Mayor and Council - Regular Meeting

Today is 04/20/2026, and we're convening meeting ten-twenty '6. Are going to entertain a vote to go into closed session pursuant to Section three-three zero five (one) of the General Provisions Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland to discuss the appointment, employment, assignment, promotion, discipline, demotion, compensation removed with the resignation or performance evaluation of appointees, employees over whom this public body has jurisdiction. Do we have a motion?

Madam Madam Mayor, I move to go into closed session.

Excellent. Councilmember Villarney seconds. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. And I will note that council member Fulton is on the phone, and she also voted aye. Okay.

Council member Fulton, we'll put you on mute, and then we will reengage shortly. Good evening, Rockville. Today is 04/20/2026. We have concluded our closed session and the Mayor and Council will now return to open session for meeting number ten-twenty six. Colleagues, please join me as you're able in the Pledge of Allegiance.

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

Ms. Sarah Taylor Farrell, would you please let us know if there are any changes to the agenda?

Madam mayor and council members, there are no changes to this evening's agenda.

Excellent. Thank you. We'll now welcome a report from the city manager, Mihalik.

Mayor Ashton, members of city council, ladies and gentlemen, and good evening. Few things to report out tonight. First, I wanna acknowledge that, event season is in full swing, and a bunch of you guys were at events this weekend. I wanna acknowledge, staff and participants that were at a couple events. One was international night on Friday night. To say attendance was good, it was standing room plus only. The people out in the lobby trying to get in. It was just a wonderful event with all different kinds of performances, really celebrating the very rich, diverse culture that we have here in the city of Rockville, and the smiles were were wide and bright in every place at the Fitzgerald Center. So that was really great to see. See.

The next morning into the afternoon, we had a completely different type of event with a different crowd, but it was equally fun. It was skate jam. A lot of folks were there attending, watching some really unique, individuals of all ages actually, showing some different tricks on skateboards. Another wonderful event put on by our rec and parks department. It was really cool to see everybody out there. Very different from international night and equally fun. The other thing I wanna recall out is one of our commissions. I don't do that very often. It's our youth commission. They held a youth town hall at the Twinbrook Community Center last week where they invited students in fifth through eighth grade.

Again, fifth through eighth grade, which is very rare and very unique, to come out and share with city staff and attendees. I know several of you were there too. How could we better serve youth in the Twinbrook community? That's cool, rich, and very unique engagement. And here's the thing that's most unique, in my opinion, We had close to 50, students show up for that.

That doesn't include the parents. It's just the kids. That's unique, rich engagement, and I really, applaud the youth commission for coming out and holding that event. Then lastly, I'll just say we have some very prominent, and you guys all know this, very prominent, initiatives going on right now, a big budget, the JEDI strategic plan, the zoning ordinance update, the election code, and landlord tenant code, all critically important initiatives in the city, all happening around the same time. It's okay. We're all ready for it. But I just want people to know if they want information, they should go to engage Rockville. All of those projects are there. There's still plenty of time to participate and provide comments. It's gonna be a busy spring and early summer, but we're gonna get a lot done. That's all I have here. Thank you.

Thank you. I also wanna acknowledge the villages go green this weekend. So all the I was at all the events you mentioned, and they were all fantastic. Your staff have done an amazing job. I just wanted to say thank you to staff. You really show your love for the city and your commitment to the work and our residents are benefiting from it. I also want to acknowledge the landlord tenant meetings that were held last week. They were very well done. I want to say two things and then see if any of my colleagues have comments or questions. One is I want to acknowledge the death of a family member of Councilmember Fulton.

Not today she She not here this evening and she's not able to be here. She wasn't here last week. She did join us for one previous meeting, but she really wanted to be here and to know that she cares about all of you and she's finely tuned and has met with our colleagues. Just wanted to say please extend prayers to her and the family. We are all human and it's important that we support each other in times of need.

And then the last thing I'll say I mentioned this during LPT and I'll go into it all new business, but I've gotten a lot of concern about the County Council proposed budget letter that came out on Friday that potentially has an impact on municipal revenues. I'll talk more about it later, but we have seen it. We have been working on it, and we will discuss further shortly. Councilmember Volleery and then Councilmember Van Brack.

Thank you. I even brought props for my report out. I thought maybe the mayor would have mentioned it but didn't. I appreciate it. Come with my props. The Italian American Art Circle has a wonderful exhibit right now at Glenview Mansion through May 8. It's a phenomenal exhibit and it is celebrating Italian creativity in The US and it tells a very unique story. I encourage everybody to head out to Glenview Mansion through May 8. It's just a wonderful encapsulation of the Italian American experience in The United States. Thank you.

Thank you. I believe it's nine to about four ish at the mansion. Thank you. Councilman Van Graak.

So I know we talked about this a little bit last week about how great the city has been doing with regard to repairing issues, and we've had significant water main breaks all over the city. And the city, I know, came through significantly within about twenty four hours repaired the water main break in front of Wooten High School. I know that, mister city manager, you and I have talked about the fact that there's still been some difficulty on that street. I know I saw, and you relayed that city officials were out there even this weekend. Can you talk a little bit about where things are going with that repair and what the status is?

Yep. Happy to do that. Thanks for the question. So just by way of description and backing up for folks who are just, learning about it, there was a pretty significant water main break, on Wooten Parkway that was fixed quickly. We did a temporary patch, and let me stress a temporary patch to that water main. Patching over the top of water mains is tricky because there's fill underneath it. And unless it's compacted exactly putting the pavement over the top, it's gonna fail a little bit. That's exactly what happened. What needs what needs to be done is a more permanent patch. In order to make a more permanent patch with asphalt, we need the asphalt plants to open.

Here's the good news. They opened this week. So we'll back out there really soon to do a more permanent patch out there to bring it back to full compliance with our standard for the roadway conditions. So people will see those improvements within the next several days, if not a week.

Great. So extend our thanks to all of the great city workers who I know have been out there regularly to help get it fixed.

Thank you. Councilman Jackson.

Thank you, mayor. So I just wanna add to your summary of the weekend. I went to the Rockville villages go green, and it was a phenomenal event. The staff did a wonderful job. The commission on aging actually was out there force, in as well as the village's support network. And I think they had about 175 attendees. And it was from volunteers, staff, and commissioners. It was a great job. I think people really enjoyed it. And also, ARP showed up and had a shredded event.

So it was a great partnership with the city staff, especially the village staff, Trish Evans, who I can't say enough about. I think she's a great addition to the city. So it was a great job by the staff, our volunteers, and look forward to next year's event as well.

Doctor Miles.

Thank you, madam. May I apologize for not being able to attend international night? We had soccer practice, but we were able to make it to the skate jam. And my only recommendation is that they have less vendors because I end up buying a whole skateboard. Thankfully, they had safety equipment. We a little one took it out. It was great. The competition was great, and she was so inspired that she had to get one. So thanks, but no thanks. I don't know. But no. It was great times all around. Thanks to staff. Thanks to the vendors and the folks giving out free lessons, and thanks for staff for providing safety equipment for everybody there. That's all.

No good deed goes unpunished. That's what it is.

She'll be competing very soon. Thank you all for your comments, and again, fantastic events and just opportunities to create those spaces for community, which was the real prize in it all. So I just wanna thank you for that. And then I it's not a city event, but I do wanna acknowledge in the city of Rockville, the NAACP held a youth summit as well, and they had over a 100 attendees. So lots of stuff happening.

We've been busy, and I appreciate everyone's work. We're now gonna move into community forum. This is a time for our community to be able to address the mayor and council, share your concerns, your ideas. We encourage you to speak in a civil and courteous manner. And members of the audience, please also be respectful to each other. Each person is allowed three minutes, and we ask you to stick to the time allowed. There is a time clock in front of you, and you will hear an audible beep at the end of your three minutes. Please state your name and if you live in Rockville for the record. We'll proceed with those who have signed up in advance. Welcome Peter Friedrich.

Peter Friedrich, not a resident. Nine days ago, Montgomery County was forced to cancel a Vishwa Hinduparashad of America book event at a public library. Only after civil rights organizations dragged into public view what this county's government has been doing with VHPA for years. That one event got pulled, everything else is still running. VHPA is the American branch of the VHPA of India, which just six weeks ago, the US government's own religious freedom commission named for fomenting violence against religious minorities and urged Washington to sanction under the framework used against Iran and North Korea.

And by a 2024 coalition investigation, VHPA has funneled 7,000,000 American dollars into that same Indian parent, the organization that led the 1992 mob that tore down the Babri Masjid, a sixteenth century mosque triggering riots that slaughtered 2,000 Muslims, then organized the militias that carried out the 2,002 and butchered 2,000 more. In America, VHPA operates as the Indian parents North American pipeline, importing the architects of its worst violence onto American stages, touring Sadhvi Ratambra in 2022, a VHP leader indicted by India's own government as a ringleader of the Babri Masjid demolition, and last June turning Hajal Hindustani loose on a Dallas stage, a speaker with 35 documented hate speeches in 2023 alone and nine open calls for violence to demand the economic boycott of American Muslims. VHPA is not importing Indian politics, it is importing the machinery of anti Muslim violence and turning it on American Muslims. This is the organization that your county executive Mark Elrick signed a citation for that VHBA then bragged about hosting at their Diwali that was handed Gaithersburg Gaithersburg High School, a Montgomery County High School to celebrate the Babri Masjid demolition and that returned to that same school three weeks before the library launched for an event titled Western Media's Whitewashing of Hindu Genocide in Bangladesh, a manufactured atrocity narrative weaponized right now inside India to justify the next massacre of Muslims.

And it is the organization running a Hindu nationalist indoctrination camp for children here in Rockville, a week long overnight camp that VHPA has held year after year at a Montgomery County public school with the next one booked for July 27. VHPA has been flagged to Montgomery County officials for years. They know it bankrolls the parent that killed thousands of Muslims in India. They know it platforms that parents ideologues on American stages and they know it runs indoctrination camps for children at a public school in this county. They partnered with it anyway. Signed the citation, attended the Diwali, handed over the schools. This is not ignorance, it is complicity. Rockville is the county seat, what this council allows to run quietly becomes the county standard. Your county government has spent the last decade licking VHBA's boots.

Thank you

very Do not follow, do not sign their citations, do not attend their devolves. Please end their Do not hand them another school. When VHP knocks on this door and they will

appreciate your testimony. Please send it to us in writing and if you want to share anything about any event in Rockville, we have staff in the back to help. Thank you very much. We now welcome Scott Weber.

Good evening, madam mayor and esteemed members of the the council. I am Scott Weber. I've been here before. I'm a 40 Montgomery County resident and a very frequent temporary resident of Rockville on a on just about every week. I too was associated and was contacted about the library event that took place both with local, state, national, and even international context saying what is going on in Montgomery County that you're allowing such an event to occur.

It's a internationally recognized hate group responsible for the deaths of thousands. It's extremely violent, anti Christian, anti Muslim, anti Sikh, anti anti anti Dalit, but that's in India. However, the VHPA of America is associated here. There have been reports from we did our pushback that reporters are also are, however, coming at us and saying that, you know, we are very anti Semitic in our pushback against Hindu nationalism, which is actually rather confusing, especially if you actually understand the history of it. So what I've done, I produced and I sent to each of you through your your common mayor council email, the document that's in front of me now.

It's highly highly linked. It's more of a research document. It has a history in it. I'd like to read a couple of passages in particular, that relate to Hindu nationalisms, RSS, VHP identities in

India.

The basically, the founder, Sabaqar, of the RSS, quote, said, Germany has every right to resort to Nazism and Italy to fascism, and events have justified that those isms and forms of government were imperative and beneficial to them under the conditions obtained there. So, basically, they were lauding the fact that what Germany was doing to its Jews, they're idolizing it. A second passage. To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by purging the country of the semitic races, the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here.

Germany has also shown well nigh imp how well nigh impossible it is for races and cultures having differences going to the root to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by. As somebody who's a vehement and passionate anti hate advocate, this is not Rockville. This is not Montgomery County. This should not be allowed in Montgomery County. So my ask of the the council in this is if you see this coming into Rockville, do not allow it.

Look for it. Hate has no home here, and I'd like that to be something that we live by, not just speak about. And in in the back, I I will say there's it's highly highly linked with lots of this. The digital copy will give you the access to it. I have one copy for the file record if you'd like it, and I thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you. Yes. Please feel free to share. Thank you. Welcome, Ajit Sahi.

