandates to the counties, forcing the county elected officials to raise taxes to cover all those expenses that the state used to cover that we have to now cover, i.e. teachers' pensions, mandated salary increases. Passing the buck.

And where do you have to go? I've forgotten the exact arithmetic, but it's like 70% or 75% of Marylanders live in a county that is already at the 3.2 income tax ceiling. Now, they give us a tiny little sliver on top of that. But you don't have an income tax tool to really go raise revenue. It's going to be property taxes. Okay, you're worried about affordable housing and the idea is to go send the counties back to the drawing board to go raise property taxes and that's regressive and it lands right on renters. It lands right on the middle income. We don't have gradations in the property tax the way you do with income tax where everybody gets a personal deduction and then you start paying taxes later. You pay property tax on the first nickel of your property value. It's crazy policy. Half of the country is out there with ballot issues about limiting or cutting or eliminating property taxes because they're so unpopular, they're so regressive, and they're so anti-housing. And Maryland, in effect, is saying, we're going to shift the costs onto you all. You all just, you got one good tool, but that's a good one. Anyway.

So we don't usually have this much of a crowd when you come, so this is actually a great opportunity because I think there are, I didn't know before I was elected official, about MAKO and what MAKO does, so I'm glad that a lot of people could hear from you. And despite sort of the other than that Mrs. Lincoln speech that you gave us, I'd just like to point out for the people that are here about sort of what does get accomplished with MAKO. I mean there's challenges ahead, but what a great organization. for us to represent the issues of county. And so for anybody who is discouraged with the state of politics in DC or even Annapolis, I wish you could watch how the county representatives meet at MACO because it's not politics, there's a problem. How do we try to solve the problem? And we all really work together on community with MC and Jack was president of MACO. And we really are able to accomplish some great things from a perspective of county operations. We don't always win, sometimes we lose some big ones.

We fight really hard.

Yeah, but we fight really hard and we're down in Annapolis and we're testifying and when we're there on behalf of MACO, it's a very influential voice that we have. I would encourage more citizens to get down into Annapolis during the 90 days and let their voices be heard on things like, are we spending too much money on things? Are we overtaxing people? because there's only so much we can do at the local level.

will just tell you a story um several years ago we had a representative from frederick county who's not there anymore who said to me oh i will never run for local office because you guys everybody knows how you voted on every issue i like being in annapolis because nobody pays attention to what we're doing and i can vote however i want and my constituents never know and i thought oh i don't think i'd say that out loud But yeah, I get it. We fight. There was a time Jack and I were in a delegate's office and we were trying to discuss solar on farmland and at one point I thought I was going to have to jump between the two of them because Jack was passionate and this delegate was passionate and I'm thinking there's got to be a middle ground here somewhere but we're not going to reach it right now. so yeah we we try very very hard um and as you said um i am from a bluish purple county um and it doesn't matter whether you're from a conservative county or a liberal county or a moderate county we try and do what's best for the counties across the state yeah i think so

You had asked for good news. I want to spend 45 seconds giving you a tiny little silver lining story. We always talk about these big topics, and a lot of them are the rough ones and so forth. A really good win that we've earned over several years is we have way too many people who are stuck in a county jail where the place they need to be is in psychiatric care. And the state has not been able to do right by folks who ought to be in full-time psychiatric care. It's been a back and forth, finger pointing and so forth, but the state courts have held the Maryland Department of Health accountable for not providing the beds so we can get people out of local jails and into the care that they need. The answer is not to force the local jail to start doing psychiatric services. That's not the answer at all. It's for the state to prop up the beds. Now, cash is a problem. It's going to be a money issue and so forth, but the state is orienting in the correct direction rather than pointing their finger at us. It's back at themselves. That's the right direction on this issue. We have too many folks who have substance abuse problems and mental hygiene issues, and what they really need is care rather than being stuck in your jail or the Baltimore County Jail or the Frederick County Jail. So we're going in the right direction on that with a lot of work.

Well, thank you very much. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Safe travels. Thank you so much. Good luck with the rest of your agenda.

Thank you. Thank you. You don't have sewer problems in Frederick, huh?

Sewer and water?

No.

All right, commissioners, our next presenter is Miss Laura Reno, the executive director for Not My Child. So Laura, come on up, please. Yeah, all right.

All right. He's coming with me. All right. Thank you for your patience. We've been trying to get you on the agenda for quite a while. So thank you. Appreciate it.

Appreciate it.

So anybody unfamiliar with me, I'm Anthony Reno. 2017, I founded Not My Child. I now serve on the board as the president. What originally started off was educational, speaking at schools, speaking at venues, assisting families in need financially for cost of funerals, cremations, benches, treatment. We've moved completely in a different direction over the past several years, and we're actually proud of it, and I want to thank her for how this thing's grown. Our initiatives now are Choose Hope, Project Restart and Partners in the Workforce, and I'll let Laura elaborate on exactly what these programs do that we implemented that are helping so many people.

