Mayor and Council - Regular Meeting

Evening, Rockville. Today is June 8th, 2026, and we're convening meeting 16-26. Please join me as you're able in the Pledge of Allegiance. We'll now move to agenda review. Ms. Sarah Taylor-Farrell.

Madam Mayor and Council Members, there are no changes to the agenda for this evening.

Excellent. Thank you. Now move to the City Management Report. Mr. Jeff Mihalik.

Mariation members of city council ways and gentlemen good evening. Um, to say we're busy is an understatement, but it's all good things. Um, we are in high season for community events. We had a wonderful pride event this past weekend. Um, I mean, the turnout was. Incredible considering how hot it was great turn out a lot of really happy people running around. It was wonderful. And then this coming Saturday, we have another really popular event, which is sons and souls. We're looking forward to that on Saturday evening. We're also doing a number of park improvements in the city. When that's really popular in the community is we just installed a bunch of new pickleball courts, both at Israel park. And welsh parks and we continue to plan for future parks like working on our final plans for the much awaited red gate park improvements. Then lastly, I'll just mention that we're continuing to work on implementing our climate action plan, including working on the last phase of our led streetlight conversion plan and the acquisition of brand new electric senior buses. We're excited about that as well. So I'll have to report now. Thank you.

Thank you. I also wanted to extend thank you to everyone who came out in the community and to staff for pride. It was fantastic. And thank you to the Human Rights Commission. You also had a number of important other events that happened in the city. The Neighborhood Connect at Scarborough Square. It's our effort to get out into the community, bring council to the community. And we had a chance to hear detailed information to meet with children as well as adults on their ideas, their concerns, and I know staff is following up on that. And then some of my colleagues and I jumped in the pool on Saturday for a summer kickoff. It was so nice to see the teens just, the teen community having fun, talking to each other, not on their phones, just really engaging in a positive and healthy way. So I want to thank staff and the Rec and Parks Foundation And then RCPD came out and really had a strong partnership with Main Street and many other public safety professionals from the state to the county to the fire leaders. I just want to say thank you for that as well as the Public Safety Awards with the Chamber. So very, very busy week and I know it takes lots of work. I want to thank my colleagues for coming and being a part of it. Council Member Van Graak.

So aside from echoing all of what you had to say about the great wonderful events I know that as much as there were some wonderful things we did get an alert and I want to thank the Rockville City Police Department with regard to the fact that there appears to be a rabid fox that has been attack a few different individuals and dogs and Mr. City Manager I don't know if you want to just either elaborate on the Alert that was issued and maybe just confirm that if there is any capture or confirmation that the city will also follow up with alerts.

Yeah, thank you for the question. Yeah. Unfortunately, we do have a rabid Fox. At large, if you will out in the community, if any member of the public see a Fox at. Is acting weird in any way they should call us immediately we do have animal control that's part of our police department we will send someone out we just don't want somebody trying to take matters into their own hands if we see a specific location where we know the fox is we will send out an alert and equally important when we capture the fox will make sure that people are aware of that as well.

And as I understand it, the number that we're asking people to call is 240-314-8900 if there's any fox that they observe or any animal that seems to be having erratic behavior. That's correct, and thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Valeri?

I would also be remiss that since last we met, It is graduation season, so I do want to give congratulations to all of the students in Rockville who are graduating, and of course a very special shout out. I was present and I saw Madam Mayor as well at the Richard Montgomery graduation, and it is always just a very joyful event and evening, and I just want to express my congratulations to everybody, and to all the parents and guardians of those who graduated.