Thank you, madam mayor. My name is Ajit Sahi. I'm not a resident of Rockville. On the same issue of this organization, Vishvi Hindu Parishad of America, I wanna flag another aspect. Just want to bring it to the attention of, all of you, the, the council members and the council.

Two months ago, the United States Department of Justice, they issued a press release on February 13, and the headline is Indian National Pleads Guilty to Plotting to Assassinate US Citizen in New York City. And this plead guilty plea includes the admission and which is cited by the Department of Justice that this Indian national, has currently been in US custody for a year and a half and was being prosecuted for this murder for hire plot in a New York City court, has said in the guilty plea that he was doing this at the behest of the Indian government. The Vishvi Hindu Parishad of America, the organization that the previous two speakers have spoken about, is very intimately linked with the government of India. So this is something that I'm quite sure as in the coming months, this will be established more and more. My urgent plea and request to the Rockville City Council would be that it would be very, very pertinent for you to be careful of the groups that you associate with or you're allowed to associate with City Hall.

Because even though they may pretend and they speak on behalf of Hindus, I am myself a Hindu, and they speak, they say that they speak on behalf of Hindus, I'm quite sure a whole bunch of people in the community in Montgomery County and the Rockfield City are probably not even aware of what their real story is behind the scene, but there is immense documented evidence. And as the first speaker mentioned, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, which is based in Washington, D. C, It was founded by Congress. It has nine commissioners appointed by leaders of both parties in Congress and the president of The United States. They have asked last month.

Have rec they make annual recommendations to Congress and to the Secretary of State, and they have said that this group, RSS, it's known by its acronym, to which VHPA is very closely and intimately linked, needs to be sanctioned for its violence. So please be very careful. Please ask these questions of the VHPA when you meet them next. This is a real thing, the attempt to murder, to assassinate US citizens. I'm not saying it. They have themselves said it in a guilty plea. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you very much. I just will reiterate that this council has stood by a number of resolutions, and we do not support HATE. We actually have resolutions that speak to our role in that. I also want note we appreciate you bringing this to our attention. The event was in the county, not in the city of Rockville, but it's good to be aware of your concerns. Thank you for sharing your feedback. Welcome, Hussain Wahid.

Thank you for this opportunity and thank you all who presented. I got interested in all sorts of different problems because we have been working with University of Maryland College Park for advanced technology acceleration initiatives. And we found a great link demonstrated very well through National Science Foundation that transformative economic efficiency depends very closely with respect to what citizens do and are allowed to do in cities, in counties, and that is why we are developing guidelines to help implement and accelerate the process of continuous learning in schools at different levels, all done voluntarily through open collaboration. And we find this collaboration leads to much greater interest in not just science, in the economy, and also to cover the differences that exist everywhere between communities and misunderstandings and also appreciation of the cultures that we all have different backgrounds. But when we join together, there is much prosperity, much greater benefit and ability and also the transfer of advanced technology takes place much more rapidly than we have had a chance to appreciate or evaluate and determine the exact.

So the value is huge. It runs into hundreds of millions of dollars and we are in the process of adopting statewide standards for this effect. So I just wanted to thank all the cities that are already collaborating. College Park City is one of those and Rockville and Montgomery County has been very appreciative of this integrative science initiative for both national and international standards. I guess my time is up or is it still running?

You have a minute

in Okay. 20

Thank you. To extend this part, and I know it is a little bit difficult for all city councils to support, but this development of guidelines depends on the support of cities because it plays a big role. The large concentration of population resides in cities and the idea is we'll be able to reach out to all the cities, all the counties with these guidelines, specifications and standards for integrative science to implemented standards for all age groups. So there is no differentiation between high school, middle school or any others. Just like you pointed out in the outreach, young kids had come from fifth to eighth grade.

Another remarkable statistic that we came across developing national guidelines is in the in Maryland, despite all the effort, the proficiency for mathematics last year for eighth graders was at 10%, which creates a huge economic disadvantage and it is overcome in different ways. We all are capable of adapting and that is the focus of enhancing transformative economic efficiency throughout the state through education that is not burdensome on any entity that does not cost anything does Thank not provide additional

you. Thank you

for your time. That ex also lists those who have signed up in advance. Is there anyone else who would like to speak at this time? Okay. Alright. Thank you all. Now close community forum and move to Agenda Item 12, which is a work session. Item A is the FY twenty twenty seven Budget Work Session three. We'll be focusing on capital improvements program, debt review and final balancing. I'd like to welcome Kim Francesco, Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Finance as well as Stacy Webster, CFO, Director of Finance.

We look forward to your presentation.

Good evening, madam mayor and members of the council. This is our third work session on the f y twenty twenty seven budget. Sorry for the delay. This discussion will be focused on the capital improvements program. This presentation covers a CIP overview, the proposed capital budget, and an overview of the city's debt and projected bond issuances, a review of new capital projects, followed by a final balancing exercise.

We will start with an overview of the city's CIP. So, the CIP is a five year plan, including both discrete and recurring projects that are broken down into five program areas. The city currently has 78,000,000 in outstanding enterprise fund debt for historical ratepayer supported projects, mainly for utilities and stormwater program areas for infrastructure investments. The city currently has $22,000,000 in outstanding taxpayer supported debt for historical projects primarily within the general government and recreation and parks program areas. While debt proceeds are one funding source, the city prides itself on limiting its reliance on debt and utilizing PAYGO or cash financing when available.

The city also seeks outside sources whenever possible to help meet the city's capital needs. This graph shows how new appropriations for f y twenty twenty seven are proposed to be funded. The unfunded portion for f y twenty twenty seven reflects the federal portion of the West Goudy the West Goudy Bridge Drive repairs. The FY 2027 CIP includes new appropriations of $8,000,000 that will be included with future new bond funding planned for FY 2028 and focused on utility projects. The city often combines multiple years' worth of debt issues into one to reduce costs and increase efficiencies.

While there is no bond issue planned for FY 2027, the bond issue in f y twenty twenty eight will include bonded projects from the f y twenty twenty six through f y twenty twenty eight adopted budgets. The city most recently issued bonds in September 2024, which received triple a credit ratings. The FY 2027 CIP anticipates taxpayer supported bonding of approximately $18,000,000 for the construction of the King Farm Farmstead Phase project in FY 2029. Outstanding taxpayer supported debt will be $17,700,000 in FY 2029, so we will be effectively doubling our outstanding debt at that time. This chart shows a ten year outlook for taxpayer supported debt service.

Debt capacity is not determined by when one individual bond is paid off, but by the total amount of annual debt service that the city can support within its operating budget. Because multiple issuances overlap and are structured differently, capacity must be evaluated across a full debt portfolio and over time. The forecasted debt service for the f y twenty twenty nine bonds is shown in red at the top. For each $1,000,000 borrowed, the city pays approximately $70,000 in debt service. The general fund provides PAYGO transfers to the CIP and debt service transfers for taxpayer supported debt.

The forecast suggests that ongoing CIP transfers will remain 12,300,000 and that the debt service transfer will increase up to $3,800,000 beginning in FY 2029 to align with the new bonds. The forecasted amounts reflect projects that are currently funded within the CIP and does not account for projects that may enter the CIP in future years. The CIP transfer level also assumes that the mayor and council will allocate $4,000,000 from reserves exceeding the target to support the FY 'twenty seven through FY 'thirty one CIP. Now we will take a quick look at the financial allocations within the capital improvements program. The FY 2027 CIP totals $128,300,000 which includes new and carryover funding.

The table shown here displays how these appropriations are allocated by program area. Carryover balances will be updated for the final budget ordinance. This is a graphical display of the budget appropriations by program area. These can fluctuate depending on carryover balances and the introduction of new projects year over year. Now I'll share just a few project highlights focused on new projects projects that are proposed to enter the FY twenty seven to thirty one CIP.

While we have a number of maintenance based projects that have multiple sites across the city, things like asphalt and sidewalks, pedestrian safety projects, we have taken the effort to map our discrete projects that have a single site. This map is prominently linked on the city's budget page and includes an overlay for the community equity index. The Community Equity Index is a composite measure of equity related indicators developed to help analyze existing conditions in neighborhoods and to explore factors that may contribute to social inequities within Montgomery County. It describes each neighborhood's level of advantage or disadvantage based on its combined indicator score compared to the county's overall score within the areas of poverty status, education level, English language proficiency housing tenure and per capita income the red and orange areas are considered highly and moderately disadvantaged respectively Yellow areas of the city are considered proportionate and the shades of blue indicate communities that are advantaged with the darkest blue being the most advantaged. So in addition to the traditional map that we have done over the years for our capital projects, now this year, we have this new equity overlay element that will allow you to see where each of these projects are happening within the city's different neighborhoods.

Now within the general government program area, the FY 2027 budget introduces the Building Energy Performance Improvements Project. This project plans, designs, and implements building energy improvements at city facilities to support compliance with the Montgomery County and Maryland Building Energy Performance Standards, sometimes called BEPS, and implementation of the Climate Action plan as well. FY 2027 appropriations are proposed to total 1,600,000 to support this initiative. Within the recreation and parks program area, this budget includes three new projects with FY 2027 appropriations totaling 1,200,000. These projects are the Civic Center maintenance yard improvements, King Farm Farm Set master plan implementation project, and the Wooten's Mill Park Pavilion.

The Civic Center maintenance yard improvements project focuses on the security, functionality, and sustainability of the Civic Center maintenance yard. The King Farm Farmstead master plan implementation project funds the first phase of the master plan, including the design and renovation of the main farmhouse and dairy barns, and the Wooten's Mill Park Pavilion project funds the construction of a park pavilion within the Wooten's Mill Park. Within the stormwater management program area, this budget introduces one new project, stream restoration, Wooten Snow Park. This project designs and constructs stream restoration activities within Wooten Snow Park beginning at Watts Branch Parkway and at Hurley Avenue continuing downstream to Wooten Parkway. This project is expected to begin in f y twenty thirty.

Within the transportation program area, this budget introduces the Shady Grove Womada Access Road street lighting project. This pedestrian safety project will add street lights on the Wamada Access Road between Maryland 355 and Summerville Road at the Shady Grove Metro Station. FY 2027 appropriations are proposed to total $425,000 Last but not least, the utilities program area introduces one new project, water treatment plant storm drain and culvert rehabilitation. This project rehabilitates a storm drain and multiple stream culverts that impact the water treatment plant intake structure and electrical and communication lines. While we're on the topic of utilities, I do want to make sure that we address the Potomac interceptor incident.

A major failure occurred there that resulted in the discharge of wastewater in and around the Potomac River. The emergency repairs at that site are complete, and drinking water remains safe. This incident reflects the challenges of aging infrastructure and reinforces the need for continued coordinated investment. Given that plans were already underway to address this particular interceptor, staff anticipate that the city's share of funding has already been included in the capital contribution projections. In addition, federal assistance is still in the process of being secured through a formal emergency declaration that was made by the president, which provides access to FEMA assistance.

Can I just clarify one thing for listening public? I know this is a hot topic. This is managed by DC. This has not happened in the city of Rockville. Just want to clarify that. Doctor.

Correct. It did not happen within city limits.

Thank you very much. From

here, we will open the floor for questions on the proposed capital budget. And then we will transition into our final balancing exercise.

Thank you very much. I just want to say we appreciate I know a lot of us have gone through the budget book over again and all of the materials that you've sent to us. I also want to acknowledge that my colleagues have sent a great many questions. Thank you for your thoughtfulness. That Q and A is posted on the website. We will not repeat all. I think it was almost about 40 pages of it, but may have a few clarifying questions for you. With that, I'm going to start with my colleague, Councilmember Miles. Do you have any questions?

No, Madam Mary. Not at this time.

You. Councilmember Valeri. Yes, hi. I guess I start in order. And we're only discussing the

CIP. That's correct. And maybe what we can do, because I know a lot of us have many questions, we can do a max of three to five topics. And then we'll come back to you. Is that okay?

No, that's why I was trying to organize myself here. I will stick with the three rule. Three always works for me. Can you tell me a little bit about how the CEI overlay was developed?

The CEI is a county owned and developed index.

Okay. I noticed that there may be some accuracy issues regarding the census overlay data. I always think we can always do things better than the county, but that's just me. I think that in looking at how we use that overlay, for instance, one of the projects in the darkest orange area is actually a maintenance yard issue that would have no impact on the actual community that lives there. It just happens to be there.