Thank you, and thank you for having us here today. Project Restart was initiated in 2022, and it has become a major focus of our work. The program helps individuals in recovery overcome barriers to education, training, and sustainable employment. In 2026 alone, we have supported more than 50 individuals through Project Restart. That support looks different for every person. Sometimes it's formal training or tuition assistance. Sometimes it's helping someone prepare for an interview, find employment, create a resume, advocate for themselves, navigate resources, or simply figure out what their next step should be. This year, 12 individuals completed forensic peer training, and eight completed certified peer recovery specialist training. We currently have one participant enrolled in community health worker training, two preparing to begin GED programming, and one enrolled in the marine technology skilled trades program at Chesapeake College. And he actually called me right before I left, and he was very excited. He just got a job in the marine tech industry. So that was very exciting. Those are more than training numbers to us. These are individuals in recovery gaining credentials, education, confidence, and pathways towards sustainable employment and long-term stability. Our next program is Choose Hope because substance doesn't only affect the individual, it affects the entire family. Our Choose Hope support groups are facilitated by licensed therapists providing families and loved ones with professional support from people who understand the complexities of substance use and recovery. We currently have two groups with approximately six regular participants. One is in Queen Anne's County and one is in Kent County. They're still in their growth stages but we're committed to building them into sustainable resources for families in our community. And beginning September 10th, we are expanding Choose Hope through a partnership with Compass Hospice with experienced grief support professionals providing workshops specifically for people grieving a substance use related loss. Our third program is Partners in the Workplace, and that focuses on employers. Recovery doesn't stop when someone gets a job. Employers need tools to better understand substance use and recovery, reduce stigma, recognize challenges, and create workplaces where employees in recovery, as well as their family members of those in recovery, have an opportunity to succeed. Partners in the Workplace is led by a licensed therapist who holds a PhD and specializes in addiction counseling, bringing professional expertise into practical conversations with employers. We introduced this initiative through a Lunch and Learn that drew more than 30 attendees and generated interest from several organizations. We have a scheduled workshop at the Kent County Library for early 2027, and the Kent County YMCA, Compass, and Chesapeake College have also expressed interest. We are now working to turn that interest into consistent employer programming through the midshore. We have also recently become a recovery-friendly workplace through the Maryland Department of Labor. We felt that that was important. If we're asking other employers to understand and support recovery in the workplace, we should model those practices ourselves, as a lot of our volunteers are either in recovery or have family that is in recovery or struggling with substance use. We also recently had the opportunity to present our Partners in the Workplace program to the Maryland Department of Labor for consideration to be among their stigma related stigma reduction initiatives and resources that they recommend through their recovery friendly workplace. For us, that was an important step towards potentially expanding the reach of this program beyond the employers we're able to connect with directly. I also think it's important to share how we were able to build all of this. Much of what Not My Child has accomplished has been made possible through our own fundraising events, community donations, sponsorships, and smaller grants that I've worked to identify and secure. Not My Child has applied to Queen Anne's County for funding on three occasions, and to date we have not received direct county funding. Despite that, we've continued to support and partner with county initiatives whenever possible, including using Not My Child resources to help fund training opportunities that benefited county employees when that training otherwise was not funded. I don't share that as a criticism, I share it because I think it demonstrates our commitment to this community and what we've been able to accomplish with limited resources. I would really like to see Queen Anne's County become an invested partner in this work. We are at a point organizationally, we've reached a place where our greatest barrier to making a larger impact isn't the lack of need, ideas, or partnership, it's capacity. We have individuals reaching out for help. We have organizations interested in our programs. We have employers and community partners who want to work with us. But right now, the fundraising, the grant writing, program development, administration, marketing, partnership development, and much of the day-to-day coordination still runs through me. We're intentionally working to build Not My Child's infrastructure, such as additional staff, stronger systems, dedicated program space, better data and outcome tracking, and diversified funding. So our ability to serve people isn't dependent on how many hours one person can fit into a day. We've proven that the programs can work. Now we're trying to build the organization that can sustain and expand them. So tonight, we're not simply asking the county for general operating support. We'd like to offer two very specific ways that Queen Anne's County could invest directly in recovery and workforce development in our community. Our first request is 8500 to bring certified peer recovery specialist training to Queen Anne's County. Earlier this year, Kent County opioid restitution funds allowed us to provide the certified peer recovery support training in Chestertown where eight individuals completed the program. We've already demonstrated that we can identify the participants, coordinate the training, and help individuals take the next steps towards certification, education, and employment. We would now like to bring that same opportunity to Queen Anne's County. An investment of approximately $8,500 would allow us to provide a CPRS training opportunity here in the county. Our second opportunity is Partners in the Workplace. Kent County Opioid Restitution Funds are also supporting our ability to provide these professionally facilitated workshops to Kent County employers at no cost. We currently do not have comparable funding to offer that same programming in Queen Anne's County. Facilitator costs are approximately $400 per workshop, so an investment of $4,000 would allow us to provide approximately 10 partners in the workplace workshops to Queen Anne's County employers at no cost to the participating businesses. In both cases, these are programs that we're already implementing with the support from the opioid restitution funds in a neighboring county. We would welcome the opportunity to bring that same investment and those same resources to Queen Anne's County. We would be grateful for the county's consideration of either investment. Before I close, I wanted to appreciate the commissioner's assistance in obtaining some clarity regarding the Queen Anne's County Opioid Restitution Fund process. Not My Child's proposed work was included in the county's local abatement plan last year, and I've been trying since the beginning of this year to understand the funding process and the next steps. I was advised that my inquiry was being forwarded for follow-up, but unfortunately I have not received further information. I'm not raising, again, I'm not raising that tonight to criticize the process. I simply want to make sure that I understand how to appropriately pursue these funds so we have an opportunity to be considered for funding that could directly support Queen Anne's County residents. If someone could help me with the appropriate person and clarify that process, I'd greatly appreciate it. Not My Child has changed tremendously since we began in 2017, but our reason for this work hasn't changed. Anthony Junior's story started Not My Child, and today, every person that we help write a chapter in their own story is part of his legacy. We've shown that Not My Child can accomplish, we've shown what Not My Child can accomplish with limited resources, strong partnerships, and a community that believes in our work. We're not asking Queen Anne's County to build something for us, we've built it. We're asking the county to invest alongside us so that together we can bring more of an impact home to Queen Anne's County. Thank you.

Thank you.

And I just wanted to add something to it. It really works because she was talking about numbers for this year, 50 people going through Project Restart, which was 50 people. Last year we had 24 that we worked with in Talbot County. It works. there's a strain on employers right now trying to find trying to find employees nobody wants to work and we're seeing that across the board you know i have friends that have restaurants they can't find work these people that are in recovery they want to work they want to change their lives and instead of the you know vicious circle the halfway houses they go back to same people we're trying to we're breaking that that that circle chain and it's it's working like we got this young man he just got a job today as a boat he's in the boat mechanic classes down at the college for the yamaha has a beautiful establishment down there and today he just got a job last year we had a nurse graduate through the nursing program at Chesapeake College she's at an operating room checking an analyst I mean it's working so we went there's proof you know there's proof that the systems that we got in place and there are people that really need it and it's just a costly thing to help them so

Yeah. Thank you so much. I do have these for you guys. Yes, thank you. I know you have one, but I added a couple things.

Perfect. All right. Yeah, thank you. And you said the grant process has a- But I appreciate y'all's time. Thanks.

Y'all have any questions?

Thank you. No. All right.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Laura. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

All right, Commissioners, we had the action items scheduled next, but we can move into the legislation portion of the meeting since the hearings are scheduled and we're at the appropriate time. Do you want to do the public hearings next? All right. Okay, so if you wanna turn to tab number seven, tab seven, item one, we have public hearing for the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Fund easements. So Mr. Joe Pippin, you wanna come on up? This is a public hearing to receive public comment on the submission of 11 new agricultural land preservation easement applications on the lands listed and detailed in the book there, and Joe's gonna review those. All these applications have received favorable recommendations from the local agricultural advisory board. So, Joe, take it away, please.

All right. My name is Joe Pittman, Queens County Soil Conservation District. We're here tonight for a public hearing for submission of applications to the mouth board. These are just applications. These are not offers. OK, so these are just submissions to for the farms to be appraised. What I normally do is just read off of the notice here, and then we'll do public comment at the end. All right, notice of hearing pursuant of Agriculture Article Section 2-404, this is control, a noted code of Maryland, the county commissioners of Queen Anne's County will hold a public hearing August 25th, today, 6.30 p.m., Cannon Library. 200 Library Circle, Stevensville, Maryland 21666. The hearing is held to receive public comments on the establishment of agriculture preservation easement applications on the lands owned by the following petitioners. As follows, Eldridge P. Cronchall Jr. and Linda M. Truman Cronchall, 6th election district, tax map 37, parcel nine, 105.824 acres. James Allen Smith Jr., Third Election District, tax map 61, parcel eight, 187.689 acres. James W. Merican and Darlene E. Merican, Third Election District, tax map 68, parcel nine, 57.04 acres. John Wilson Clow Jr. and Justin Clow, Second Election District, tax map 30, parcel 147, 41.912 acres. Ligger Brothers LLC, first election district, tax map 12 and 18, parcel 130 and 97, totaling 153.143 acres. Michael A. and Melinda G. Lezanowski, first election district, tax map 18, parcel 35, 161.51 acres. Michael R. Bostick Jr., second election district, tax map 30, parcel 19, 266.927 acres. Sylvester Farms Incorporated, second election district, tax map 30, parcel 19, 266.927 acres. 266.927, or sorry, 235.95 acres. Thomas A. Jackson, First Election District Tax Map A, parcel six, 273.015 acres. Thomas R. Liger Sr. and Betsy Rhodes Liger, first election district tax map 18 parcel 3 131.408 acres and lastly edward cronchall and carolyn lee wallace trust trustee first election district tax map 18 parcel 32 112 acres again as todd said these be this has been given a favorable recommendation from our ag preservation advisory board Anyone can please direct their comments to myself. All sites that are accessible to individuals with disabilities, sign language interpreters, and assistant listening systems will be available for individuals with hearing impairments. Please contact Human Services at 410-758-4406 or TDD, 410-758-2126, seven days before the hearing, if needed. You got a motion?