Thank you. I'll just say I know the entire council, and I appreciate you raising that, really celebrates the graduation of all, whether you're at Montgomery College or some other college, and all of our high school students. And we have our fifth graders and everyone making a major milestone. We are appreciative of staff and guardians who help make that possible, but really celebrate the students as well. Okay. Thank you very much. We'll now move on to community forum. We welcome an opportunity to hear your concerns, your ideas. We encourage you to address the mayor and council and speak in a civil and courteous manner. Members of the audience, please also be respectful to each other. Each person is allowed three minutes. There is a time clock in front of you. You will hear an audible beep when the time has expired. I don't want to use the gavel, so please stick within the time frame. And please state your name and whether you live in the city of Rockville for the record. I'll call those who have signed up in advance and then encourage others to let us know if they would like to speak. I also want to acknowledge that we've received written comments as well. First, we welcome David Weinberg.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the council. My name is David Weinberg. I am a Rockville resident and voter. I have a PhD in political science from MIT. And I'm a former senior staffer from the January 6 Select Committee. I love democracy, I love this city. Thank you each so much for all that you do to sustain this wonderful community. I really appreciate all the work that y'all are putting into the assessment of the election code. And I wanted to just particularly put in a good word with regard to ranked choice voting. Ranked choice voting is fantastic. I'm looking right now with deep jealousy towards our neighbors in Washington, D.C. as they get to use RCV in both their council and their mayoral elections this year. Some of the fantastic things about it include in races where you have three relatively closely matched candidates, for instance, like in our county right now, Voters don't have to guess how their vote will be effective. They can state their preferences, and those preferences can be accurately reflected. That also helps reflect public wisdom, right? Taps into the collective wisdom in that instance. In Alaska, for instance, they elected a US representative, I think it was 2022. The US got Mary Peltola instead of Sarah Palin, and I think we can all be grateful for that. It also encourages positivity in campaigning, something that I think every community would love to see more of. And it also allows candidates, when elected, to be able to point to the added credibility that you have when you win with 50% or more of votes counted. Additionally, I would just put in a good word for utilizing the system sooner rather than later. We've got such a long track record of seeing ranked choice voting in use in Tacoma Park, for instance. They've been using it since I had a full head of hair and I could have posted pictures of it on MySpace on my brand new thing called an iPhone. So the track record is there. And there's also a track record in lots of places from multi-candidate multi-seat positions like in city of Portland and proportional representation can be a useful tool in those sorts of situations. So that way all communities, all voices in our incredibly wonderful and diverse city can be well represented. So thank you so much for your consideration, your work on this. And again, for all you do for our city.

Thank you. Welcome Michelle Whitaker.

Hello, Mayor and Council. A joy to be in front of you again. Happy June. The last time I think I was here was at the beginning of the year and wishing you a great year. And even though it's the middle of the month, it feels like there's been so much, as the city manager said, that's been going on. With Ranked Choice Voting, a great update is that Another city in Maryland has joined on to saying yes to Ranked Choice Voting and that's Berwyn Heights in Prince George's County. They did it through ballot initiative. I'm really excited about the conversations that you're going to have tonight and continue to have on how we move forward with Ranked Choice Voting in Rockville. I'm Michelle Whitaker, I'm the Executive Director for Ranked Choice Voting Maryland. I don't live in the city but I'm here very often and I love it. And I'm here to talk to you about why representation matters. We've talked to you about the science, you've heard a little bit about that from David, of why this matters, how it really empowers voters to really express their full choices. But I also want us to look and talk about the vision of the city that we want, how we want to have all of our residents represented. And to think about the challenges we've had over the years in making that representation happen, whether it's for women, people of color, communities of interest, whether you're talking about renters or folks who are working on climate justice or whatever the issue might be. If we look at the history, and I was looking at the panel of just who's served in the council, the first African American elected to the council was 1970. It was another 20 years before the next African American was elected, and another 20 years until the first African American woman was elected to the council. When we look at women overall, the first woman was elected two years before I was born to this council. And then the first mayor elected was another 20 years after that. We can't wait 20 years to keep moving forward inch by inch, and we really need to have systems that help us do that. That's what ranked choice voting does when you're electing mayor. It's what ranked choice voting does when you're electing in a large body like you all are with the proportional system. And that's what we really need in this moment. We're gonna be celebrating Juneteenth soon, and as many of you know, in 1865, that's when Texas enslaved people first found out that they were emancipated. It was two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. It goes to show that there's a lot of work to make sure everyone knows that democracy is available to them. We're ready to do that work here to make sure that every resident knows what they need to do, how ranked choice writing works, and what it means for their community. And we hope you will be part of that. And we hope we can do it sooner rather than later, because we can make this happen in 2027. Thank you.

Thank you. Welcome Milton Halen, followed by JD Kumar.

All right. Hi, everyone. Milton Hallin from Frederick County. I'm just a kook who loves rank choice voting and wants to encourage you all to implement it in your city as soon as you can. I think it's a really great system that's used around the world, places like Australia, Ireland. You can go on Wikipedia and find out other countries that use it and other locations around the United States that use it. Almost nowhere where it's used does anyone think that it's a bad idea and that they would like to go back to some first-past-the-post single winner, whoever gets the most votes, even if it's 10% of the votes in a contest with 20 candidates. No one wants to go back to that once they have ranked-choice voting. So for that reason, I think... and not to restrict myself, but the timer was never started, so. Thanks for the free time. And I just really think there's no better time than right now to implement ranked choice voting here. With Tacoma Park and Greenbelt now being the two municipalities in Maryland that do it, it would be great to have Rockville as the third, and it's a... impetus for other municipalities and counties that may want to do it. I know I'm trying to get that done in Frederick County and see what we can do either in the city or the county to get it implemented there. And I think there's some, the more people jump on the bandwagon, the better. So I know you have a work session on the agenda later today, and I hope you can see yourselves to implementing this really, really good system that moderates politics and makes it more participatory for everyone. When you have a functional contest where only two people can win, it limits the candidates, it limits the people who want to vote, who care about voting, and we want everyone to participate and everyone to have a voice because it makes for better candidates, it makes for better council members and officeholders when once you get elected, because you know, you had to win on on a broader coalition of people, and you're more able to represent them when you can see how, how everyone voted and made their preferences known. So all right, come back one time. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