So I think it's a good overlay to have, I guess is my point. And I think we need to balance that a little bit with the CIP that are explicitly resident benefits, those sort of capital investments in neighborhoods, because that's where we see things. So that was my first question. My second question was on the CIP. I had a whole list of questions.

Now I can't find them. Yes. Thank you. I noticed that the Twinbrook Dog Park was pushed out significantly in the long range CIP planning. I believe it was 2029.

And I was wondering, and maybe for Mr. City Manager as well, could share a little bit about that timeline. And I think this is a good example of what I mentioned before. A city maintenance yard facility doesn't really benefit the community, but a dog park does. So I think it would be great if you could give a little bit of intel onto why we would need to wait that long for a dog park this neighborhood has been advocating for for a very long time.

Like any, CIP project, it starts off as a as a as a project plan to start. That's how it gets into the CIP. We do community engagement, which we did this year. It's pretty rich engagement. We receive a lot of feedback from the neighborhood. Then we go through a design process, then we bid, and then we go to construction. Of course, city council has the ability and prerogative to move things around the CIP. That's what we're having the discussion about tonight.

Okay. And then thank you. And and that's really helpful. Kinda goes to what my last question was going to be looking at the long range CIP planning and the PIPs, which are even longer, and just trying to figure out how we We didn't have a lot of initial input into the long range CIP planning or the PIP. A

lot

of these things were already the cogs were moving before we all got elected. So I think it would be helpful maybe going forward, or if we can do it now, I think it would be tough to do now. But getting that sort of feedback from mayor and council on some of those items and which ones we would want to, to Mr. City Manager's point, maybe to elevate, frankly. That would, again, we could be helpful in that sense of balancing the investment in the neighborhoods.

Because that was the first thing I looked at. I'm like, oh, we have a long term plan for the Twinbrook pedestrian bicycle bridge. What are some other things? What are very tangible things to the point of Wooten Park issue for sure. My last question and thank you for all the information and all my questions.

I know I sent a ton. Let's I noticed that the water main rehab for disadvantaged communities, could you share why the FY27 funding was reduced and is that going to delay those projects?

The allocations for water main rehab are reduced because is significant we received significant outside funding from primarily state grants. So the department needs time to execute all of that funding. Most of the projects in the Water Fund are bond funded. Mhmm. If we start bonding for projects before we actually need those proceeds, we run into arbitrage issues and things like that. We want to be very careful about the timing of those appropriations and making sure that we are spending down the money we've already received before we start appropriating new funds.

That makes total sense. I just want to flag that for my colleagues and for the public in general that clean water should be a given and in older neighborhoods it's not always a given. I just wanted to flag that. That's my three questions.

Thank you. I appreciate the work. And I just wanted to flag for the public the budget book under each department has a very long list of accomplishments. So I enjoyed reading all of you. You guys have been busy and greatly appreciate the work.

Also want to flag results rockfall as we track our progress over time. There were a couple of quick CIP items that I wanted to flag that I was trying to figure out how we're phasing them. So I did see that we included the King Farm Farmstead in, but I was also trying to understand the Red Gate Park. And so it seems like I don't know, I felt like there was a portion of it that was was in the unfunded section. So can you just clarify for the listening publics, I know there's a lot of people who care about Red Gate Park, how are we doing in that project? Has it slipped a with next

with

And the unfunded and what are we going to see over the next year? Question. Because I know that design was funded a while ago and then some funds carried forward. If you could help us understand that.

So there are a few elements of the Reggae Park and Arboretum project that are included in the long range CIP portion, which means that they are not funded within this five year CIP project. So that includes the amphitheater that is shown as a 2,032. That that's the current outlook, in at 2,600,000. And then the visitor center is also projected for 2032 at 5,100,000. The timing can shift with these long range projects.

The timing of when they enter the five year CIP can also shift based on how the earlier phases of those projects are progressing and based on available resources to fund and finance those kinds of projects. So those are the two elements that are in the long range CIP.

And can you flag what is being funded in the short term?

It's very hard to tell.

By the way, they're next lev. Now our cheat sheets are electronic on this pad. Can you show them once real quick?

What? I'll do. Yeah.

Love it.

That's pretty

slick. Full technology.

Yeah. I didn't get a pad, by the way, but that's okay.

So the project in its current form includes funding for, additional funding for the dog park, trail and pathway improvements, stormwater management facilities, picnic pavilions, community gardens, utilities, and the park as a whole. That includes things like signage, markers, and, educational, signs as well. That being said, there are unfunded portions of this project in its current state, and that is because the city will continue to pursue grants similar to the land water conservation grant that the mayor Council recently approved. The

list you just shared, that will be completed in FY twenty seven?

No. That is the long range multi I year want

to focus on what's going to be completed in FY twenty seven, if you can clarify that.

FY '27 is focused on getting through design and hopefully starting construction. That is the timeline.

Okay. I know that design was funded a while ago and we had the grant. The point is that there's a lot to get done here. And I know that this portion of King Farm that King Farm said that are moving, we don't want this project to fall behind. It did start first. And so I'm that the design will be done. I know that process took a little bit longer.

Yeah. Let me just add a little bit more color to it. I think everything that Kimberly said is is exactly right. Very long term project, but also worth it, very large project. Our goal this this next year is to do heavy, heavy design work, make sure we get that dialed in. Some of the design is gonna be for specific elements within the park. Some of it's gonna be for the whole park, like the trail network, for example, will be for the whole park, some of the signage, etcetera. But then over the course of of the next several years, you'll see different components of the park come online. We'll update the CIP process as we go along, make sure council knows what we're talking about. But it is gonna take us a number of years, to build this all out. But the good news is people will see improvements to Reggate Park every year for the next several years.

Thank you. If you could just update this council and future councils on how that's progressing, just because I know I'm very pleased we got the grant. I know that the design is something that's been talked about for some time now. And we're just so excited to see it.

So

Understood. I thank you

for

Happy to do so.

The other one that the timeline seems to slip, and I know there's a lot there's many reasons for it, I'm not pointing any fingers at all. I just want to understand where we are. Is the senior center entrance from Goody Drive now is looking at the end of FY twenty twenty seven? And I know many people on this body were hoping that, that was going to start this summer and be ready soon after. So if you could just give an update on that.

Happy to do so. We have 90% drawings now in final draft. We, previous counsel, made a commitment to have an advisory committee, and the commitment was to show the drawings of them at 30, done. 60%, done, and now 90%, done. This would be the last time. And then we go right to bidding it for construction. We expect to do that within the next sixty days or so. We do plan on getting this project under construction this construction season and be substantially complete before the snow flies. That would be the best way to describe it right now.

Excellent. Thank you very much. If that could that KPI can be updated in the budget book when you finalize just to be more accurate with what the reality is, that would be great. Because some of us saw it and were like, wait a minute, we're hoping to see this a little bit sooner.

Happy to do that.

Thank you so much for that explanation. That's fantastic. Okay. And then the other piece that I think stood out to me, it was on the plan improvement projects. I had a chance to walk the Montrose community and saw that the outdoor parks seem to be in quite disrepair in some places.

I know staff went and fixed some things like there was a bench that was broken, the volleyball court, you know, pieces that were not quite functional, and I think has been taken down. But that one is something that I wanted to flag. I think it looks like we're not addressing it until 2028. And I just wanted to confirm, is that staff's intention for 2028? Or is there anything that we have done or can do just to make sure that things are functional out there? No broken benches, volleyball court working. Just wanted to flag that.

The department has funding to deal with some degree of repairs when when they occur. What you see as a planned improvement process is a larger, more wholesale look at that property and making some upgrades and doing some refreshing there. If something is completely not in use and out of repair, the department will certainly take a look at that.

Okay. Then Talbot Park is my last one that I'm going to hold for others' comments. That one looks to move out a year to 2028. I know we got some LBI funding for that. Is that pushed back or was it intended to be 2028?

Pushed back based on the KPI.

I was looking at KPIs from year to year. Yeah. Staff

don't expect design to be completed until sometime in FY 2027. So then additional time would be needed in order for that construction to get underway.

So we we won't see that part complete until 2028, but you'll start

in '20 That that is the expected timer.

And you'll start in 2027. Okay. Okay. And that'll be fine for our state bond money? We won't it won't expire?

That's correct. And that's the timeline we provided the folks when we applied for.

Okay. Thank you. I will hold on the remaining of my questions for my colleagues to go next. Councilmember Jackson.

Thank you, Mayor. Let me just ask a big general question just for the listening audience. So we were talking about debt earlier. And as we took on debt, can you just explain how does it look? Like, is our city doing a good job at managing debt? And looking at the outlook, just can you explain the levels and are you comfortable with the levels of talking about?

Sure. Thank you for the question, Councilmember. We are comfortable with the levels of debt that we have projected in the CIP right now. As you know, King Farm is going to bring on a pretty large portion at about $18,000,000 But the way we have balanced the five year and looked even further into the ten year of the general fund contribution to the debt service fund, we're comfortable with that at this point. If we have to issue additional debt in those future years, we'll have to relook at it. We are well within our debt ratio targets, and the state does not have requirements, so we do manage our debt to our debt ratio our debt ratio targets and our ability to pay over time.

Perfect. Thank you for that explanation. I appreciate it and the listing probably does as well. Just one thing on the CIP. I didn't really see it in there, this is something we'll talk about.

But I saw it in the survey again and again and again of the budget, and that was the bathrooms in the parks. So I don't know how we address that. I don't know if staff in the Parks and Recreation have a plan to address it. But I heard it from residents again and again, both as I walked around the community, but also in the survey. You know, opening up the bathrooms, having bathrooms available in the park.

I know that that's a real big concern of people that go to the parks. So I just want to flag that. The senior center entrance, I just echo the mayor's comments. This has been a long time coming and I'm assured by the summer. And I believe the timeline is five months for completion or That's essentially accurate.

Yeah. So maybe sooner than that, but essentially five months. So that's really good news. I want to turn to Diebelskull Park, the improvements, RA19. And I just want to ask, like, how does that, art installation, the planned art installation, and associated landscaping, kind of factor into those costs, or does it?

The art portion of that project is well, it's not really within the project. So the art portion is within the city's art and public places program, which is funded separately and is not part of this project budget, if that makes sense. This is dealing with more of those long term infrastructure improvements at the park. So they're really, like, two separate things, but they're happening at the same time.

Yeah. And so there's the art, which I I love. But I noticed that there's landscaping planned around the art. And so I was just wondering if that's part of the project on on art or if that's part of the project on the other one.

Believe it or not, could be a little bit of both. There's landscaping in and around throughout the park. But if there's landscaping that is particularly tied to the artwork itself and is part of the public engagement process, then you could say it's part of the art piece. So it's both. Okay.

And then on the Park pedestrian bridge, RD 23. I was a little bit confused by that because typically on the bridges or when we have other projects, that we do the design phase first and then the construction. But this one is different in that it's designed basically throughout. I just wondered, like, what was happening there, what you would anticipate happening.

Thank you for your question. Council member. So this project was previously a stand alone discrete project for one pedestrian bridge, and it was changed into a multiyear, multisite project. So that's why you see design construction ongoing. The city did a wholesale assessment of the pedestrian bridges and found that there were many that needed repair and fixes and, in some cases, replacements. So this is a more a much larger and more wholesale project to deal with multiple bridges across the city now.

Okay. So then that makes sense. And then finally, because I know we're trying to limit ourselves to three three questions. This is about the the new project, City Grove Metro, the lighting improvement. So I know we say lighting improvement,

conversations with the city manager about the fact that I think, and just correct me if I'm wrong,

I that it's lighting, pedestrian crossing, safety, and sidewalks. So I just wanna kinda zero in on, like, what all we're talking about here, whether it's just lighting or whether it's lighting plus.

Yeah. I mean, our commitment is to make pedestrian safety improvements in a nutshell, the whole thing. We know siding is an lighting is an issue there. That's the one where we get the most concerns. But when we go out and assess the site and look at all the pedestrian safety conditions, we know lighting we'll have to address, but it could be portions of uneven sidewalks. It could be signage. It could be striping, etcetera. Until we go out there and do a detailed, very detailed assessment and develop a plan, we won't know. But we're not gonna go out there and only do a portion of the project. We'll do it all. And it may be from different pots of money within the budget.