We've got somebody signed up to be here.

I have one comment here, Jay Falstad.

There you go. I just wanted to add my support commissioners. Jay Falstad, Queen Anne's Conservation Association. This is a tremendous list. I just quickly added it up. It's 1,600 acres added to our land preservation program. For the benefit of the public that don't know about this, the Maryland Ag Land Preservation Fund is a fund that everybody pays into when they have a property transfer. It is a land preservation success story of the highest order. It's been recognized nationally. Queen Anne's County is the beneficiary of this in a big way because we're one of the leaders in the entire state and more land has been preserved in Queen Anne's County uh i think than any other county we're either number one or number two the reason this is so important is twofold uh one the county is one of the largest grain produce is the largest grain producing county in the state and so having all this land and preservation uh allows for that segment of our economy to continue and one thing that always gets overlooked but the reason that i'm a big fan of this is because when you look at a lot of our farms around the county We imagine this as just farmland. But what's not always looked at as part of this equation is the amount of woodland that is part of each farm. And so I've surveyed a lot of our farmers in the county, and some of them have as much as 50% of their property in woodland. And the reason that that's important is because that woodland harbors all kinds of wildlife, insect life, amphibians, the stuff that we ultimately need to protect to keep our planet healthy. And so this is a great program. Commissioners, I urge you to support it. Support all these landowners that have applied. There's no downside in doing so.

yeah let's stay as the leader in the whole state for our land preservation efforts thank you anybody else want to speak in favor of land preservation because i know people say they care about it but okay how about a motion i move to approve the 11 new mouth properties for easement application to be submitted to the mouth board of trustees for approval and appraisal second we have a motion in a second any discussion

We're very proud of this program. Joe, you're doing a great job. Thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate it. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? So moved.

Well, so when would we know when these applications have been approved or accepted?

So they'll get appraised. Appraisal is the second part of the ranking system because they want the best bang for their buck. We have to wait for after the legislative session in the spring, see exactly what our budget is. Hopefully, you know, the budget stays the same as 25 and 26. That'd be nice. So we'll see. next spring. Thanks Joe.

Our commissioners are second public hearing is for a Providence farm. This is a public hearing for the comprehensive water and sewage plan amendment number 11 a dash 28 for the province for an application in the town of Centerville. So Mister Pat Thompson can come up and this is you appreciate the hearing Mister Quimby is also here for any questions. This was the subject of our informational meeting 2 weeks ago. Liberty building in Centerville so Mister Thompson please.

Thank you to the this is a public hearing being held by the County Commission of Queen Anne's County 6.35 PM Tuesday August 25th 2026 in the kid on library 200 library circle Stevens to Maryland. The purpose of the hearing is to consider an amendment to the Queen Anne's County 2011 comprehensive water and sewage plan In addition to this hearing, an informational presentation was given on 8.40 a.m. on Tuesday, August 11th at the County Commissioner's Meeting Room in Centerville. The proposed amendment relates to the Providence Farm property. This property was recently annexed into the town of Centerville. It is predominantly agricultural land located between John Andrews Boulevard and Rolling Bridge Road on Roosburg Road, Maryland Route 304, across from the county high school. Excuse me. The property is shown on the tax map 44F as parcel 60. It's approximately 279 acres in size, and it's currently zoned agricultural. It would be zoned... by the town as traditional neighborhood development. The proposal is to amend the property from S6W6, no plan service, to S3W3, future service and recognition of its annexation. A future amendment to S2W2 will be required, which will provide ultimate development and propose the particulars. Copies of the amendments have been available to county commissioners. Office 107 North Liberty Street, Central Maryland, or could have been maybe obtained electronically by sending a request to acrimbyqac.org. All hearing sites are accessible to individuals with disabilities. Sign language interpreters and assistive listening systems are available. Persons who wish to comment on the proposed amendment may do so at this hearing. Speakers are limited to three minutes each. Written testimony of any length may be submitted before the hearing. The Director of Public Works, Safety Drive, Senator Hall. Part of the record of the proceeding will be a separate publication indicated notice was published for two successive weeks in the Bay Times Record Observer, um, newspapers of general circulation in Queen Anne's County. Um, speakers, I have signed up for first Joe Stevens.

Thank you, Commissioners. Good evening. I'm Joe Stevens. I represent Providence at Centerville LLC, the owners of the Providence property. And I'd just like to take a minute to put the request before you into context. This is for an amendment to the Master Water and Sewer Plan, which will provide for an S3W3 designation. That's a three to ten year planning period. This is not an amendment to provide sewer to the property. We'll have to be back before you once that time becomes appropriate. We'll have to go through a planning process at the town level and provide what's known as a regulating plan to the town, which includes a comprehensive array of information and studies. And then when that's done and we're prepared to come back, we would come back before you and ask for an S2W2 designation. And then you would have an opportunity to evaluate it again at that time. The important thing about that designation, or the designation now, is it's just really the first step in a very long and complicated regulatory process. The property has been in the joint town and county comprehensive plans to be annexed and then for plan development for over 30 years. And so this is, if I look at it this way, this is like the latter part of the middle of probably a 45 year period of time in order for this to be developed. The county has adopted plan after plan now over the recent years which limits growth on areas like Kent Island because of sewer capacity issues. and indicates that it should be within the municipalities that have capacity, not just from a sewer and water standpoint, but are the towns. That's where you want your growth to be. Again, a first step in doing all that. So I would ask that you act favorably on this proposal, doesn't grant development approval. Again, we'll have to be back before you. But it is consistent with each and every comprehensive plan that you've done over the past 30 years, as well as the town's comprehensive plan. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Next, Peter Flint.