City of Rockville, Maryland. City of Rockville, Maryland government, Mayor Ashton and CRMG Council, thank you for this opportunity, this Open Democracy Forum. My name is James Dhruva Kumar, JD Kumar, Democrat candidate for United States Congress, House of Representatives for this Maryland District 8. My website is votejdk.com. I'm going to always emphasize this. I'm EIC explainer-in-chief, not humble on this. I'm also psychology knowledge in chief, not licensed, but you all have to ask, why do people do what they do and why are they doing this? And if you ask yourself this more often, you can solve problems. You have to reverse engineer that. Why do people do what they do? Now, I pledge allegiance to the flag of British colonial America, to the flag of the continental USA America, which is a British East India Company EIC-inspired USA independence flag. I remind again that we never completely quit the Brits. reasons for our immense wealth and emergence as a lone superpower in 1991, which was not just another number. I pledge allegiance to USA America everywhere. I emphasize that I pledge allegiance to rule of law, rule of law. Now, not all my thoughts here, limited access forum. So again, my website is www.votejdk.com. I have been an individual one-person show for a long time, which has benefited millions and billions. You have these groups like RCV, which I support mostly, Rockville Renters United that has come here in the past, and the other group is not. Oh, Newmark Commons folks. They come in here with 5, 10, 15 people and take up multiple minutes. On many occasions, I've asked you to give me more time. I represent a different group on a small island, but I do represent millions and billions. Now, as I informed you all a few weeks ago, that I'm on average 8 to 10 years older than all of you, City of Rockland, Maryland government, Montgomery County, Maryland government. A lot of you were in your diapers sucking then and still sucking now. Now, I want to discuss some vote JDK policies, ADA. I want to emphasize that my mom has ADA issues, so I'll be tremendous for that. ADA folks as a congressional representative. Also for the elder generation, I grew up with the elder generation here. I've lived here more than four decades in this county. You all should visit my website. I have a plan on giving half a million dollars interest-free mortgages to USA American citizens. I'll freeze property tax age 50 and over. Somebody said to me it's a local issue. No, not if I legislate shelter as a basic right whereby no more evictions. No more homeless, but I will not land this on the landlord. I'll protect the landlord too. So again, also free full-time senior caregiver help, age 75 plus, and obviously solutions for...

Thank you very much.

Okay, one last thing.

We're done. Thank you so much. Can you send something to us in email? I'd be happy to read it.

Yes. Thanks for being polite this time. A lot of times you shout me down.

No, I don't.

I requested back in December that in the last, when the time is over, just politely ask me to finish. Thank you. I think you did that today. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome, Ellen. Hi.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Ellen Bach, and I'm a resident of Rockville. And I just wanted to... Okay. I just wanted to... to say that I really like Ranked Choice Voting, and you guys, I'm really happy with what you guys are doing, and my desire to have Ranked Choice Voting here in Rockville is not so that we can have a completely different city council, because I think, actually, you guys are doing a great job. I think Ranked Choice Voting would be really good in Rockville to bring more residents into the political process and make them feel like their voices are heard, and I think What I most want is for people of Rockville to get practice with ranked choice voting so that we can be using it in larger forums where I think it will make a tremendous difference. And the first step is getting ranked choice voting here. So I hope you will consider it when you're revising the voting regulations. Thanks.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak? Thank you everyone for your testimony. We greatly appreciate your ideas and concerns. We'll now be moving on to special presentations. And I will note for those in the audience, we do have a work session on our elections. It will be coming in later in the evening. We'll move forward with two special presentations. The first one we'll hear now. on the Montgomery County Department of Transportation on Bus Rapid Transit. I'd like to welcome Imad El-Shafi, Chief of Traffic and Transportation Public Works, and there are panelists joining us, Jamie Henson from Montgomery County Government BRT Implementation Manager, Zuli Baradad, Montgomery County Government MD355 BRT Project Executive, and Pam Destino, Montgomery County Beers Mill Road MD586 BRT Project Manager. Welcome all.