Okay. And I just wanted to check. So think that it's estimated at FY 2028.

Completion is estimated at FY 2028, but this project does have FY 2027 funding to get things going.

All right. Thank you.

Councilmember Vallari. Sorry. Councilmember Schach.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. First off, I just wanted to thank you for your very thorough presentation and all the work that you did on this. My colleagues have similar questions that as as I had, so thank you for covering Redgate and the King Farm, the farmstead. And I did I just wanted to say that I greatly appreciate the community equity index overlay. It is an excellent visual.

And I, you know, I I think this is a great way of informing how we can make future decisions, how we allocate money. Just overall, I do appreciate the concept of it. And to Council Member Valeri's point, do think we need to explore to make sure all the data is accurate. That's very important, as it would be with anything that we do. But overall, I just greatly appreciate that visual. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember Van Graig.

Once again, my colleagues' thoughts about the amount of work that goes into it. Know the CIP, specifically the CIP budget is significant. There's a lot of projects to keep track on. So I appreciate you going through all of this. So I also want to thank you because I know one of our last work sessions, we talked about the percentage of the city's income that's coming directly from income taxes.

And you gave me excellent data with regard to understanding that we're really about 12.5 citywide is what we're really getting in from incomes, and we've been increasing. But I know, a number of us have talked about the fact that we're gonna now start seeing some of the effects of what has occurred to the federal government and the workforce because that occurred in 2025, and the income taxes income from that is gonna start to affect us. So given that, I know that we've got everything that we've need or we're assessing for our finances for that fiscal year. But one concern I do have is with regard to those projects that are significant and multiyear with regard to potentially committing money that would be needed to be spent when there might be a reduction in that this year, the 12.5% of our budget from income tax? Is there something that we are either doing or anticipating to ensure that we don't get ourselves into a trap where we're stuck with spending money on a multiyear project path that would potentially give us to an issue that goes to what councilmember Jackson, you were talking about, the debt services to ensure that we stay on the level.

Yeah. I'll talk about the project management portion of it and how we're being cautious. And if if Stacy and Kim want to add anything about the specific financing of it, I'll ask them to chime in. But as I think I I shared with all of you, gosh, back in August, September, October, as we got together in a retreat and talked about budget, we've been very cautious with budget budget this year. I would use the word austere.

I think this is a maintenance budget. It's not really a significant growth budget. And yet, if I hear all the projects we're bring up brought up tonight, whether it's King Farm Farmstead, Redgate, etcetera, those are lands longstanding projects. This body prioritized that, had very deep engagement, and now it's ready to go. And I we all wanna get going on that too.

But we've been very thoughtful in saying, you know, first, we're gonna do design, and then we're gonna do phase one, and then we're gonna do phase two. And to your point, council member Ben Grack, as Kim was mentioning some of the bigger cost items, just to use Reggate as an example, they were the high ticket items. Those are the ones we're recommending to push off to over years because we are a little bit worried about the next two, three, four year budget. So having that's a long winded way of saying, I think we're in good shape for this year. We're in good shape for next year. That's why we built the budget the way we did. Year three, year four, less confident, but we're being really thoughtful not to build half a project and let it sit out there like that. We're being roped off in the face. If guys wanna add anything to that. Okay. Thank you.

Great. That's fantastic. That's That's the way it seemed to be, just making sure and kind of making sure that we're on the same path. So my next two questions deal with in a slightly different direction. I know we've corresponding you've answered some of my questions regarding these projects. I just wanna follow-up with them. So one of them is something I know I've brought up before, and it's the Scott Vears Drive shared use path. And I know that's significant. And just as a perfect example, when there was the incident at Wooten High School and the folks were going to and from Frost, I can tell you from you know, with the assistance of council member Miles having to walk down there, there literally was not enough of a shared use. I was literally walking in the street with numerous parents because the access wasn't there.

I know we've talked about this project numerous times. I know there was some dependence on what's happening with regard to outside, and I believe it's federal support for it. And I know that there's a discussion in my understanding, and I think you've confirmed this, that there is going to be an actual planning project going on this upcoming fiscal year with the direct anticipation that in the next fiscal year, we're actually gonna be going forward with construction. I just wanna confirm that that's where we are and that we don't foresee any hiccups or problems with regard to the federal portion, which have been some of the delays.

So the current year budget includes design funding for the Scott Vier shared use path. The construction portion is unfunded. The city is grant seeking for that. To the extent that we are not successful in receiving those grant funds, we would need to look at alternative financing solutions, whether that be PAYGO cash funding or bonding for that project or, looking at at other opportunities.

So I thought there was that grant portion that had actually been, committed from the federal government. Is that not accurate?

A portion of the design is grant funded.

I see. Okay.

So that that is already secured. Okay. Speaking about is that is the larger $3,000,000 figure, which would be the current projection for construction.

So that $3,000,000 that we've got for FY 2028 has not yet been funded through grants, which we're anticipating. And if we can't get the grants, then we've got to assess the degree to which can be funded from either the general fund or some other source.

That's correct.

Excellent. Okay. Thanks for that clarification. Actually, my next question, I know we've discussed this last year and you answered some great questions about as well, is a similar project. It's the Hurley Avenue replacement. I know we've been dealing with this particular bridge replacement since, I believe, FY 2016. And I know that there's an additional problems that we've had because I believe the SHA, State Highway Administration, had actually contracted with someone. The costs were different. Then in addition to that issue, we're still trying to ensure that we've got the federal funds for the replacement as well. I bring this up not just because I know that there's been difficulties.

I can tell you personally, I ride my bike over this area, and the gap that actually is between the bridge and the street has actually been widening and increasing to the point where my bike tire and a couple times have been off because I've noticed just in the past few years, it's adjusting. So I just want to kind of find out where we believe we are now that we've potentially gotten past the SHA problem and what they've done with that first design phase and whether we truly do believe that we're going to be able get through to start constructing in the '20 FY 2028.

So design sorry. Design completion is estimated for FY 2027, after which construction is expected to begin. Everything staff has indicates that this project will be federally funded because it meets all of the requirements for federal funding.

And we don't have any of the similar problems that the Scott Vere's shared use drive about having to find grants. We believe that as long as we can get through this design phase that I believe is quarterbacked by SHA, we're gonna be able to move forward with, and I think it's, like, about 5 and a half million dollars to be committed in FY 2028.

That's correct.

Okay. Thanks.

Thank you. The Hurley Bridge, just to follow-up on councilman Van Graig's question, in the book, it looks like it's FY '29. Is that when you're planning to be done with that if all goes well?

Completion in '29 but start in '28 for construction.

I wanted to just because people the residents ask us when am I going to see things. I want to just make sure that's why I'm stating some dates so the public is aware. And that federal funding hasn't been applied for you completing the design first. Is that right?

My understanding is that the design is required to be completed Okay.

Thank you. Doctor. Mills, back to you.

I have nothing further. Thank you again for staff answering questions in advance. The main question I have was with regard to water, storm water in the Potomac, which you've already answered both in brief book and tonight. And I associate myself largely with the comments and questions of my colleagues, but I have nothing. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Councilmember O'Leary. Yes. Hi. My next three.

Okay. This is this is more of a a but I think that we did raise this previously. And that was when we had all the work sessions about the farmstead, that we had discussed that there were a multitude of farms that were on the location, not just the King family, and that we wanted to look at it as a space for the entire entire city, and so the naming of the farmstead. And I didn't see that reflected in anything. And perhaps to Mr.

City Manager, what would we need to do from up here to make that decision at a bare minimum budgetarily? Because when people who are outside of the immediate neighborhood see that they do not feel that it's a City of Rockville project meant for them.

Naming and a naming convention and how we're gonna pay for it are absolutely mutually exclusive. If council wants to call any type of our facility or park a certain name, then we just need to hear that direction from council. There's a formal process adopted via resolution on how we go about that.

Okay. So, however, whatever our next steps, I think that there are some of us that would be interested in that. Again, with this sort of heavy city investment in this project, I believe that we need to be as welcoming and expansive about it as possible. And so if it's the way that we refer to it for the interim until we have a more formal naming process. I think that the words matter right now because of the amount of funding and resources that are going into it.

So I want to flag that. And however next steps on that, just let me know. But I have heard feedback from residents on that.

Councilmember Larry, just to follow-up, what do you need from the council, mister city manager, on this? Because I know we talked about it briefly during the King Farm Farm state discussions. We

we I absolutely remember the conversation. Candidly, I don't remember us, like, really getting down into what do we wanna call the park at the time until the park is open and people are using it. I'm not sure that decision needs to be made right now, but that's the prerogative of the board. If you guys want to direct us to put together a resolution to formally name the the property, we can certainly do that. Just let me know. Just would need a name too.

Thank you. And I think you're not asking for the exact name right now, but you just want to be referred to as the Rockville Farmstead.

Is that

what you're asking? And

if I see four heads bobbing up and down, I can do it.

Mean, I wave your thumb. Councilmember Jackson, go ahead.

Thank you, mayor. So I take your point. I just would ask that we don't make the decision right now, that we take it back and kind of work it out and get some resident feedback. I think there's maybe a good idea, but I have heard some people talking about it in King Farms. So it just needs to be socialized a little bit more is my point.

Thank you. Mr. Simander, do you have anything I to

mean, I don't have it right now, but we're going to be getting into design and I'm sure we're going to do a little bit of additional engagement as we get a little closer to Big Piece property. So let us think about some opportunities to do some engagement on formal naming, and we'll include counsel as part of that, if that's okay with everybody.

Thank you. And I get my colleague's point both as communication, but also just like the Rockville Swim Center is a citywide asset, I think, is what you're trying to convey.

Correct. That's really my point. It's not the Woodley College Gardens Swim Center. And I think that that's very intentional, right? We say what we mean, mean what we say. So thank you, Madam Mayor. That was really my point. I'm One not trying second.

Councilman Van Grak would like to opine on that one point.

Opine? Oh, yes.

Well, I mean, again, I'm open to a discussion. But there is I mean, we do have the Thomas Farm Community Center. So there is some localized discussion. And, like, I I am not against looking at other names. I just wanna make sure that we're looking at everything with a with a global perspective.

Thank you. I'm just gonna say, let's come back to this. I think we should make a note. I'm just watching the time and appreciate my colleagues re raising this comment and getting community feedback. You. Back to you.

Thank you. This is why we should have a history work session. I think we need to talk things out. I will never drop that. So I'm I'm gonna just go because that was a long first one.

Just hit a couple CIP that I saw slipping, delays. I did a comparison year to year of the the changes in the KPIs, the change in status, so bear with me on this one. The Twinbrook Community Center bathrooms. I was notified by a member of our D17 team that we were able to get that funding renewed, to which I said, oh, the LBI funding, what do you mean to revive it? So we did not spend that in the amount of time necessary for an LBI so that we had to have it included in a bill this session in order to not lose that money.

And staff had been my understanding is that staff had worked with d 17 absolutely fantastic. How do we get to that point, and what can we do to prevent that?

It's not exactly what happened. We actually were very efficient with the project. I'm proud to tell you we had leftover money, and we just asked if we could add additional resources to take advantage of that full funding of LBI. So that's we actually were able to do more improvements at the center itself. So let me get a more detailed explanation to you guys that I don't have in front of me right now.

Okay.

But it was actually good news, not bad news.

Okay. Yep. So that was that was that was not clear because if we had money left over, they would not have needed to put in for additional funding.

Yep. Understood. It was more just if there's money left over, how are we gonna spend it? We still have to report out. We can't do whatever we Correct. Want with

But if we if we had money left over, we can get into more detail, but Yeah. We wouldn't have needed for them to go and add it into a moving bill because we don't need the money. I just want to make sure that if we're going to bat for these LBIs and we're really trying to look at it like a variety of ways to get things funded, that just like we don't want to get into arbitrage issues, I don't think we want to get into the problematic, we're not moving on some of these projects in a way. I just want to make sure.

I'll I'll follow-up.

Okay. Yep. That would that would be terrific. Next up on the hit parade is SB 16, Croydon Creek, Calvin Park tributary. Can anybody share with me where we're at with that one? This has slipped. I I literally have a list called slippage. What's going on here? And has been some issues were because it is a coordinated plan or a project, rather. There was a historically significant dam that was discovered in FY 2020.