Good evening. I'm Peter Flint. I'm the zoning administrator for the town of Centerville. I kind of just want to echo what Mr. Stevens said. From the town's planning perspective, this amendment is consistent with both the town's comprehensive plan and the broader policy of directing growth into the towns where they can be served by public infrastructure. Again, Providence Farm has long been part of Centerville's future growth framework. And the property has been annexed in the town. So they're pressing for you tonight. It's an important planning step. I really want to go through that. This is a planning step, right? We've been 30, as Mr. Stevens said, we're 30 plus years into a planning process with this property. So again, moving it moves it into the more immediate planning future. There's a bunch of other things happening with Providence at the same time. This amendment is not approval of development at Providence, even at a preliminary level. They will still have to come before the planning commission and complete, again, the regulating plan, all the things, you know, public comments can be part of all of those processes in the future. And they'd have to come back for S2W2 when those development projects or development plans get more defined. A little bit about the town and the town sewer. So the town is actively advancing our wastewater treatment plant. The town manager unfortunately couldn't be here tonight to tell you about that, but I'll give you just a little bit of what I know about it. So we've reached the 60% design mark of that project. We expect to get the 95% design by the end of November, and then that would go into the MDE review process. And through the MDE review process, after it comes out of that, however long that takes, then we'd be going to look to go to RFP after that process. And I believe the construction end date is like 2031 timeframe, the end of construction. So at the same time, we're carefully managing the capacity that remains in the existing system. In 2025, the Town Council adopted Resolution 12-2025, Amendment to the Water and Sewer Allocation Policy, which recognizes that the remaining capacity is limited and establishes a controlled annual allocation process. This is not unusual for any town in a similar situation to us. The policy also reflects the town's broader planning priorities by directing limited capacity towards infill, economic development, and well-designed residential projects and housing opportunities at varied price points, including affordable housing. You know, the limited allocation policy that the town council has come up with, and the town council is the only group that can actually, you know, approve an allocation. So when people come for any providence or any other infill development today, that's what the town council's looking at. They're looking at... Oh, OK. So Providence gives the town an opportunity to accommodate our future housing needs. And it's been a long planned thing. So for these reasons, we support the amendment and look forward to the final decision. Thanks.

Thank you. This all is signed up. Any other public comment?

We do have one email.

OK. Yeah, public comment. OK.

Hi, Sharon Van Emberg. I'm the town attorney for Centerville. As mentioned already, Centerville does support the request that's before you. I'd like to briefly address the zoning for the property because that is an important consideration as you consider comprehensive water and sewer plan amendments, and then you also have a zoning waiver before you as well. The property is zoned traditional neighborhood district, so the town adopted its current comprehensive plan in 2023. and then began the process of implementing it and did a complete update to its traditional neighborhood zoning district which completed in 2025 and hopefully the update to that district which was substantial ensures that there's a diversity of housing and lot sizes that the road network and the open space and parks and it all works together As Mr. Stevens and I believe Mr. Flint mentioned, there's a regulating plan, which will be a detailed document setting forth the density, the uses, the patterns that can be on this property. So this is the next step in the process is what's before you, but there is a lot more process to come. We've gotta go through the drafting and approval of the regulating plan, which will be the first time we've had one. So I'm sure that's gonna take many months to accomplish. Then we'll also negotiate and draft a DRA and a public works agreement. There will be the subdivision review process. As mentioned, the master comprehensive water and sewer plan will need to come back before you for W2S2. So you're on the next step in the process, but there's many, many months more of process. So we just want to keep this moving so that we can continue to evaluate this project and start the next steps. But there are a lot more steps to come. So we ask your support for this. Thank you.

Thank you.

Four weeks.

Any other public comments?

All right, we had one email come in. This is from Frank DiGiliano, the president of the Corsica River Conservancy. Commissioners, the proposed Providence Farm development is a very significant one for Centerville, for the Corsica River watershed in which it resides, and for the surrounding county area as well. The fact that annexation and eventual development of this acreage has been in comprehensive plans for some time should not detract from the significance of the proposal before you to now incorporate it into the County Water and Sewer Master Plan. The projected total of 910 residences of this development will be larger than any combination of the two largest developments in the town's history, Northbrook and Symphony Village. The timing of this proposal would occur simultaneously with the end of the useful life of the town's current wastewater treatment plant, or the WWTP, and the design, as well as the permitting and funding of a new WWTP replacement. So the infrastructure context for incorporating this large development into the master plan has more than the usual set of risks and unknowns. This makes your decision all the more significant and worthy of very careful forethought. Our Conservancy has previously commented to you about our concerns that constraints on development elsewhere related to the recent moratorium could bring major impacts from rapid development in the Centerville area. This expansion could bring harmful effects to the health of the watershed that are not being adequately anticipated. Development in this highly sensitive environment needs to be counterbalanced by extraordinary caution and measures that preserve in water quality safety and the integrity of the watershed. the plan for the Corsica restoration to which the town and county and state were direct partners formally began in 2005. This date was not far removed from the major failure of the town's old WWTP that severely polluted the Corsica River and streams. Now that plant that replaced and the failing one is at the end of its useful life. Despite the best efforts of the town's public work staff, it's showing its age. There have been an increasing number of operational violations. Replacement parts must be sought on the secondary market. It has been increasingly difficult for the plant to maintain previous levels of nutrient reduction efficiency. Just this month, there was a significant spillage due to a blocked pipe near the plant. The Providence Farm proposal appears to include a phase one within the next three years, that is before the new WWTP comes online. If so, there's an expectation it would use remaining capacity of this current plant. Meanwhile, the town seems to have carefully considered a plan for conserving any remaining capacity. We believe that given the increasing strengths in the current plant, even more caution should be exercised in making assumptions about using remaining capacity for new non-infill development that might exacerbate operational integrity and risk of malfunction. Going forward from that, more eminent focus, the county should carefully review the status of the project to design and develop new replacement plan before making any decision on this proposal. When the town requested the plan be incorporated into the water and sewer master plan, the commissioners rightfully denied approval of the proposed discharge into the Corsica River pending more information about potential impact on the river. That analysis and decision is yet to be made. Thus, we believe it would be premature to incorporate the Providence Farm development into the water and sewer plan since it would depend on a new plan for which full design, approval, permitting, and funding is still far off. Unlike the county, Centerville does not have adequate public facilities ordinances. That would help ensure that the large development like Providence Farm adequately provides a stream of funding to fully support the incidental and ongoing infrastructure cost of both the town and county. Recent problems with municipal water and sewer plants in the area should be caused for careful due diligence. Beyond these usual impact costs, CRC believes that there should be an explicit identification of the potential environmental impacts on the Corsica watershed and measures included in the development to offset them. This should be a concern of both the town and county, as well as giving past commitments to the restoration and continued health of the Corsica watershed. Thank you for this opportunity to comment.

Thank you.

We had other 2 other comments come in through email one from ginger Cushing of Centerville. My name is ginger Cushing of the several Maryland writing regarding the proposed amendment to the county's comprehensive water source plan on the agenda, August 25th, I'm asking the commissioners to not to act on this amendment yet. It is premature. The county needs more time to consider other options before making a change of this magnitude. The amendment before you would change the plans designation language from no service to future service for the affected areas. That is not a small wording change. Changing that language opens the door to development pressures across every parcel the designation touches, not just the ones where a real demonstrated need exists today. As an alternative to comprehensive amendment, a property owner who wants to develop a specific piece of land may request service for that parcel. evaluated on its own facts infrastructure capacity environmental impact cost to extend service and the in fact on the effect on the surrounding community since the individual petition process is available then i don't understand the case for rewriting the plans language for every property at once why change the wording for everything when the tool to address individual cases already exists i would respectfully ask that the commissioner's table this amendment tonight and take time to compare the blanket change approach against keeping the existing case-by-case petition system before any vote is taken. And the third one, which I do not have with me, is from Mr. Callahan of Callahan's Gas. He was just stating that he was a longtime resident of the town, many generations, and he felt that the development would be good for the town, so he was supportive of it.

I got that email, too. I got that one, as well. We're keeping it open, right?

Yeah, we're going to leave the record open for four weeks. We won't vote on this until September 21st.

All right.