Good evening Madam Mayor, Council Members. My name is Ahmad Al-Shafi. I'm the Chief of the Traffic and Transportation Division. In tonight's agenda, we have the staff from Montgomery County Department of Transportation. They are going to present a briefing and updates on two projects that they are working on. They are both on the Bus Rapid Transit or BRT projects, the one on Veers Mill 586 and on MD 355. And with that, I want to introduce Mr. Jimmy Hansen. He is the BRT Implementation Manager.

Jimmy. Good evening. Thank you, Mayor and Council, for having us. It's a privilege to be here. It's great to talk about BRT in our county. We have big plans. We're eager to connect people to opportunity with our program. We have a program of BRT that's intended to crisscross the county 100 miles, 100 stations across our county. Again, I'm our BRT Implementation Manager. Pam Destino is going to come up and talk about our Veers Mill project. And then Zulie Berrydad will follow her and talk about our Maryland 355 project. And then I'll come back up and take any questions you may have.

Good evening. As Jamie said, I'm Pam Destino. I am the Veers Mill Road project manager for the county. Before I get into Veers Mill Road, I'm going to quickly give you a brief overview of what our FLASH program is. So BRT itself is a bus rapid transit program. It's a transit system that delivers faster, more reliable and more convenient transit service through the county. We do this through different mechanisms. Some of them are shown on the screen here. We, when we can provide dedicated bus lanes, the red paint markings, you may see them throughout the county already. We have specialized vehicles that work with our stations. Our stations are enhanced stations, so they provide weather protection, we provide lighting, shelter, transit real-time information for when the buses are going to come. And you can see our system right now on US 29. We have transit signal priority, which is where we extend or implement an extended green time for a signal so the bus can get through the intersection faster. And then throughout these projects, we are providing enhanced pedestrian and bicycle safety to connect you to these stations. So I mentioned the transit signal priority. We also are implementing some queue jumps. Queue jumps are where we add a lane and the bus can go into that lane and bypass the traffic at signals. The buses themselves have enhanced features. We have Wi-Fi on board. We have low level boarding, so there's no step up for ADA. They can just go right through. And the buses themselves have real-time display boards. Oops, I hit it too fast. Okay. As Jamie mentioned, we have over 100 stations planned. We have them for eight routes throughout the county. The one that is implemented right now is U.S. 29. We are working on, as you know, Viers Mill Road that is under design right now and Maryland 355 as well. And then we have five future stops. We are also extending the flash service along U.S. 29 to Howard County later this fall. Um, this is a summary. Our goal is to provide connects people to opportunities. Um, we do this through faster transit service, more reliable transit service and more frequent transit service. We are providing more connections for pedestrians and bicyclists to get to this mode of transit. So enhance connections to the stations themselves that may not exist today. And we are trying to do this while minimizing impacts to the local residents and the businesses. So I'm going to switch to Viers Mill Road and just give you a brief overview of that project. So Viers Mill Road is a 7.6 mile corridor. It goes from Wheaton to Rockville. Half of this route is within the city limits. And it connects to the Metro Red Line as well as Amtrak and MARC at Rockville. The features, as I mentioned, are 7.6 miles. We have 12 stations. throughout the corridor. We just completed design last year. We are working through permitting right now. And if you see any construction along the corridor, we're doing utility reconstruction in advance of our contractor coming on board to do the actual BRT implementation. Our estimated cost for this project is approximately $230 million. We are funding this through an FDA grant that we are hoping to receive or expecting to receive later this summer. This route provides, it serves 10,000 trips daily today, and we expect it to be 20 to 30% faster in the future. Right now, for public engagement, you might see us throughout the community. We are doing pop-up events weekly, primarily on the weekends, but sometimes in the weekdays at Farmer's Market, at the Metro Station, at potentially any public events that we are allowed to go to. And our goal with that is just to let people know that the project is coming. We're going to go to construction soon, and we want to answer any questions they may have. We're also right now working on right-of-way acquisition. We have 16 impacted parcels in the city, and we are going through that process to get construction. These impacts are primarily permanent easements or temporary construction easements just to extend a sidewalk or add a station. Our timeline, as I mentioned, we're under property acquisition and utility construction right now. We are expecting our contractor to start next spring and he will be completed or they will be completed in late 2028 when we will open service for BRT line. Uh, this is just an example. Um, this is within the city at Atlantic. Um, you can see there's safer pedestrian crossings. We have enhanced stations, bus call, bus call and pedestrian facilities. And in this case, we have the painted bustling as well as we will have transit signal priority. So as I mentioned, the design's complete. We're working with your staff right now on permitting. We are working with the FTA on a small starts grant, and we are expecting our construction to begin next spring. I'm gonna turn it over to Zuli who's gonna talk. Oh, whoops, I forgot, sorry. So here's what we're doing with you all right now. So we've got our stormwater concept approval from your staff a few weeks ago. We've worked closely on utility relocations at Rockville Southbound Station and worked with your staff on where to locate these stations. Recently, we added a crosswalk on the north side of Atlantic Avenue per your staff's request. And we have worked with them throughout this process and tried to add in as much features as you would like. So now Luzuli is going to come and talk about 355.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members, my name is Julie Baradad. I'm the MD355 project executive. And I'm going to give today an overview of the project and the status where we are today. So 355 is the whole corridor goes, it's 22 miles and it extends from Bethesda to Clarksburg. The first section that we are working on right now, which we call the center portion of the corridor, MD 355 BRT Central. is about 15.5 miles, and it extends from Rockville Station in... Sorry, from Rockville Station to Milestone in Germantown. So... where we are or a little bit more on the project. So on 355, there is a 10 mile corridor and 79,000 people live within a half a mile of the corridor or stations. This was our study and where we basically selected the location of the stations. And 14%, apparently 14% of the people on the corridor do not use cars as a method of transportation. The corridor serves 14,000 existing daily trips. And with the BRT, after it's implemented, we will have as much as between 25% to 45% faster in peak periods. Estimated cost of the project is about $517 million. We are also, like Veer's Mill, requesting federal fund, which will be about 50% of the cost of the project, where we have started the process already for that grant. In terms of status, and we're gonna go a little bit details in the next slide, but we are currently in a scope validation phase, and then we start final design next year. In terms of timeline, planning was completed sometime in 2019. We have a 35% preliminary design, which was completed between 2020 and 2022. And then, because this is an FTA, sorry, a federally funded project, so we need an approval for environmental evaluation and impact. That was, it's going to be completed were approved soon. It was completed a while ago. And then final design will start sometime at the end of this year. And construction will start between 2028 revenue service as per our schedule right now is in at the end of 2031. Project status, as I mentioned, 35% design is complete. We have selected a contractor, a design builder. So NTP, we gave them notice to proceed January of this year. They are already under contract. We are in a phase now of scope validation and some value engineering, meaning some innovation for the corridor to basically optimize the design. And then final design will start late this year, early next year. The grant, as I mentioned earlier, we started the process. And if all goes well, we're anticipating a grant agreement sometimes in 2027, by the end of 2027. And their revenue service is 2031. Some additional additional information So the CIP the capital budget did not include funding for the bus depot not on this project it's going to be a separate project and then as I mentioned earlier, we are doing scope validation and optimization of the corridor and of design and We will be able to share some information with you later this year. I That's all questions. Thank you.