But I noticed that in FY 2026, the design completion shifted from well, I'm sorry, from 2025 to 2026. And now in in FY 2027, completion was adjusted from 2027 to 2028 based on the current construction schedule. Can somebody please explain to me? I feel like we have a lot of these different kind of pieces that are just floating out here, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Not to put you on the spot, Ms. DeFrancisco, but I am.

Sorry. With this particular project, there were some delays due to federal and state permitting as well as due to staffing shortages. In addition, staff have to look at the various stormwater management projects. And in some cases, there are projects that need to be escalated because conditions are deteriorating more rapidly than expected. Mhmm. And so there was a period of time where this was considered a more lower priority project relative to others in the city at the time. However, this project is currently under construction.

Correct. Estimated construction completion is now FY 2028? That's correct. Okay. Know, it's funny. This reminds me a lot of M. P. S. Right? Like, we got a little fire over here, we got to put it out over here.

We got a fire over here, we got to put it. There's a certain amount of that, but if we keep deferring some of this ongoing maintenance, we're going to have a project where the roof falls in, and we saw it come in from a mile away. And I think a lot of the stream restoration in particular falls under that, which is my concern. My last one for now is TA 20, Stone Street Corridor Improvements. Here's another long, long running CIP.

Just wondering where we're at with that, and I know that that's gonna be another significant need for funding.

So the stone the Stone Street corridor improvement project, has received two MDOT grants for both feasibility and design. There were some delays encountered in negotiations with MDOT. Staff is currently pursuing a federal earmark and a safe streets and roads for all grants for construction. That's why some portion of it is shown as unfunded. And the project is currently between 3060% design. That's where things are right now.

It's currently between 3060% design? Correct. That is a big swath of okay. Good to know. I think that overall, there's a method to my madness here. I like to compare year to year, and if certain projects that keep saying, Now we're estimating, with no context, it's very difficult to then be able to explain to residents, to

the

neighborhood, Why haven't we moved this project? Because that's kind of our role. Super last question, and then I'll stop. RB twenty twenty two, the Horizon Hill Park Bridge, did that get merged into the park pedestrian bridge improvements CIP, or is that one just still hanging out there?

Horizon Hill is still a stand alone project because of where it was when that transition took place. Okay. So Horizon Hill remains a stand alone, but the other project, I believe it was Wooten's. Yeah. Wooten's was rolled into the the now multi year multi site project for pedestrian bridges.

Okay. Because I noticed that the Horizon Hill Park Pedestrian bridge as well had a kind of slippery completion next steps. So I was trying to kind of get a sense if you had moved everything over. But then I looked, double checked against the budget book, and we don't have all the park pedestrian bridges in there. So is it gonna, like, eventually get moved in there just to keep things organized?

I'm not sure I understood your question.

So it's actually, like, park pedestrian bridge improvements since Horizon Hill Park and then there are other ones. Are we just trying to move them all from stand alone CIP to one? Next budget, would Horizon Hill Park Bridge get moved into this?

No, it will go away because it's already in the works. It's already in progress. So we're letting that project finish and go through completion. And then going forward, we will have pedestrian bridges as part of that one single project. It becomes a multi site project instead of all these discrete projects.

That makes sense. Thank you for that explanation. This project, the Horizon Hill one, is expected completion by the end of this year?

2027. The 2027.

Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. I wanted to go back to the questions on the debt. I was just rereading, and I wanted to clarify some things for the listening public. Most of the debt is because of large scale infrastructure and enterprise funds. Is that correct? Right. So I think it's about $78,000,000 Okay. And we manage water and our pipes. And you have that well covered because it's covered by fees, correct?

Excellent. A smaller portion, 22,000,000, is in taxpayer funded. I also noted that you're going to be retiring I'm assuming paying off about $10,000,000 that. Is that for enterprise funds or is that for taxpayer supported debt? And I apologize, it's page six of the brief book if anyone wants to follow along.

The easiest way to see what's being retired in terms of taxpayer supported debt is this schedule that I've just put on the screen. So you can see f y twenty twenty seven and then f y twenty twenty eight, it drops down. That's because this dark the GO advanced refunding 2016 b, this burgundy block that you see in the 2027 column goes away. That's when we're paying off that portion. That's the only, taxpayer supported piece that is being retired in fiscal year twenty twenty seven. Any other, retirement of debt is is coming from those enterprise funds, which are supported by ratepayers.

Thank you. I just wanted to make sure folks know that we are, as you noted to my colleagues, handling everything responsibly and that the majority of the debt is in enterprise funds, which are supported ratepayers. Okay. Thank you. So I had some questions about the swim facility improvement project on page four fifteen. It looks like it's still open, but we have completed most of the pool work. Is there something else being planned?

Are we talking about the outdoor recreation pool?

It says swim facilities improvement, page four fifteen. I'll go to it as well. Outdoor recreation pool renovation. Yes.

Yes. That project is substantially complete. You all were at the ribbon cutting and went down the slides, and all of all of that is essentially complete, but there are a couple of just last punch list items and verifications that have to be completed before we formally close the project.

Okay. I wanted to clarify. Yes. I wasn't sure if you're thinking of putting I know everyone's been asking for the outdoor bubble.

This is just project closeout.

Okey dokey. Not that I'm opposed to it because I know everyone is asking for that.

So far, we're bubble free.

For sure.

Alright. Thank you very much. The stream restoration for Anderson Park noted terminated due to lack of state funds. Is can you just help us understand what's going on there? I do realize that there's some state funds changing for a variety of things. But is that a project that we need to find funding elsewhere for? Do we have to figure that out? Do we have to figure anything out there?

So this one is a little bit more complicated because this project has encountered some delays and rescoping because MDOT SHA did withdraw funds for the private portion on the Plymouth Woods property. Then they reinstated those funds, then they withdrew the funds again. So this has been a bit of a roller coaster ride. MDOT acquired the easement from Plymouth Woods. The project is back under design to eliminate the SHA portion of the project. So there have been some delays, certainly, but it is we are moving forward.

Okay. Thank you for that. Is there a way I know that at the beginning of the budget book, you kind of outlined how many major projects you have going on and how many are carrying over from the previous year. What do you say is the best way for us to kind of keep track of what is delayed for whatever reason so that we it doesn't feel like a needle in the haystack? Because there are sometimes it's like state or federal funding has shifted, the ground is changing, or something happened when the contracting side. It could be a variety of reasons. But we do want to continue to track where things are and not just wait for the budget time period for that.

Well, within the budget document, each project has its own page. And we show a section and provide a narrative, changes from previous year. That's a good place to identify anything that's changed from the previous year. There's also notes. And the notes can talk about things such as changes in funding or any grants that might be ongoing. So those are the areas where I would recommend that any member of the public look to see what is going on and what the status is with the project. Now these are all at a certain moment in time, so things can change. A a budget document is is not necessarily gonna be reflective of everything over the next entire year because things can can change for sure.

So but I I would imagine at some point, some of these major projects will be incorporated into results Rockville so we can see things more clearly. I'm just looking at mister city manager.

And and a number of them are in results Rockville. Yep. And you can see the color changes if we get too far behind. There's also a column within results rock. So what can show the reason for any changes.

Thank you. Okay.

The water treatment plant, it was noted that the PFAS work would be completed in 2036. I just wanted to check on that. I know that our levels are safe, but if you could just help us to understand what's going on with that project. And is this something that we should be doing sooner? I will also note there's a high school student has pioneered something where she's been able to filter PFAS out of water. So I thought that was pretty neat as well. Go ahead.

Madam Mayor, if you can restate your question, we can add it into the Q and A and share an update.

Yes. No problem. It's the water treatment plant PFAS project slated to be completed in 2036. Is there anything given we're talking about PFAS that we should be thinking about sooner for that?

Should we be doing anything sooner is the question.

We'll definitely follow-up on that.

Okay. And I believe there was some litigation that was happening. Maybe you're waiting for funds. I just I wanted to just better understand that.

Yeah. It doesn't have anything to do with the litigation.

But it's

just that that's I'll just really quickly, PFAS is something that kinda came up pretty quickly over the past five years. And the good news is now the technology and ways to mitigate that are actually increasing as well. So we could see some ways to improve that situation between now and '26 to the good, not to the bad.

That's great.

And if we identify something that we think will be a good investment for the city to make that happen sooner rather than later, we'll certainly bring that to your attention.

Thank you. And then I really appreciate that you raised the Potomac interceptor piece. I do think we probably should just have a footnote about it in your final budget book on how you're handling that. There's another thing that came up that was after budget development, somewhat of a surprise is not on the CIP side but on operating with the Time to Care Act, 02/2000 that we're planning for that.

Madam Mayor, we're still underway on that because there is some changing information for those of us that are gonna go out to the private market.

Thank you. And I believe there's a webinar coming up. If you haven't gotten it, will forward

you the information. Might be. Susan, our HR director, is definitely keeping Jeff and I informed about

the latest. Just wanted to kind of have it in the narrative of what we're dealing with so that in the future we have this documented of things that came up that we had to address. Thank you very much. Councilmember Jackson.

Thank you, mayor. So first of all, this is really impressive. You two are really a great asset to the city. And thank you for taking all these questions and just honestly off the top of your head being able to answer them. I'm really, really impressed by that. Let me just take a step back for the listening public. We're talking about the CIP. Can you tell us a little bit about the CIP, like how projects are solicited, how they're deciding on, how they're prioritized,

Thank you for the question. I'd be happy to answer that. We get projects from a number of different places. We do have an annual proposal project process. Associations.

We get ideas from the public. In addition, we consider other forms of feedback that we receive, things that we hear during prior budget years, things that we're receiving as requests from the community. Our own internal inspections also serve to inform a number of project needs, things like, you know, sidewalk inspections, road inspections, playground inspections, things like that that go on on an all ongoing basis. When projects are developed and submitted, those come from internal departments. Ultimately, project managers step forward and take ownership of those projects and submit them.

They undergo a scoring process. The budget document highlights the city's current scoring matrix, which includes things like project readiness, community impact, equity, environmental impacts, things like that. The full listing is in the budget document, health and safety, connection to adopted plans and policies. There's a scoring process that gets underway. In addition, there is an internal committee of staff members from across departments that review and evaluate and then rank projects.

This also includes things like site visits. So all of those things come together ultimately in a report that's provided to the city manager and is part of what informs his decisions on what is included and funded in the proposed budget.

Thank you. I just think that it was important because we were up here and we were kind of skipping around talking about the budget, which is fine, but residents could maybe get a skewed idea of how it actually works and how projects actually get proposed and on the CIP list. So thank you for actually clarifying that. And it's good to know that there's really a defined process for getting on the CIP list. It is not just kind of people propose that this and it gets on the list and debated by the council. So thank you for clarifying the process. Thank you.

You. Councilmember Shah. Thank

you. I don't have any questions this round. Thank you.

You. Councilman Van Graig.

So, I have a question with regard to some of the stream restorations that we've got in the project. I know we've discussed it in the past. I know that I've, in numerous years, we've been pushing it off, you know, for another five, six years. And I understand in discussing with you and other staff members the need to do so because quite frankly, not only with the cost, but to the extent that it could cause more pollution with some of the work that we do. However, and I'm specifically referring to the Wooten Mills Park, stream restoration and the Watts Branch Lower Stream.

I know that I've heard from, numerous community members in that area, and there's actually a stream portion in between those two sections that actually is owned by the Falls Meade consortium and corporation that runs their kind of HOA and community center. And they have talked about some of the erosion erosion that they're facing. Has there been any discussion about what the effect of what they might be doing to their stream, which is in between our two sections, might affect the Stream Corridor as a whole?

We would be happy to put that in the next q and

a. Okay.

To you on that.

Alright. That's great. And and I guess along with that with the q and a, I know that every year, I kind of bring this up because we've got the MPDES municipal stormwater permit compliance that we've got to deal with. And as long as we don't foresee anything, I know that it's not something that we need to address. However, I know having walked through this area, the erosion is clearly increasing.

And I just want to make sure that there isn't any foreseeable even in the next five years because I think we're looking at not even addressing this till FY either 2030 or 2031 that we're not getting ourselves into a situation where the erosion could happen and that we need to act more quickly dealing with our compliance for the storm water permits that I know we've got.

Yeah. The current conditions, I've been out there too. Current conditions don't suggest that it's in any any imminent threat right now, but that's why we go out and continue to assess the situation. And if it gets worse again, it won't be Bachelor of coming forward with an emergency appropriation.

Great. Thank you very much.

Councilmember Vallari?