Okay. All right, Commissioners, our next public hearing is for the Southern Kent Island Sanitary Project Phase 3. This is a public hearing for the Kentmore and Quinian Colony Subdivision Existing Home Special Benefit Assessment Phase 3 of the project. There is a presentation in your books. Tab 7 page 40 through 47. It's up on the screen here. So Mr. Quimby is going to run through this presentation quickly and then we'll receive any public comment from folks in this particular service area of our South Carolina project.

all right um this is a public hearing being held by the county commissioner of queen anne's county 6 45 pm tuesday august 25th 2026 at the kid island library 200 library circle stevensville maryland purpose of the hearing is to fix the amount of the sewer benefit assessment levy pursuant to section 24-29 of the Code of Public Local Laws of Queen Anne's County within the Southern Ken Island Wastewater Sub-District Phase 3, Queen Anne Colony and Kentmore Subdivisions. The proposed benefit assessment was to be effective October 1st, 2026 for Class A property existing improved properties as of May 27th, 2014 within the sewer service area. It's $15,220, which consists of a base cost of $2,320 and the septic tank effluent pump cost of $12,900. The sum of the base cost and the step cost may be financed over a 20-year period at 1%. Definition of the classes of properties are contained in Resolution 1407 adopted by the County Commission on May 27, 2014, as amended August 28, 2018. Pre-payments on the assessment without penalty will be allowed. However, the assessment balance will not be re-amortized. Only the term of the assessment will be reduced. Information concerning the benefit assessment and repayment options have been sent by a certified mail to all affected Class A property owners. First, I wish to comment on the proposed amendment, the proposed rate levy. They do so at the hearing. Speakers are limited to three minutes each. Written testimony of any length may be submitted before the hearing date to the Director of Public Works. Testimony can also be accomplished remotely by email. and audio and that information was published. All hearing sites are accessible to individuals with disability. Sign language interpreters and assistive listening devices are available. Part of the record of the proceeding will be a certificate of publication indicating that notice of tonight's hearing was published for two successive weeks prior to the night in the Baytown Record and Server.

All right, Mister school go through a brief PowerPoint most of you seen this before and actually this is the 7th benefit of system here and we've held for ski only have one more to go after tonight. This is for phase 3 Kent more Queen and college subdivision. Overall project 1518 existing septic system serving homes many of which have failed. Again phase 3 is Queen and Connie and kept more 340 existing but also includes 2 marinas and 2 restaurants which is fairly unique for ski. This is the 4 phases again phase 3 you can see on the left side we slipped a couple years on our schedule, but we had some issues with covid and other things but all I think we're pretty good on schedule. As of tonight, 94% of the properties are connected as a job 31st, I should say all be connected by October 1st. Properties to receive a certified letter, although some did not go through as they never do. Original target charge $100 per month is maintained. Suspend amount is two components, the base fee of $23.20, which basically pays for the pipes in the street. The septic tank pump system in the yard is $12,900 for a total of $15,220. First billing will occur October 1st, 2026. The assessment is transferable at the property you're sold, and I would like to say there was something on Facebook about somebody who was forced to pay it off, and that might have been the buyer's condition. It wasn't a county issue, and we talked to two tighter companies, and they've never seen it before, so whatever happened there had nothing to do with us. Orderly fees, a base fee of $33. The step fee is $177. O&M of 90 equals $300. Dollars a quarter as was agreed to 10 years ago. There's a word from the start Democrat and you're 12 years ago. And at the end of the presentation to other to cover all the tidbits all the planes completed all of the ski area. Phase 4 is steps are now being installed this started in May I think. The final tally of all the vacant lots throughout ski is an even 500. By the end of July, 85% of the improved properties in all the ski have been connected. And we anticipate all the ski project being complete by the end of 2027.

I don't have anyone signed up. Is there any public comment?

Yes. Yes, sir. Do I just stand up?

No, come up here. Come up to the mic. Up to the mic.

Please state your name and your address. Keith Hutchins, and I am actually on behalf here for my mother, which is in Queen Anne's County, High Road. She is paying $90 a month, or a quarter. And from what I'm reading and understanding, that this is gonna be $90 plus 210, which is basically $300 a quarter. And when you're set on a fixed income, How do you make those type of jumps for people her age? Is that what's actually happening? Will she be going to 300 hours a month or a quarter, I should say? That was the reason for me coming up here to get this clarified. That's it.

There is financial assistance available. There's the lady you need to talk to. It was in the letter that your mother got. OK.

Why is it jumping? I mean, is this already in the...

The $90 simply is the O&M fee. That's the utility fee. Okay. The assessment renders the cost of the capital improvements for the entire system. So as soon as some house is connected, they start getting the $90 per quarter fee. Okay. Tonight is when the extra $210 happens.

Okay. So that's not something that's negotiable. It needs to be. It's done. If the commissioners adopt the levity assessment, it'll be done. I just think you're going to hurt a lot of senior citizens that are on fixed income.

That's why there is a program to help them.

So talk with her about the program for helping. But you know how programs work. Even though my mother still works a full-time job at 83 years of age to be able to put food on her table, if you're sitting at a certain income, I'm sorry, we can't help you. And that's what normally happens.

I would say talk to her first to find out if that's the case, whether or not it qualifies. And if it doesn't, call one of the commissioners. It will be happening after that. But I would say your first step, talk with her.

OK, thank you. Is there any other public comment? One more

Forgive me but I'm Derek Williams I live in Chester I have great sympathy for our neighbor and I am worried now because I heard a comment about whether or not we can prove that the person qualifies and so I would like to make I guess I have a question of what was the process for determining who qualifies for this and is it something we need to decide tonight then if it's something that's possibly not been properly advertised to the community who might need it most? I guess the clarification is if this goes through tonight and they didn't ask for help yet, are they too late?

we don't believe so no yeah no the those who qualify for financial assistance that they're not foreclosed today that's why we have their name is provided in the letter that's provided out and so they can apply for it somebody could move into a house down the road and perhaps apply for financial assistance if they if they meet it today is just so the project goes forward but as far as notice like this project goes back Ten years, more than a decade. We got tens of millions of dollars in grant funding from EPA in order to reduce the cost further. So this is sort of just a step in the process for that overarching plan that has been talked about exhaustively well before I was a commissioner.

Any other public comment?

All right, we'll leave it open for two weeks. All right, thank you.

Okay, commissioners, we have one last item for the legislation tonight on the agenda. Item number four in your books, pages 48 through 54. This is county ordinance number 2614 for the cottage industry. And this was an identified need within the county. The commissioner has identified this need to allow for cottage industries in the ag district as a means to foster and provide business growth and development on these ag parcels with a minimum acreage of five acres. So this can be introduced and set for a public hearing.

I'll introduce 2614. All right, great.

Okay. All right. That concludes all of the legislation for this evening. We can now move to the Department of Public Works. So that would be tab two. We have two items for the Sanitary Commission. So if you want to convene as the Sanitary Commission.

Take a motion we convene as the Sanitation Commission. Second. All in favor? Aye.

Okay, Commissioners, tab two, item one, pages one through four. This is a follow-up from our last meeting. This is the Chesterhaven Beach Subdivision Public Works Agreement Amendment number three. As we discussed last meeting, they are requesting 48 additional months to initiate their construction project, which would delay their time to actually break ground until September 10th, 2030. All other provisions of the PWA and amendments number one and two remain in full force and effect. So this was approved essentially last meeting.