All right.

Thank you. Questions for us?

I will just say thank you very much for all the work. We have been really trying to improve Vision Zero and pedestrian, all modes of transit. And we know this is a huge part of the work that we need to do. So I know there's a collaboration between the city and the county. And we appreciate you sharing these updates because we get a lot of questions on where is that BRT? And I have seen it on Shady Grove Road and how it's working. and how it's also not only helping our residents, but serving as an economic driver to bring people to college and to health services and other businesses that they need to traverse in the city. As you noted, not everyone has a car, and we want to make sure that everything is safe And fast and, you know, really doing so in a way that will help our community to grow, not just now, but for future generations. So we're going to continue on a quick stack. We're going to go down the line starting on my right. And then we'll ask you a few questions. My colleagues are very interested in this. So you might get a couple here to answer. Councilman Van Graaf.

Wait, I was under the impression this is a special presentation.

No, this is a presentation. We discussed it this morning. We're allowed to ask questions. Go for it. If you want to pass and come back.

No, but I mean, all this sounds fantastic. I mean, I know we've been looking forward to it for a while. And no, I think the presentation is great, and I'm looking forward to seeing it here. Great.

Council Member Schell. I greatly appreciate the presentation. I love that there's a lot of progress happening and that we will be connecting a lot of residents to work and their networks and their community where they didn't have that type of connection before. And I really also appreciate the data that you have. And I just wanted to ask, not sure what page slide this is but this was the central phase for 355 the 14% of whom don't have a car where what year was that so I think that was American Community Survey and that would have been that's usually a few years old and it's over a running time period so I think I

I'm going to hazard a guess and say roughly 2019 to 22, 23, and that's a give or take. It's order of magnitude.

Okay, and I guess my other question would be, and you may not have it here, but I would love to have the information. If you have it disaggregated by race, just to understand, because I know that the ACS survey, sometimes they disaggregate by race, so I would just be curious in understanding who's impacted by this.