Yes. Hello. I would be remiss if I did not ask about my beloved, my favorite, TC22. If you could just give the Twinbrook pedestrian bicycle bridge, if you could just give Mr. City manager the two minute update on that project. I know there are many people, even at this hour, waiting with bated breath on TC 22.

What we can share is somewhat limited, but we can say that staff are currently negotiating prices after conducting an RFP for the feasibility study. That's actively under negotiation. Then that, depending on the price, of course, will come to the body for award.

Okay. I love that. Awesome. Thank you. And I just like saying TC22.

So next, I want to raise from the planned improvement projects list the ADA improvements. We have that as being implemented 2028 through 2031 for funding to continue the implementation of the assessment report and remove barriers to accessibility under Wreck and Parks. I definitely feel this one a little personally, as my dad was unable to see my son's last baseball game before he passed away because we did not have an ADA accessible baseball field. So I would love for this to be moved up because life is short and we should have ADA accessible facilities across the board. I'm sorry?

Can you clarify the name of that?

Sorry. It's under planned improvement projects. It's on page five thirty seven under Reckenbach ADA improvements. Funding is 300,000 per year. I think not that shabby for people to be able to enjoy things equitably.

I'd love that something again, if it's starting in 2028, I guess we're getting close to moving this from the planned improvement projects to the current CIP. Am I correct?

So planned improvement projects are typically projects that are being considered for future operating budget funding, not necessarily a capital project.

Okay.

The amounts and dates are really just projections. Each year, every item has to be evaluated. All these items if I might compete against one another for finite resources that the city has. And so having something included as a PIP or even as a long range CIP project is not a guarantee of future funding, but it is an indicator of what we're looking forward to and where we're headed.

Okay.

No. That's really helpful. I know madam mayor has a follow-up on this. I would really urge us and urge my colleagues that I think we can do better than waiting this long on some of these improvements. I know it's a priority for me, know for others, and we're going through a JEDI strategic plan right now. I would hope that we could prioritize this.

Thank you for the opportunity to ask a follow-up question on this very point. I was looking at that same section. It's labeled ADA audit and transition plan update. I think in the narrative, it noted that the last plan was done in 2016, and it seems like it's been, as of this year, will be more than ten years. So if it's just the audit and plan, looked like completion for 2029.

That is something similarly that I was concerned. I know we've had a number of conversations about ADA in particular. If we're just doing the audit and plan that we might and that's not being done until 2029, then that will be many, many years after before it gets implemented. I would just wonder, are we on a cycle to get that done every ten years versus after that? Because that will be a bit more than ten years by the time it's completed.

So we have added staff to our ADA compliance team.

Mhmm.

Great staff too. We are working on updates to our plan. First, reviewing what we've been able to accomplish and then to see also what potentially did we miss so many years So we're in the process of updating that plan. If there is an opportunity for us to continue to move

up

those 80 improve ADA improvements, we'll do that. What we have been doing, though, and I think you guys are aware of this, is that when we go into a park site to make improvements, we are gonna bring it up to compliance with ADA. That's what we do. So it's hard for us to say we're gonna do everything in a fell swoop or in manageable chunks when we're trying to do it on a a project by project basis. And yet if we are gonna touch a park, we're gonna do it all at the same time.

That was my long winded way of saying, I think we have a very good robust plan. It needs to be updated a touch. And then much like some of the other projects I mentioned before, you'll see ADA improvements in the city throughout the city for many, many years to come. We're not behind per se, but yet we have plenty of work to do.

So this is the audit itself. Are you thinking that because you did an audit in 2016, there's still such a long list to do on the projects that you're waiting to do another audit? I know you're doing some of the park stuff, but I'm just trying to because what specifically we're asking about is the audit and transition plan update. So that's just an audit, not necessarily doing all the work just yet.

I probably didn't articulate it, but we're trying to do both at the same time.

Okay.

We're doing park improvements, ADA accessibility as we can, and we're making sure our audit's still in good shape that we didn't miss anything before. And if we see additional, substandard areas, we'll build that into the budget as well.

Okay. That that's actually very helpful. Thank you. And I just don't want those sort of things to get lost in the shuffle. Last thing that I have on the CIP is and thank you to Councilmember Jackson for bringing up kind of what the process asking the question about what the CIP process looks like.

I've seen it from the other side. I've seen it from this side now. And so I am curious. We've received feedback, requests, advocacy from the East Rockville and actually the Twinbrook community as well on a pedestrian connection between East Rockville and Twinbrook that would connect the two over 28, over 1st Street. I know that we're always very hesitant to look at big projects.

I know that this is something that the East Rock Wolf Civic Association and I believe it was last year also the Twinbrook Community Association advocated for and has a great unintended effect of making it easier for people in Twinbrook to access Redgate, which we're putting all this awesome funding into. And this is probably more for Mr. City Manager. This came through on proposal project. This came through letters both this year and last year, not the year before.

How could we get that idea moving? I think it does kind of a twofold of connecting two neighborhoods that are divided by yet another urban highway, but would also make it easier for one neighborhood to access the amenities at Redgate. And I would really like to see us start even putting it on the plan improvement projects or long range CIP planning because I think that we have a a better chance of moving this forward than getting SHA to do anything on that road. And I think this would be the time to do it. So I would love to hear from mister city manager on this community idea and how we can help to make that happen.

Yeah. I think you I think one the things you said is exactly right. It's a big project, very big project. Lots of zeros behind it. A lot of potentially quite complicated engineering, great separation, utility relocation. I mean, you name it. It could have all of those things. It's such a big project that we need more time than trying to muscle it into the current year budget. What I might suggest is that when the council reconvenes in August, September to talk about key initiatives for next year, if, the body, wants to initiate a feasibility study on the front end, that would be the best first step to do that because it's it's a it's a massive project.

No. Trust me. As somebody who pulled together all the content and idea for the Twinbrook Pedestrian Bridge, I know what it means to take on a big project. But I think it it, it shows an investment in a community. It shows an investment in a neighborhood. So that's why I always like to ask about that one. To that point, Mr. City Manager, this would fall under a key initiative, which is a little bit different in terms of the process that we just heard from the wonderful budget staff?

It would.

Okay. So that is actually to the public's point as well. And thank you, by the way, as always. I feel like the budget team and I go way back. They know all my questions come from love and the fact that I love pouring through the budget probably more than just about anyone except the mayor. So thank you all for all the hard work, and I look forward to putting this project on the key initiatives coming up. Thank you.

I appreciate you raising the East RockvilleTwinbrook connection. That's something I'm also interested in learning more about. But more broadly, the proposed projects that you were sharing earlier, we did get a lot of input from residents on vision there were a lot of pedestrian safety improvements that were requested. I know back when we first started this process, I just said, are we tracking? Are we triaging?

And I believe the team said yes. I I do think it would be helpful for the mayor and council at some point to get an update on, like, that's too expensive or we're moving forward on that just because there's such a long list and people did there was a there were a couple of times where there was numerous people sharing similar feedback, and I thought there were some really good proposal projects in there. So I just kind of want to see how you mentioned that you are taking that data and ranking it so that as we go into the strategic planning session in September, we have that body in mind. Sometimes we get those projects later in the process. You've already done your budget book.

It's you know? So I kinda wanna see how we can get ahead and look at what are the some of those projects we wanna consider for the next budget process. Okay. Thank you. On that note, there is an unfunded project in for the West End noise barrier. I know that's because of the state. And we've got also the Woodley Gardens noise barrier and noise study and David Skull. For the for the one that's in West End, I was just curious to see if we're following up with SHA or is that just kind of no movement at this time?

Yeah. There's been no movement at this time. We actually, I believe, pulled the project sheet out last year, this current year. It's not even in

the book anymore. There's something in there because I found it going through it again.

I think it's in the long range.

It's a long

range of

CIP. Yes.

We put

it in long range because there just had been any traction on it in such a long time that we didn't want to send the message that something was gonna happen in the next five years when it is truly uncertain.

I appreciate that. I just think that as we're looking at David Skull and others, I just that has been a long standing issue, and I just wanted to recognize it and maybe even give a little nudge as we're still waiting for that because I know that was promised to us. The other project that I didn't that I didn't see in the budget book, and I don't think it has to be short term, even just to acknowledge, Rockcrest Ballet Center is not falling apart but in need of repair. I just wanted to is it on your radar in the longer term to consider?

Yeah. We're looking through long range and planned improvement projects now. We'll get back to you. We can't find it.

That makes total sense. I just think that we should put it on a radar if it's not there. I know we don't have money for it now, but it's something that it's pretty outdated.

Understood. At least an acknowledgment, right?

Yes. Thank you so much. All right. And then I had a couple questions about KPIs, if that's okay. So it looks like our utility costs are going up $0.02 $5,000,000 particularly our electricity costs. And so I really appreciate the work that you all have been doing on LEDs. The solar project seems to have slipped from looking at the last two budget books where we were at. Like, this time last year, we're talking about three solar projects. In the budget book this year, we're saying we're just gonna complete the Lincoln Park and then we're gonna design one. And I just understand I wanna I know that the body has talked about this.

We do need to find ways to have more renewable energy and to deal with the fact that a quarter of $1,000,000 is not buying us anything new. It literally is just paying for higher rates of electricity. And so I was just concerned about not not moving that along faster. And there's been a couple of timelines that have shifted theirs.

I agree that has shifted a little bit. And some of it has to do with federal funding, some it has to do with contractor interest and availability. But we are gonna get Lincoln Park done this year. It's in design right now, and then we expect that to be under construction as early as early June. And we expect to have a ribbon cutting, which will be the, Lincoln Park Community Center itself, the new mural, a refurbished mural, and the solar all at the same time.

So that'll be a wonderful celebration with a lot of ribbons. Let's just call it that. So that'll be cool. Then at the same time, we're gonna send out RFP, RFQ. They actually try to find, a contractor that's willing to partner with us over the long term to make a number of different solar improvements at a number of city facilities. We've identified at least six with the first one being this facility to put solar on the roof, but also solar over our parking structures I'm sorry, our parking spaces. So it's dual things. It creates energy. It also creates shade. So that's our goal.

And then every year after that is to have a new solar project come online. I think it's a good strategy. It's a newer strategy. I think there's some science behind it. The only challenge we have is unless we get into a purchase power agreement, funding that with city dollars could be a bit of a challenge, but the the purchase power agreements could get us in the right spot. But we understand the energy and desire from this body to move forward, and I think we have a good plan for it.

Thank you. In the last budget cycle, we said we would get three, and now I'm hearing two. So I know you're going have

over I have a eight actually.

Right. But I'm just saying that's over many years versus we were looking at having three by the end of the fiscal year. So could we at least get two instead of just City Hall? Just because with this has fallen behind, like let's and the costs are going up, I just want to be mindful of taxpayer dollars as well. Like, it will pay itself off over time. And I'd rather spend money on getting something that's gonna add save us money long term than it literally just goes over to paying high utility costs.

Let us get through the RFP, RFQ process for those seven and I'll have to circle back with you. And if we can muscle in another one, we will. But I don't have enough data right now to answer that question.

Okay. We'll be watching that very closely. Thank you. Similarly with the EV, there are some parts of that EV plan implementation that are listed as unfunded. It just stood out to me, so I just wanted to flag that.

There's a portion of that project that remains unfunded because it deals with more heavy duty vehicles. And right now, there is not a lot of information, compelling information, about those heavy duty electric vehicles. So it's something that we are continuing to monitor and gauge the feasibility and reliability of those vehicles.

Okay. Thank you. And I will also just note just other things on the KPIs and the accomplishments pages. To speak to my colleague, Councilman Volari, who raises this all the time, it was striking to see that we plant 28,000 annuals and only three eighty eight perennials. I know that's not CAP, but it really struck me to see those numbers.

In solidarity, I just wanted to know in terms of cost saving, it might be something to look at long term. And then because we're looking at trying to bring in more revenue and be business friendly, house friendly, resident friendly, there was some of the KPIs for permit reviews. To me, those should be 95% for all, but I just wanted to flag that. Some of them were not. Know that we're adding personnel last year and this year, and so hopefully we can push those KPIs up. Councilmember Valeri.

Just super quick. Thank you, Madam Mayor, for giving me a shout out on flowering annuals versus perennials. On that point, it would be significant cost savings, especially in the long term, much like LED conversion, much like solar will be as well. I would love to see, during the implementation of solar at City Hall, to see the conversion away from single use annuals to a native garden in front of our City Hall, I think that would be a fantastic and more cost efficient way to kind of show our support for our climate action goals. Maybe that's something we can do.