I move to execute the Public Works Agreement Amendment number three with Chester Haven Beach Partnership, which will grant the development an additional 48 months to begin construction. I'll second that. We have a motion and a second. Any other discussion?

Yeah, if I can. Yes, please. Because we've gotten some people who have reached out about this email to the public comment about not a lot of discussion when it was up last time. And I'll just sort of admit, I didn't think it was going to spark a lot of conversation because it was very similar to a vote that was done two years ago, Alan, I think, last time we extended. Last time we extended it. And I'll just sort of give sort of my rationale. I voted against the prior vote for putting Chesterhaven into the growth area. I would vote against it again today if there was a vote on it. But I voted for the amendment and this time and last time and the way I view that is the developer has put up a nonrefundable deposit on that. The amendment just extends a period of time. It maintains the status quo. It does not give the developer any rights that they didn't have the day before the vote. And so the whatever regulations they still have to go through in order to get approved they still got to do that it doesn't short-circuit that um there are i think this is one of those policy decisions that we have to make where i frankly think there's valid positions whether you're for or against it um but You know, we have comments we hear like, oh, well, if you voted to extend it, you don't care about the world. That's just stupid. I mean, frankly, I mean, you have the right to say whatever you want, but that's just stupid. It really is. And we get emails from people saying things like, oh, well, you know, you must be lying in your pockets. I mean, seriously? And you say that on social media. My mom reads that. My daughter reads that like. Go F yourself, seriously, with that kind of stuff. I have no patience for that kind of nonsense. We should be able to have policy discussions and disagree on policy discussions without it being that, oh, if somebody doesn't agree with me on a policy discussion, the only possible way is they must be on the take. They must be corrupt. How narcissistic is that? The only way I can agree with you is if I'm not corrupt. And I just... We it's all the frickin time that we deal with that stuff and it's it's immaturity and then We wonder why in our schools kids teach each other to each other the way they do Because you the adults are setting the example like learn how to disagree and be civil about it. It's just that So anyway, I voted for the amendment. I'm not for the development, but I don't think there's anything unfair about that but the negativity about it and the way people approach it just really irritates me a lot. So, sorry, I wanted to get that out.

I hear you, I hear you. A little bit early, sorry, but... Well, I mean, again, you know, I think that we have an obligation. We are a county and a nation of laws, and I'd like to see, once and for all, if these are lots of record. I mean, that's the whole purpose of why I voted for it is because if they're not lots of record, it's over. If there are lots of record, there's going to be avenues for both sides to take, and so be it. You know, Queen Anne's County is... We get sued every now and again, and it doesn't bother me. It bothers me when we have to spend that money, but it doesn't bother me from the standpoint of let the courts decide who's right. And if Partier's the winner and the courts agree with them, I have no disdain about paying them or whatever the situation may be. You know, that's my reason. I mean, we have an individual that, you know, has been paying for, I don't know, a dozen years. How many years has he been paying for the sewer? Fifteen.

Well, he's got a dwelling on the property that he's had for probably 15 years, and they bought two allocations outright in 2010 that he's been paying on, and then he's paid the $315,000 deposit.

Yeah. So, you know, and we have our own, you know, rest his soul attorney that said these are lots of records. So that's what I want to see, and, you know, I'm sorry it's got to come to that, but, you know, I think it's, you know, we have to be impartial, you know, and I think that's being fair. Let it run its course through the courts, just like some of these other developments have, and the outcome will dictate where it goes.

May I ask a question?

No, sir. Sorry.

So my position on it is similar to what Jim said. We had our land use attorney, I mean our planning and zoning attorney, and we had our county attorney both share with the commissioners, the sitting commissioners, that these were, in fact, lots of record. So to me, legal counsel has advised us. So at this point, I'd like to see the courts decide legally if they are in fact lots of record.

There you go. Any other discussion?

No, sir, there's at the end of the meeting, we do have public comment. You have a chance to public comment. But if you actually want to actually back and forth conversation, I'll stay. Others will stay. We'll talk to you after the meeting as well.

OK, well, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Aye.

Can I just say something to Commissioner's point? Obviously, I just voted against it. He voted for it. I concur with everything he said. I'm getting pissed off about the crap that's going out on Facebook attacking us and trying to divide us as a government. And it's inappropriate. And all the things that he just brought up is just a bunch of bullshit. Easy. And it's inappropriate for these no growth, save the world people to start trashing my counterparts. So I'm asking them to stop. Have a debate, but stop with the personal crap.

all right well moving on all right our second item for the sanitary commission tonight is uh the queen anne's colony marina public works agreement and this is a public works agreement to connect the existing queen anne colony restaurant and marina to the sewer this is also phase three of the southern canal sanitary project 3 653 gallons of sewer

I move to execute the public works agreement with Queen Anne's Colony Marina LLC to allow them to connect to the county sewer. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? So moved.

Thank You commissioners now we can move to the action items for this evening Thank You mr. Quimby so now you've if you don't mind flipping to tab number three so tab three item one Pages one through three. This is a Board of Education transfers between major state categories. And this is essentially the Board of Education's budget amendment for the end of FY26. They're just moving some funds around between major state categories to balance the overall budget overall for the FY26 closeout.

I move to approve the Queens County Board of Education transfer between major state categories. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? So moved.

Thank you, Commissioners. Item 2, pages 4 through 6. This is the certification for cooperative local state library aid for FY27. So in order to be eligible for our state share, we have to match... Providing con match the state contribution was 228 359 220,000 and the county contribution was 3.26 million.

So we've met that threshold by a long shot Execute the FY 2027 certification for cooperative local state library aid programs for Queen Anne's County Library Second motion second any discussion?

I'll kick the coverage on that

seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye opposed so moved all right thank you commissioners item three on page seven is budget amendment number cc2 for the board of education and this amendment increases the fy27 budget authority for the board of education teachers unfunded liability by 173 425 dollars and we anticipated this as a result of the state cost shifts from last year. We didn't quite hit the estimate on target, so we have to provide an additional 178,425 for FY27 to meet that objective.

I make a motion to approve budget amendment CC-2. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.

Opposed? So moved. Thank you, Commissioners. So we have two desk items. Desk item one is the emergency capital procurement for the HVAC systems and a letter of intent for Chesapeake College. And this is for the Maryland Higher Education Commission that the advising them the county intends to provide our local cost share of funds to design and construct the HVAC replacement project at Chesapeake College in the TPAC Center so the system is 32 years old and I know the college folks are here if they have any questions for them, but our share would be $192,546 in FY28. They have applied for some grant funding. Hopefully we'll get that grant funding to supplant the project and move it forward.

I move to execute a letter of intent committing $192,546 in local funds towards the Church's Peak College Economic Development Center's building HVAC system. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? You want to say anything? I'm impressed that Cliff stood here this long.

He must really want the money. It is $192,000. That's what they got around for, right?

That's right. Can we talk about the technology building?

Sure. Yeah, sure.

keep it a little longer. It has nothing to do with HVAC and the other building.

I want to talk about that. You've both been waiting patiently. Might as well have an opportunity to speak.

Let's do his vote first before we forget.

Okay.