We don't have that, but that's something that we can follow up and provide, or at least point you in the direction of.

Thank you.

This is a great presentation, and I really don't have any questions, but thank you for all the information, especially the intersection and how it works. I was a little bit curious about that. But no, I'm really excited to get the rapid transit going, and I thank you again for the presentation.

Thank you. I had a couple quick questions. One is for 355, it's not clear whether the station is planned for a manakee or actually on 355. That makes a big difference for a lot of reasons. It does.

Yeah, and so the station, as planned right now, is actually in the turnaround at the college. And Zuli had noted that there's not funds to build the transit center. And so what we're going to do to serve the college is use the existing loop there at the front edge of the college right off Manakee and repurpose one of those stations and build our more iconic station infrastructure there for Flash.

So we'll be actually on Manakee itself.

No, no, no, on the bus loop on the backside. Okay, perfect.

I actually got that question today, so I wanted to make sure I was asking. Thank you very much. We have seen on Veer's Mill, I know members of the body have talked about this, where sometimes the bus stop is mid-block and it causes people to have to make a very hard choice when they see their bus cross that mid-block, which is dangerous. So as you're thinking about station planning, are you looking at putting it closer to intersections? Yes. Okay.

Yeah, I don't... I don't think we have an example where there's not a station at an intersection. And typically, they're far side to allow the buses, as we were talking about, to use the transit signal priority to be able to move through to get to the opposite side. That's the best way. Research across the nation shows that you're able to move your buses faster if you can get them across the intersection, then service them on the far side of the intersection. And so that's where virtually all of our stations are located, on the far side of the intersections.

Thank you. And I know that you have divided this project into sort of geographic areas. As you move, like for instance, the 355 portion is much further out than the Beers Mill portion. Correct. Will you open up the 355 portion in phases itself, or will you wait to do it all at one time?

Well, so the original 355 project consisted of 22 miles from Bethesda to Clarksburg. And so what we're focusing on is that 15-ish miles in the middle from Rockville to Germantown. And so we'll open that all at one stretch. Now, that will follow Veers Mill. So Veers Mill will open at the end of 2028. We're envisioning that central portion of 355 to open in 2031.

Okay. The county council just went through a very detailed and hard budget season. How was this project impacted, if at all?

None. Okay. These projects. And we're very fortunate, right, because they're funded federally. The state's been very generous to provide a lot of support for our program. And so we have a lot of support that are from sources that are not at the county. And so we've been very fortunate to be able to keep these projects whole and moving forward.

And do you know whether flash service has been impacted in Rockville?

Not that I know of.

All right, thank you. And then lastly, in terms of the MOU, the city has, for the public's record, has a memorandum of understanding with the county to share impact taxes, that is to support the infrastructure for this project and other projects within the city. How is that helping you all?

So we have a small amount of our funding is from the impact taxes, and so what that allows us to do is that becomes part of our local capital stack that then leverages the federal funds. So in Veers Mill, it is just under 80% federal funding that we're expecting to get to fund that project, and that's because it's a small start. The 355 project is a slightly different program. It's related, but the upper end is 50% federal funds. So it allows us to support that federal or to leverage that against the 50% on the federal side. So all of the sources of funds, the myriad sources of funds, enable us to bring in larger portions of federal money.

Thank you, and I knew in the past we've had some of our bike advocates and pedestrian advocates really appreciate the updates on real time so they can see where the bus actually is. That's an important thing for people to be able to predict and know. The design, the covered opportunity and benches, I've seen some people sitting on the ground. That needs to change, so thank you for that. And I know I've also heard in the past from some of the bike advocates about bike parking near So I would be remiss if I didn't mention that at all.

And that's included as part of the standard features here. You know, if you look at what we've put out and US 29 and these are largely templates or slight modifications between them, but they're largely templated stations and that it includes bike parking.

Thank you, and I know this project itself will really help to improve equity across the county. Thank you. Council Member Valeri.

Yes, hi, and thank you. Terrific presentation. The majority of my questions, I only have a handful of questions, are about VRTs, since that's the next one coming online. and also as someone who lives about half a block from Beers Mill, so I've been following this project very closely. How is MCDOT coordinating with the city on high injury network intersections along Beers Mill? terms of you mentioned some of you mentioned the pedestrian safety features at Atlantic but in general what is because we're gonna see this again on 355 right how are you coordinating with the city of Rockville in making these improvements