Are you offering to organize a weeding party too?

I would love that. I absolutely would. And I'm happy to do so in any neighborhood in the city.

Just looking down the line to see if there are any more CIP specific questions. Do you have any follow ups for us?

No. We can transition into our final balancing exercise if that's okay.

Yes. Thank you.

While Kim pulls it up, I'll just mention what we're gonna do tonight. Similar to what we've done in past years, we've gone ahead and taken the proposed revenue and expenditure numbers, updated those for all the knowns that have happened since the proposed budget has come out. And then we have a difference between revenues and expenditures as available capacity. And we have a short list here of things that we thought we heard from the last work session that the Baron Council wanted to entertain on the list. We can add to the list. We can take away from the list. This is just a place to get us started. We could see it's in Excel format. Kim can add and take away. We can change the numbers with the goal of having everything balanced at the end of the night.

So this strictly deals with the general fund capacity. And if we can see from this spreadsheet on Row 17 with all the changes that took place between proposed and adopted on the administrative side so when I say administrative side, we update all our personnel numbers for current salaries and current benefit elections, and we also look at other things that had changed between proposed and adopted. We have $36,300 in contractual increases since the proposed budget as well as the removal of $50,000 that was inadvertently budgeted twice. So that helped give us some capacity, from our additional revenues that we did see from tax duplication, and then we had to, again, reduce for licenses and permits per the mayor and council's instruction from the first work session. Having said all that, that leaves us with a 131,400 in available capacity.

And then starting on Row 19 in those yellow rows, you can see some of the items that we had inputted into the spreadsheet as a result of our last work session. So Madame Mayor, I think we'll turn it over to you if you want to discuss those yellow lines and add or delete as needed. Okay. Just to summarize,

because I know some of my colleagues were talking about this at the last meeting. So you have up already included the changes we noted for Rockwell Volunteer Fire Department. I see 100 there. Just can we do a thumbs up on that? I I think that's what we all agreed to, but just just want to see.

That brings it up to a 100?

Yes.

Okay. So we're giving okay. It's breaking my brain a little.

Yes. Okay. Alright. So the peerless grant funding, I know there was substantial conversation. There were three of us who were the keeping them where they were last year. There were some of us who were at 75. I want to try to meet in the middle on there on eighty, but I wanted to propose that to my colleagues. I have some comments on that. Doctor. Myles?

Your proposal is for 80, Madam Mayor? I'm cool with that. That works for me.

I would

be supportive of getting to that point with some very clear direction from the body on seeing as more of a partnership and being much more intentional about the work that we're seeing coming from them. I see that we have a place making plan line and whether or not this is connected. But I would really like to give some tangible things like being very much part of historical placemaking with no strings attached to that historical placemaking. I think that if this is the direction that we're going to go with support for them, that it's not unreasonable parameters to it, and I would really urge us to do so.

Thank you. I would support and I know that there are things that we would like to understand better and appreciate the work that because we don't have that source happening internally. Just kind of really looking at archives and making sure that we have an understanding of how the archiving is happening. I know the things that the city clerk has wanted help on on archiving, and I just wanna make sure we're looking at specifically how we're archiving the recent past. I would also love to see programmatic updates quarterly.

I know some of my colleagues have mentioned that. And then some of my colleagues have also talked about signs and just helping getting their support on looking at what are the next five to seven historic signs in terms of that place making and also sort of thinking about getting out into the different neighborhoods and sharing the history of them. So I just wanted to reiterate some of the feedback that I've heard from some colleagues on that. Councilmember Jackson, do you want to just go down the line? Okay. Councilmember Jackson, go ahead. I'll pass. Councilmember Shah.

I also agree, Madam Mayor, with placemaking and the archival work and also more frequency with reporting. They shared that they were doing some really excellent work around recording the voices and stories of seniors who experience integration within Rockville. And that is very, very special work that I think we need now more than ever. I would recommend actually 85,000.

I agree. You and I were at 90. I'm trying to get to a number that we can all approve.

The current number is 95?

Yeah,

I would recommend 85. Thank

you. Councilman Van Grugg.

I was fine with bringing them up from 25,000 to 75. I mean, with regard to the proposal that you're proposing, madam mayor, I think I could support 80,000, but I would really like to see I know they do some events, and I know I've talked with some of the Peerless folks. I'd like to see more of an integration with economic development and Peerless, where Ackfield really truly has some amazing history. And more than just, you know, holding some, you know, events where some people can go, I'd like to see more of an integration or even a work with Peerless for getting out throughout Maryland and the DMV area, what Rockville can offer just being part of this in what we have in the city. We've got history.

We've got a metropolitan city center where the county seat with history. And to the extent Peerless can maybe work with Ready or the chamber to really help with our economic development, that's something that I'd really like to see from Peerless. I know they do a lot of work, with archiving, with preservation. But if we're gonna be giving money to them and one of our focus is in economic development, I'd like to see that money benefit the city to what they're doing. So I I I think I could support the proposal for 80, but I'd really like to see them work with economic development in the city to highlight, which in turn could bring the city more money with economic development, which could help then in turn appear less in the future.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I I do support the economic development. Actually, I've talked to them about, you know, the kind of comments you've made in terms of eco history tourism and how you can advertise it on sites like Viator and through Visit Montgomery and Visit Maryland sites. So I totally agree. And I I will just say the feedback I'm hearing also makes me think about whether this is more appropriate for Grant or like more of a contract relationship given the unique arrangement they have with the city. But I just wanted to flag that comment as well. Councilor Jackson, did you want us to

come back to you?

Yeah. So I was listening to the debate, and I actually think that is an interesting idea. The same way that we're talking about Ready and building that relationship to make it kind of stronger between the city and Ready, doing something like that with Peerless and the city makes a lot of sense to me. I think that I could support eighty, but with the understanding that there will be some more ties and there will be some more expectations Peerless going forward. I mean, we did bring this up, and we would be remiss not to say that there was a committee that looked at funding or grants applications for grants and then awarding grantees.

And they chose to fund Peerless at 50. Now, don't know why, and I trust that the committee knew what they were doing. So this counsel, in his wisdom, chose to add 25,000 more to Peerless, which is in its right. And I will support 80. But I just say that.

I mean, this is a decision by the council, and we are overturning or adding to what was decided at the community level. And we just we should recognize that, and we should make it rare rather than second guessing the committee. So I would support Eddie, but I just want to put that out there that we, by and large, should support what the committee did because the committee put a lot of work into grant program.

I agree. I'll also note that we are adding funds for Rockville Volunteer Fire Department and Rockville Science Center as well, which is different. Councilmember Shah.

I may be in the minority here, but just listening to the conversation where we wanna add economic development and different types of history across the city. And all of these things are incredibly important. And council member Valeri, you also had a list of histories that you wanted to explore. So it just seems like we're asking them to do more and funding them at a lower amount.

Council Member Shah, I was at keeping them where they were last year. I know that we also added 10,000 last year for two fifty. So I just want to flag that. It was over and above. So that would have been 85. I don't think we have the numbers, you and I, on that. So I just want to flag that. We're trying to meet somewhere in the middle so that we can get this done. And I appreciate your Yes.

And I understand that. I'm not in the majority here, but I just wanted to note that we are asking asking more.

Yeah. And I I do think that we might wanna look at, given the unique role, it seems more like a contract than a grant to me. Councilman Valeri.

I agree on the contractor point for sure. And this does feed into my idea for a work session on history preservation not historic and to Councilmember Van Grak's point, there is a way and many of us were present Councilmember Jackson and I were present at a wonderful physical manifestation of the history around Harriet Tubman, and it was interactive. I think there are so many cool things we can do if it means that we're looking at this relationship from more of a contractor place that we can set sort of defined goals, then if that works, I'm all for it. I just really want to I want us to look at history in new and exciting ways. It was part of our Town Center Master Plan, and we did not touch it.

Nobody brought it up, and we didn't hear a lot about it. So I think that there's this untapped potential across the board for doing something good. I appreciate it, and thank you to Madam mayor and others for that idea.

Thank you. Okay. So, Rockville Can

I say clarifying question? I just wanna make sure I got this right. So the, recommended funding at approved funding at $80,000

Mhmm.

But the grant agreement should include that this council wants them to stress kinda really the, correlation and connection between economic development history and tourism through the use of interpretive signage, any economic development partnership programming. They should also describe the archiving work that they're doing that benefits the city and your preferences that they that you all get quarterly written updates. So all that will be within their grant agreement.

I don't need quarterly written agreements per se to the comment of my colleague. Like, I'm not asking for a full report other than what you normally require. But I'm just like, just come share with us, even if it's during community forum. Just a quick drop on here some of the programmatic ideas. I think the listening public would benefit from that. We would.

Even better, Mary. Thank you.

And I think we noted just archive, understanding how we're archiving recent history, looking at recommendations on signage so that they're involved in that, and then exploration. They've done some really cool programming on Rock Ville neighborhoods in the past and finding ways to revive that. Thank

you. So I think I'm hearing consensus around total support for Peerless at 80,000 Yes.

Next, we're moving to the Rockville Science Center. This is more to keep them in line with where they were at $80,000 And I'm just asking for a thumbs up and then we can thumbs up. Okay, great. All thumbs up. And then we have a question from Councilmember Larry.

Yes, I was kind of wondering I presume it was the decision of the committee to propose this reduction. I'm just curious overall on some of these grants with existing partners. I think the Rockville Science Center is another good example of a very close partnership with the city that we may want to look at differently, seeing as it is the largest Rockville Science Day is the largest STEM festival in the entire county. I think it's something to be super proud of and does tie into economic development and other kind of awesome stuff. This is a Mr.

City Manager. Do we look at for these requests that are the exact same amount from year to year, do we look at those with an eye toward the effects of inflation in particular on these nonprofits?

We really rely on the the grantee to adjust their funding amount request to address inflation. The challenge we had this year, and I probably didn't talk about it at the outset, we had many more requests, individual requests for grant funding this year. And actually, the total amount of funding that we have requested this year was the most in the city's history, and I can't stress enough that we recommended more in the city's history. There's just a lot of ask and a lot of requests. I think the committee generally did a particularly nice job of laying out as much as they could, but you're right. Inflation is a factor, but I think all of the grantees are experiencing them. Are them.

Yep. No. I I agree. As as someone who works at a nonprofit, it's driving everything right now. So, yes, I would absolutely agree with getting the Science Center up to the 80,000. No caveats. I just want to make sure that we can continue to support the largest STEM festival in the county.

Question. I heard that we used to have a liaison for Rockville Science Center, kind of like we do for Sister City. I just want to understand if that's if that is any in anyone's history book.

If we

if we find that out, we'll let you know.

Thank you very much. Okay. Alright. Next is the legal services grant funding, and there was discussion about that wasn't a category that the mayor and council had flagged in the past as we're moving forward, but we're going to have a workshop to discuss categories of funding in the future. Any comments on this? Okay. Next, I don't know if placemaking is the right name, but it's beautification, placemaking, all things awesome Rockville. I think we had support for this all around. And I know you've been starting work on this, but just thumbs up? Okay.

All right. And then I'm going to go down the line and see if there's anything else anyone wanted to raise as a follow-up to community grants as we close this section out.

Vallari? I did want to ask the question and kind of put it out there. The cut to the Interfaith Works clothing grant, They had requested 80, which is a modest increase from FY 'twenty six. I know that their facility is in need of help. The current owner of the facility probably will not be making the needed I was trying to be polite, Madam Mayor.

I'm not trying to get in trouble again. MCPS owns the building. It is not in good repair and I think that they could use that because in particular when you can't have a solid temperature or water comes in and you're in a clothing distribution, presents some challenges. So I just wanted to put it out there to my colleagues that we're actually cutting them 16 because adopted for interfaith works for FY '26 was 76. So if we could get them either anywhere between 76 and 80, I think that that would be great because that's something that we're gonna see more of in the coming year for sure.

Did I see that you all were gonna make a comment about this one? Manager. The

$76,000, referenced for the adopted f y twenty twenty six budget includes $16,000 for security cameras. That was a onetime equipment element that was part of the ask for f y twenty six.