What are you saying? Motion to second. Any discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? So moved.

all right let's do one more thing for the college first then we can then we can so item five is their revised fy 27 budget amendment so this is desk item number two um this is a budget amendment that they need all five counties to agree on no additional funding they just move some money around so they can provide an additional increase in salaries for the staff and administration at the college i move to approve chesapeake college's revised fy 2027 operating budget amended amendment as presented

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? So moved. Now fire away.

So what can I help you with on the tech building?

Tell the audience.

Well, we're really excited. Of course, Milton's in the middle of all of it right now. We have started the design process. We're currently developing schematics. We just shared a packet with all the counties, giving them an update on where we're at with some really nice renderings of what the building's going to look like when it's done. Design goes for another six months. We hope to break ground early next year. And with completion late summer, probably into early part of 2029. But our construction manager tells us they might have it done for fall 2028 occupation. We'll see. Under promise of a deliver. Yes, yes. So we're really excited about the project. It's making progress for all of us. It started with this when I got here eight years ago. It's a miracle. And it's really going to be a really nice addition to campus. And really, it's going to be a 30-year investment in the Eastern Shore for skilled trades. Do you want to add anything?

I like the ambitious timeline, but we're going to have to be cognizant of the state funding schedule and their ability to fund the project. Their line shares 75% of the project, so depending on how quickly we can get the state money, certainly a major capital project, the shorter the timeline, typically contractors like that. They like to compress it as much as possible, but I still think... 16 to 18 months construction is a legitimate time frame. Weather's going to play a big part in it and timing of when we go out to bid. It's a construction management at risk project with Bart Mallow as the CMR and we're optimistic. Just had a meeting with them today. about their outreach right now and they're already outreaching to trade pack you know contractors and and we certainly are cognizant of wanting to engage contractors here on the shore to the extent possible um so uh to the you know at appropriate time we're certainly going to outreach to existing contractors that not only the college has dealt with but our participating school districts that have that are capable of doing state jobs state works because it is a different than hiring a local contractor that's never done a state project because of the paperwork and the state prevailing wage rates that they have to pay and so it's and it's a much more complex project than a commercial otherwise commercial building you know outside of the public sector would be but we're uh we're excited about it and uh looking forward to uh hopefully uh you know staying on project on on target and um with i'm not quite as optimistic as him about 20 late 28 fall of 28 28 uh opening i'm thinking more uh second semester so

So I know you've covered it before. Can you share with the audience what's going to be going in the technology building?

Yeah, it is not all the trades that we would like. And so you have to back up, you know, so many years prior when the state approved it as a project and the enrollment and what was there then. So welding is going to have its own space there. Advanced manufacturing is going to have their space there. Electrical is having space there. HVAC? Yeah, HVAC. Agriculture.

And we have a kind of a flex space that we can adjust for things that we may be looking at down the road that we don't even know about today. It could be five or ten years or doing something we never even thought about. And it is being built.

to have a phase two down the road because Marine Trades has taken off significantly since then and that'll still be in the MTC building which is on campus as well. But we'd love certainly to look to move them into phase two at some point down the road. So it is being designed so that The heart of the building, the mechanical systems are central to the building along one wing and then another wing could be added on later to accommodate additional CTE programming.

Is the thought temporarily to keep nursing EMT in the general area it's in now?

Yeah, the health professions are all located in the H-PAC and that's fairly, that's their home forever.

And that was the last major project at the college. And that's state of the art. And we just, they've gotten some state grant money to refresh a lot of that equipment there. And actually this Thursday, the board will be voting on some procurement for replacing a lot of those mannequins and the IV pumps that the students use. So.

Those were all original to the building construction or end of life. 10 years old. So they definitely need to be replaced. The software's not reprogrammable and they have had wear and tear.

That program is tremendous. I mean, for the last several years now, every graduate of that nursing program has passed their NCLEX the first time at a 100% pass rate. Wow. That is good.

Yeah, it's amazing. I saw something the other night that said there's a shortage of 7,000 nurses in the state of Maryland. In Maryland alone? Wow. Yeah, in Maryland alone, 7,000. Wow.

Still dealing with the burnout from the pandemic.

Yeah. Well, probably, absolutely. Yeah.

Buddy, I'm very pleased to report that we're seeing better students, better prepared in nursing coming in, and also in electrical. We have some of the best students we've ever seen coming in the electrical program, and that program is full.

Sweet. Awesome. Commissioner Wilson for you. Sure. Take credit.

All right. Thank you. Well, thank you.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you for your support of the college. We really appreciate it.

Thank you. Anytime you need us to come back with an update on the Queen Anne's Tech building as we move along, just, you know. We'll let you know. Yeah, we'll be more than happy to come. As long as maybe we can be earlier on the list.

You're getting us on the agenda tonight. Have a nice night, gentlemen.

Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you.

Now, Commissioners, that's all we had. I had one technical request. For County Ordinance 2614, Cottage Industries, we need a technical motion to convey that to the Planning Commission in addition to public hearings. So if I could get a motion.

I will make a motion to convey to the Planning Commission as well. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Thank you very much. That's all we had. So we can go to pressing public comment. All righty. Part two.

Go ahead, Jack. You want to go first? I promise I'll be brief.

I promise I'll be brief. But it does expand a little bit on what Commissioner Corcorino was saying earlier. And in full disclosure, I called Commissioner Corcorino and we talked about this. The Facebook post that I made on Chesterhaven Beach was shocking for a number of reasons. One, beyond the number of people that looked at it, but also the number of people that alleged corruption on it. And I've seen this before, where if somebody disagrees with you, all of a sudden you're on the take or you're getting money from somebody. And I get these emails too. I get requests all the time from residents around the county to intervene on X, Y, or Z. And when my response is no, oh, well, you must have gotten a contribution from this developer or from that developer. And so it's outrageous. And so to the extent that this is just a comment for the general public, just stop that. Because I've gotten to know all of you guys as commissioners. And I've never once gotten the sense that you were being paid off or anything like that. And it would be foolish for anybody to even think of that. Right now, we just recently had a local commissioner who's now doing 20 years in the can. for taking public money. And our state's attorney and our courts take the issue very seriously. If people have those kinds of concerns, you've got the sheriff's office, you've got the state's attorney, you've got the attorney general, you've got an ethics commission, you've got all kinds of avenues to report that stuff. And so don't hide in your room at home on Facebook and make these crazy allegations that are totally unfounded. It's ridiculous. In my view, I know this is going to sound like I'm blowing sunshine, but just for the benefit of the public, all of these commissioners at one point or another, we've had fierce disagreements. I've talked with all of you on the phone at some point. We have disagreements. There are times where we also agree. And our government is based on disagreement and finding compromise. That's what it's about. Just because you find disagreement, sometimes you should not lob allegations of fraud and corruption. This is not Tammany Hall. This is not an alderman's office in Chicago where padded envelopes would come in and people were getting paid off. That's not what Queen Anne's County is about. And it's just disappointing. So I share the disappointment. The reason I wanted to add comment here is the public, I hope, will dial down that sort of rhetoric. It's not necessary. It's not helpful. And in fact, it's very harmful because every time somebody does that, you're discouraging good people from wanting to run. It's outrageous. Chris, I share the one concern with you. If I can just have 30 more seconds, I promise. There's an issue in Southernsville a number of years ago, everybody remembers it. I took a position opposed to that based on legal reasons. My kids were getting comments in school due to Facebook comments and they have nothing to do with it. Chris' kids have nothing to do with it. My kids have nothing to do with it. Your kids and grandkids have nothing to do with it. We can disagree on policy all day long, and we have. But we also find agreement. This is a community. We all care about it. We're all passionate to various degrees, different interests. But just because we have disagreement doesn't mean that somebody's taking money. And I just hope we can find a way to stop that. It's necessary. I hope you guys talk about this at round table because it's something that needs continuous reminder and we're on the same page in that regard. And so if this comes up and if I see it on my page I will call it out and I have called it out. I think I forwarded you some examples of things where I have called it out where you know, this is not necessary, it's not right, and it's not fair to make those kinds of allegations. And if you have them, bring them forward. Anyway, I just wanted to close on that somewhat negative note, but just say that for the benefit of our collective community, which we all care about, just dial down the unhelpful rhetoric. It's just, it's not, just not helpful. So anyway. Thanks, Jay. Thanks, Jay.