Sure. So at the most basic level, we're providing our plans for folks to review. So whether it's SHA as the road owner, obviously, but also to our city partners and asking for comments. And so at a very basic level, we're asking for comments on our plans. So when we send those plans out, we're asking folks, encouraging them, hey, look at these. Are we missing anything? Before we even do that, we are looking to implement that bike and ped safety infrastructure. Now there are places that we've missed along the way and may not be perfect, but we're trying to get that before it even gets to you. And then as we're getting feedback, we're interacting with your staff on a regular basis. We had a mandatory referral and I was in these chambers about a month ago talking to your planning board. uh... about uh... beers mill and taking some feedback from both city staff and uh... you're you're planning folks about uh... those sorts of things so when we're looking to implement those in our project as much as we can uh... and and be able to advances because at the end of the day we want people to get to our transit stations, and we want them to use this service. We want them to advance, right? We want them to connect to opportunity, and they have to be able to do that safely. Otherwise, it's not really, you know, we don't do this to put people in unsafe positions, as I believe the mayor was talking about, right? We don't want to put people in the middle of a block on these, you know, high-performance systems, and we want to make sure we're putting them in the safest place possible.

Absolutely, and I will note that all of our high-injury high injury network intersections are along state roads. They are all on Beers Mill. They are all on 355. And the intersection that you showed at Beers Mill and Atlantic is actually the number one deadliest intersection. So I'm hopeful that... that we can maybe work together to do a little bit more than adding a crosswalk at the north side of Atlantic and maybe, I appreciate changing the signal timing, but I think that we can make some of those pedestrian safety issues a little bit stronger because it's extremely dangerous. We've had elderly residents die at that intersection. So I'd like to really see some a little bit stronger safety measures and I know how tough it is to work with SHA and I think anytime that we can take that opportunity I think we should. So I appreciate that tremendously. And I think the closer that we can work, the better. As the mayor mentioned, the Rockville Pedestrian Advocacy Committee, our Bicycle Advisory Committee, and our Transportation Mobility Commission, I hope that we can all kind of work together with you and come up with some good solutions because equity is extremely important and I think first and foremost making sure people can cross Beers Mill at all safely and that's a very high bar right now unfortunately. My other quick comment on that is to that extent, actually question, I noticed that the 355 portion of the BRT project that you're starting at Rockville Metro. which kind of skirts around the biggest problem, which is the mixing bowl, where Beers Mill essentially meets 355, meets every road in the city pretty much. Is that kind of why you're starting at Rockville Metro? Because I'm thinking through our population centers and where individuals are living along 355 in the city of Rockville. And there's a real missed opportunity, I think, to not start North of Thesder, Twinbrook, because you have large developments that are already there or are about to come online.

Yeah, it really wasn't about the Viers Mill intersection, though I would completely agree it's going to be a difficult intersection to figure out. And the maintenance of traffic as we do construction is going to be painful. That was not it. It was really making sure that we had originally our central portion had connected just to Montgomery College. And so Viers Mill and 355 would interact just at that one point. it was important to be able to get folks from that northern piece and so to serve as a bit of an extension of the red line further north it made more sense uh to to start extending to the north uh and and their fiscal realities of this right 500 million dollars is a large project and so we need to be able to to get that done in a way that's responsible and in a timely manner. And so we felt like that getting folks into downtown Rockville was the most prudent way to do that. And so that's why we stopped it right there. I don't even think that crossed our mind about getting through the Beers Mill intersection, though that is definitely difficult. But it was really about getting folks into downtown Rockville and as that would relate to our application with the FTA. So it really enhanced our application. We got a super strong rating. We got a medium high. Now, you know, in our world, you've done exceptionally well to get that. And a lot of the reason is because we came to downtown Rockville. Because of the economic development opportunities that creates the opportunities it creates for folks in the northern portion of the city in Gaithersburg and then in Germantown to be able to get into downtown Rockville.

Yeah, no, I appreciate that explanation. I just kind of wanted to think through it because I think that for the folks along viewers mill, they were really. wondering how that was going, how the mixing bowl was going to be affected because I think we all realize that that's just a problem in need of a solution for sure. Thank you for all of this. I can say for sure, I hope that we can do real strong community notification around the time that the construction's happening on Beers Mill. I don't think that it's BRT related, but even with a very small utility project that was actually happening in one of the service lanes, we had very long backups on Beers Mill recently, so I know that the impact is going to be to be felt because we don't have that much space. And for many people that live along it, that's really the only way they can get out of their home. So I appreciate that. And any way that we can help to educate our residents, especially our residents that live right on Beers Mill and do some some myth dispelling. There's been a lot of, as I'm sure you're aware, a lot of rumors that have caused a lot of heartburn for some of us. I think that the more we work together on all these things and can facilitate communications and anyway, I'm really appreciative. So thank you very much and thank you to your entire team for the presentation.

Thank you. Council Member Fulton.