And so Was that for the Interfaith Worth clothing distribution or for the shelter? Pretty sure the security cameras were for

the the the funding was added to this grant is what I can tell you. The funding was added there. Maybe it was supposed to show up in a different place, but my understanding is that that was $16,000 allocated for security cameras for '26. And so then that base would have been 60,000 if you are comparing apples to apples '26. Gotcha. '27.

But they requested they're requesting 80. And if you kinda use the metrics for like, take for instance just gonna throw somebody out there. Mana Food Center. Think cutting them by more than 10,000 is kind of like an edge case in this regard. I think they got if those were the cameras, then it definitely got kind of blended together even though they were two very separate things.

But if we're looking at some of the basics, such as food, shelter, clothing, care, that we know are going to be stretched thin in the coming year, if not longer, I think we should have a discussion on increasing that. That actually would also be applicable to MANNA as well as So What Else, which are all down from what they requested.

Not down from last year, but not exactly what they requested.

Exactly. Not exactly. Sorry. Not down from FY 'twenty six, but less than what they requested. And if these are our top priorities, the basics, I think we should have that conversation.

Can you just clarify, we have two buckets for Interfaith Works, correct? One at $60,000 and one at 65 Okay. Thank you.

One's for clothing and one's for food?

Yep. Okay. Total in total, that $124,100 dollars

Madam Mayor, just for context, we got about $2,800,000 in requests, and the proposal is about $1,800,000

Which that makes sense for sure. I just want to make sure that we're being thoughtful about the nonprofits providing the basic necessities right now because we're going into a very tough time, and if we have to make those tough decisions, that's where I want to stand on the side of.

They do great work. I would support a modest increase for sure. Know there's a lot it's a tough budget. I did have another question about another grantee where it looks like it was lower than last year, and I wanted to understand. For immigration services, community reach, and language outreach program, which we heard from multigenerational support for. They had 50,000 last year and went down to 45,000. Did something change that warranted a cut? Did they ask for less? I I thought they asked for at least equal or more, but I just wanted to flag. It looks like we did a $5,000 cut.

I was just I I was curious when we had some established partners and some new ones getting much more. And so I have concerns with that $5,000 cut. Okay. Well, I I propose that we keep them where they were. Mhmm. And just wanna see. Does anyone have any councilman Valeri?

I would support that for sure. I know that they're making a big difference. All

right, so there's only two so far. Okay, anyone have any other comments? Councilmember Jackson.

Thank you, Mayor. Guess this is kind of a global comment. So we funded, or we are proposing funding, almost every grant that came our way. Is that correct?

I recall all but two.

Right. So almost every one, which is fine. But I think that we need some more direction or, yeah, some more structure to our grant program just because I think that in future years, it's going to be even more competitive and more there's going to be more people coming with applications because it's going to be lean years with the federal government, with the state, with the foundations out there. I mean, they're really gonna be tatting down. There's not gonna be too much money in the system.

So we're really gonna have it's really gonna behoove us to have a system in place so that we can fund our priorities rather than anybody who comes and gives an application. Right now it's fine, but I think in future years it's going to be tougher. I look at the grants that we made, and I think, first of all, as I said before, I think that the committee did a good job with a few questionable exceptions. But I think that we should put a premium on existing relationships, nonprofits that have done a good job for being city partners, rather than well, before we give grants to new nonprofits and people that we don't really have a relationship with. And maybe we should consider not fully funding their application rather than fully funding it and then reducing others that we have assisting partnerships with.

So I know that we've talked about this, mister city manager, and I know that we're going to have a grant discussion later in the year. I just want to lay those markers out there about just needing to put a structure in place. I had a question, though, and I think one of you three can answer it. These grants that we are going to, I guess, we're not going to approve when we approve the budget. But how are the grants paid? Are they just a lump sum, like paid once we give them out?

In general, we provide reimbursements to the grant recipients based on their completion of quarterly reports and documenting their expenses incurred.

So, I mean, we have a record of, you know, we approved x nonprofit for $50,000 but maybe they only asked for 40,000 in reimbursement. I'm just trying to get and then so if we have that, is it in a report somewhere?

The city yes. Those documents are available in reports.

I mean, so what I'm asking about the funding. So the reimbursement that they ask for, if it doesn't equal how much we ok'd in a grant, then we know, say, that the delta is thousand. And that's in a report somewhere.

Yeah.

Okay. And so where is it? How could we see it? How could the public see it? How can

Starting with this previous year's budget, we sought to consolidate two separate grant programs. These were previously community organization grants and, community services grants. So by bringing these two together, there have been some efficiencies and added, I would say, improved consistency between the two different programs. Looking ahead, the Department of Housing and Community Development will begin producing an annual grant report that will provide additional details on what this body approved for each program and then what was expended and reimbursed at the end of the year. That's something that will come out of DHCD.

No, that's perfect. That's looking forward. Are we also going to be looking backwards so that we can have the prior years whether it's spending all the money or whether so let's say, for example, we have a nonprofit that we have an existing relationship with, And we think it's going fine, but we're looking back at the years past, and maybe each year we give $15,000 But we see that in the past, they've only asked for reimbursement for 40 or 30. And so that, I guess, to me, would indicate that maybe we relook at whether we fund them again or whether we fund them at a reduced level. So I'm just asking that, you know, are we gonna do the report at with a look back as well?

Yep. Past performance is absolutely something that the committee looks into when they're making recommendations to us about grant awards. Yeah. And that's I mean, every grant that I've been associated with, whether it's federal, state, local, we all do a look back, how they performed, have they given money back, have they been over, etcetera. That absolutely is some part of the criteria.

Alright. No. Thank you. You bet.

For the immigration resources where we reduced community reach, my two questions. One is, will that have an impact on the number of people they can be able serve? Are they going have to cut back because of our reduction?

We'll have to circle back.

Okay. I have a concern about that. And then are the other groups that we're funding Rockville based nonprofits or outside of the city?

I mean, it's all in the grant book. I mean, we can circle back and look it up if you guys want right now.

Does the does the committee prioritize Rockville nonprofits? It does not.

No. The geographic location of the nonprofit is not a scoring factor or a scoring element. They're looking at in some cases, the organizations come into the city to provide those services, but they may not necessarily be headquartered in the city.

Yeah. Okay. I just I I'm I know that there are some that are just outside the city, which and do fine and wonderful work. I just worry about when we're looking at adding new to a category and then we're taking away from a Rockville based nonprofit. That's where I get concerned. Have a corollary to that. Councilmember Vallari.

No. Thank you for raising that. And I think I raised it last year as well when we started getting the rumblings of this is going to be a tough budget forecast and how can we best shore up our community and our community partners to that extent. Depending on how the county budget situation shakes out, I would be more than happy to cut the programs that are run by the county and let the county fully fund them. We don't have to, and we in good faith will all be happy to fund programs that come into the city from the county, but if that good faith relationship gets shaky, then I have no problem pushing that back out to Rockville nonprofits.

Thank you. Councilmember Shah.

Just to follow-up on your point on immigration, I'd also like to see the impact. And I I am aware that there are some other services in the city, like Casa has its own immigration center in Rockville as well. There are some other services. So I would just like to see the impact and also on on some previous years as well.

Thank you. Did you have anything else? Are you good? Everyone good? Comes from Van Grak.

I would just like to say, I know we're gonna bring it up, I support a lot of what my colleagues have said about reassessing this budget, whether it's about Montgomery County issues, focusing on past relationships, Rockville based entities. I think it's definitely something for us to look forward in the future about our priorities.

I have a question about Afrothrive. I sent some follow-up. We discussed some questions as a body last time and went back to the grant application. Are they serving 200 or 300? Is the food going to be provided free, or is it gonna be like they're selling the food?

That was something we discussed last time.

We would have to go back to the grant application materials and confirm what the exact numbers are.

Okay. I think that would be helpful to understand because they are budgeted at what? 7 about 70?

60.

60? Okay. Alright. I just wanna make sure. And I know we had looked at like can they how are they gonna be partnering with David Skull? Those are some of the things that we we asked about last time, and I didn't quite see that in the answers. Doctor. Miles.

Thank you, madam mayor. There was a recommendation about restoring funding to Community Reach's language program. I support that.

Okay. Thank you. Does anyone else support it? Councilmember Jackson.

Yes. Thank you, mayor. I support it as well.

Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Shah? I also support it. Councilmember Van Graak?

And just to clarify, this is moving them up by $5,000? Mhmm.

And I'm fine if you feel like we need to rebalance that elsewhere, colleagues, the other grant. You know, I would leave that to the committee and to you, city manager, but I I have concern with cutting them.

Sure.

Okay. Any other comments? What do we do about not having the answers on the one that we mentioned last time?

Afrothrive. We'll get you the information.

Okay. So that may affect what we finally approve. Correct. Okay. So we'll just I just wanna make sure the finance team

We we tonight's plan is to get the budget in balance. And if someone is proposing a reduction to a particular organization or an increase to a particular organization, it's really something that we need to clarify now so that we can bring you a budget ordinance on May 4 that is reflective of your intentions.

Understood. I just have concern where I don't know where is that $60,000 going to go. I fully support the organization. I talked about community gardens, collaboration with David Skull. From the grant application and our conversation, we didn't get enough information.

There's a lot of information that comes to us in these grant applications, but it doesn't necessarily include every single thing, like which intersections and how many different city locations they would visit. In this case, they were focused on operating a mobile food market that will provide food to residents coming directly from local farms. It was the proposal that they provided the city was not for community gardens, though they do community gardens. The response that we provided was that staff could explore opportunities for partnering with them for community gardens, but that was not the substance of their proposal

for this first the they're they're it's a mobile market. So are they going around charging people for this money?

No. No. They're giving away free Free free produce and vegetables and and things like that that are locally sourced.

Okay. And then they had two different numbers, 200 or 300 people served. Is it 200 or 300?

I did not notice that discrepancy, but I also was not on the evaluation committee. So so what you see in front of you, the proposal, that's what came from the the committee. Those those those are their recommendations. So if this body wants to make a modification, it's certainly within your ability to do so.

Councilmember Volaris?

I'll just rip the Band Aid, so to speak. I would, in order to balance things out as a first time grantee, I would just shift that $10,000 to just modestly reduce the Afrothive grant. I think that we have a lot of other partners. I think they're all wonderful entities. It's not that we're not funding, but this is actually historically, for a first time funded organization, pretty significantly high.

And so I'm not saying to completely exit out, but reduce the one grant by $10,000 and that should bring us into balance. And I think it's easily justifiable justifiable as well.

Councilmember Jackson, did you have your hand up?

No, I just supported.

Councilmember Jackson said supports. Where is everybody else? Councilmember Van Grok?

I mean, I do understand balancing. And the specific organizations that we've added money to with regard to our balancing before and now, I completely understand. I mean, the entities, even community reach, we've got a long standing relationship with community reach. However, I don't know enough about this this particular grant. I don't know the details. I wasn't on the committee. I don't know what the rationale is. So outside of organizations or efforts that I'm specifically comfortable with, I'm just not comfortable making edits.

Council Merschall?

While I I also agree with my colleagues and not having all the information, at the end of the day, I know this is for feeding our residents, and so I would like to keep it as as is.

Mister, what would you do? Because we have to balance. What would you do to fund this an additional $10,000?

We can balance with the 10,000. It's fine. In the big scheme of things, we'll make it work. 10,000 or less, I can I can work with?

Agreed.

Are you good? Okay. I'm just looking at my comments. But I still think we need the information that we requested as a body last time.

We'll do the best we can to get the information to you.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Did we finish?

We're all set.

Thank you. Can we take a quick break between now and the annexation? Let's try to get back here in seven minutes. Welcome Can back, Rockville. Today is still 04/20/2026, and we're reconvening Meeting ten-twenty six.

We're now moving on to Agenda Item 12b, which is an update on annexation outreach efforts and discussion on the Shady Grove Metro Station annexation. We welcome presenter Manisha Tewari from CPDS as well as Craig Simoneux and Chief Jason West.

Yes, madam. I was hearing a bit of an echo. Is there a somebody who has a thing on that we may be able to turn off.

Mr. Mihalek, will it be Craig Simoneux or Mr. Evan Johnson?

It will really be the Manisha Shaul, but Evan will be

here. Wonderful. Thank you.

And Mr. Simoneux is online. Alright. Good evening, madam mayor and members of the council. Thank you for having me here. So we will be discussing annexations. Okay. The mouse works. Okay. Sorry.