Sir, would you like to, would you like to speak?

Thank you all for your service. Mark Canfield, 203 Swan. Just curious about the Chester Haven thing. If the ultimate court decision goes against a developer, will the county owe the developer any money?

The deposit is non-refundable.

Okay, so there's no fiduciary responsibility to the, okay, great. And is any of the money that the county is now spending for its legal representation, in any way can you say that's in the benefit of the developer? Or it's just due diligence by the county?

I don't think there's any ongoing litigation at this point in time. And we have an attorney on staff with the county. Appreciate your service. Thank you.

Would anybody else like to speak?

Hello, my name is Wendy Lian. I sent off an email and I got a pretty aggressive response from Chris accusing me of a bunch of stuff, which now I know what he's talking about because I wasn't aware of the Facebook posts. I wasn't aware that people were saying people were corrupt. My question actually has to do with the growth allocation. The courts have determined the growth allocation cannot happen. So I understand that they can do individual wells or a group well, but what I don't understand is that with the size of the development, I believe an 81 housing plan was submitted last year. Why have we not considered decreasing the amount of sewer allocation to the property rather than continuing to allocate the number we're allocating when we could have beneficial services and commercial services that could be added in Queen County which could use those allocations. So with them knocking it down and saying you can't do this, why have we not reconsidered rewriting the agreement to decrease it again? is basically because i don't understand um as to why we keep giving them the same amount they haven't done anything over the years and the courts keep knocking it down i understand it's probably going to go to litigation they're probably going to keep asking but i do know they're down to 81 in their request so i don't understand why the agreement can't be rewritten thank you would anybody else like to speak

We'll close press and public comment. Roundtable?

How about now? Sure. I guess I'll stay in the vein that's already been served up. I'm not going to be as aggressive as that side of the room. They're a little bit over the top. That's why we're over here. I like to make light of things in certain instances. It does frustrate me and infuriate me at some of the comments that are made on Facebook because, to both of their points, our kids, our grandkids, our wives all have to read that stuff. My making light of it is my wife says I'm doing a terrible job of taking money because she keeps looking at a bank account and there's nothing there. Apparently, I'm not very good. And I will say, my 12 years, I won't let somebody buy me a cup of coffee. And that's just because I feel that that's the way it should be, right? We're here for public service. So if anything, I'll buy you a cup of coffee. But yeah, I just... I'm with Chris. I know it's one of our biggest pet peeves is the comments on Facebook. We try to do the best job we can. We give up 40 to 60 hours of our life every week to do this job, 52 weeks a year, to represent the citizens of Queen Anne's County, and I think we do a pretty good job of it. many people don't understand what that means the time away from your family that same family we're trying to protect from some of these comments so again I agree with what everything's been said so far our kids are watching and so if if you're wondering why some of this bullying and things like that go on in school take a look in the mirror because you're probably part of the problem so that's all I got Patrick I would just say God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason

We need to listen more and speak less. The tongue can either lift up or it can really do damage to people and that's it.

When I first ran for office 16 years ago, None of the outgoing commissioners were seeking reelection. But we did have an opportunity to sit down with one of them. And the advice that he gave me resonated. He said, if you could get 70% of it right, you're going to apologize for the other 30. We try to take the information that we are given by department heads and experts and directors and digest that information and determine what is best for the greater good in our community. And that's what drives the majority of the decisions that we make, at least the decisions that I make in my mind.

Thank you. I think I said pretty much all I thank Jay for speaking up because you know we tend to agree on a lot of issues and sometimes obviously a few weeks ago you didn't agree with my my vote and we've but we have good discussions and I do that with everybody right on all sides of an issue and give everybody an opportunity it just seems like we have this increasing devolution in civic discourse, and it's not getting better. We had mentioned when Michael and MC were here earlier from MAKO about how in MAKO you have different counties, blue, purple, and red, who seem to be able to get together or talk about issues and find solutions to problems, and there's pretty much nothing but respect in those discussions that occur, so it can be done. And if you think about it, when someone says there's someone lying in their pocket or something like that happened, you're working against yourself. You're creating a permission structure for people not to participate. Because if everything is bought off and it doesn't matter what you say, then why participate? It's already done. Someone already got a load of cash. And when you don't show up, um you know decisions are made in your absence and jay can tell you about times when there's been rooms full of people and it has swayed a vote on an issue um and so it really irritates me when we create situations where people aren't participating and i think those allegations get people to not participate and worse i don't know if it's worse but equally as bad is Where do we get new candidates to run for office? We're dummies that take the beating, but there's a lot of other people that have common sense, and they're like, I've talked to people about running. I mean, this is my last term, I'm done, and talk to other people, try to get someone in District 4. I'm like, oh, no, I couldn't do what you do. I couldn't deal with that. And I'm like, but here's all the good things that you get to do. But that's what discourages them. And that's a problem, because as Michael explained on the MAKO presentation, we have huge budget issues. And I've been talking about this on the campaign trip last year. Big issues coming up affecting the state and the downflow to the counties. Having people who can have common sense and make good decisions is really, really important. This is not an oyster shell road county anymore. The sheriff deputies don't pass off the gun at the end of their shift to the other deputy. That's how it used to be in Queens County. It's changed. And we can have discussions about how the days were better then, but that's just not where we are anymore. And so we do need to encourage people to want to be in these offices and to make good decisions because there are really important things that get done.

I agree with you 100%. Keep your eye on the donut, not on the hole. The state's coming after it, and it's going to get interesting. Our blessing is we have a well-run county. We really do. The public doesn't see it. But we're able, I mean, where we were 12 years ago and where we are now is just phenomenal. I mean, with our financing, with what we're trying to accomplish, with our schools being fully funded, You know, the whole nine yards. When it comes to the negativity, you know, I got thick skin. You're a Marine. It's easier for you. But more importantly, I don't get on Facebook. Because my wife will sit next to me and she'll go, what? What's this? And I go, what? And she'll tell me one thing, I can't get to sleep now. I tell you, you're not allowed to keep it all to yourself. I don't care about it. It's Facebook. But I guess my only question I really have is Todd and Chris and myself and Phil got to tour Hinckley's new facility. at the bay bridge and i could have swore somebody said there was a boat for me but you know you didn't get it i i guess i better not take it now it's right next to chris's helicopter yeah but uh i want to thank them they they that's a first-class organization and it's a feather in our cap for queen anne's county queen anne's county that's absolutely so motion to