Hi. Thank you for this presentation. I do have one question to clarify the timeline to make sure I'm understanding right. Slide 20 shows utility construction starting in 2025, construction starting in 2026 to then open at the end of 2028. The prior slide says that utility construction started in 2026, if I'm reading it right. So does that mean is the opening in jeopardy or am I misunderstanding how it's depicted?

It may be a simple mistake. Okay. Let me go back. Excuse me, I went a little too far. Usually the simple explanation is the correct one. Always is. That's usually a mistake. Give me just a moment and let me look real quick. I think it's this one, right? Yeah. So it's really a combination of multiple things going on at once. So the start and 2025, so the top bar is really, it's about the property acquisition process. So we did start the property acquisition process in 2025. We actually started moving utilities, which is, Probably some of the concerns you recognize because we were out there moving some polls where we had the right of way and had the ability to go ahead and get started in that process construction in a more full way. This is where it's a little bit hard to communicate. Big picture, right? So construction in our realm means that you have bulldozers digging up things for stations. From the public perspective, construction means anything out there with a truck, right? Construction feels like a utility truck replacing a pole. And so we were struggling just a bit with how to make that clear. I don't know that we're perfect in that. It doesn't change the timeline. The end point of that timeline is the end of 2028 when we look to open service. So I'm sorry for the confusion on that.

Perfect. Your last sentence clarified for me. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Dr. Miles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I echo the thanks of my colleagues, and you've answered a number of questions already that I may have brought up. The only residual questions related to my colleague here, and I do recognize the difference between this project and the Purple Line that we've been hearing about. There were lofty goals. There were timelines that were missed. I mean, this seems pretty aggressive. This is just around the corner of 2028. What challenges do you foresee in meeting this timeline?

There's a variety of challenges. I could go for much longer than you want me to talk on challenges. I think the basic ones, when you deal with any sort of infrastructure project, when you're dealing with multi-hundred million dollar projects, the number one and number two thing, and it can vary on projects, is always going to be right-of-way and utilities. It's always going to be dealing with right-of-way and it's always going to be dealing with utilities. So those are number one, number two risk, and it varies from day to day which one is which. We're working in collaboration with our utilities very closely. We've already started, so we're ahead of time working with our utilities, moving utilities where we can. So that's the first thing. But as far as right-of-way, we've contracted with some consultants to assist us in that process. We've added to our staff. We've multiplied our efforts in order to get that in a timely manner because those are very risky things that will inhibit us from hitting our timeline. But any time that you're dealing with infrastructure projects, it's always those two things. As you get into construction, you start thinking about maintenance of traffic, which we were talking about earlier, making sure that folks can get in and through the corridor relatively easily, limiting those hours, trying to miss the peak hours in as much as possible. We'd love to work in off hours, but the reality is this is a residential corridor. That's not really going to be in the cards today. with some very rare exceptions when we have to do cut-ins and cut across. That's ideal, but we don't want to do that. We don't want to disturb the residents at night. People need to sleep well. And so we'll do the best we can to minimize the disruption on MOT as well.

Thank you. I thought you were going to say funding.

That's always a wild card, right? I mean, the reality is 80% is coming from the federal government. But, you know, I'd like to, you know, I'll note that our federal colleagues have been very helpful. They've worked with us. We're interacting with them almost on a daily basis at this point to get our grant agreement. We really think that sometime this summer we're likely to get our grant agreement. And at that point, once we get the grant agreement signed, then that puts things in stone. And then we can get to our negotiation with our contractor to get our guaranteed maximum price, which then allows them to start moving dirt and make this project a real reality.

Thank you. We appreciate all the work that you're doing. I know there's a lot of challenges and hurdles you're jumping over every day. So thank you for that. And please keep us posted.

Indeed. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your time. Glad to come back.

Thank you. We'll now be moving on to agenda item 8B, which is a special presentation. from the Planning Commission, and they'll be sharing their 2025 annual report. I'd like to welcome Meng Sung, who serves as the Chair of the Planning Commission, Jim Wassiluk, who's Chief of Zoning, and I also see Mr. Eric Fulton, who's also in the audience. I also want to recognize panel participants, Nicholas Dumai, Senior Assistant City Attorney, Jamie Espinosa from the Rocco Planning Commission, Cheyenne Salahuddin, I mentioned Mr. Fulton, Susan Pittman, and Jeff Zionsa, also Planning Commissioners. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor and members of the Council. This is the Planning Commission's annual report for calendar year 2025, when the Commission was hard at work on a number of items. And this report reflects that. The report is actually a requirement of the State of Maryland Department of Planning. And we do this every year to not only inform you as the governing body and the public, but also the state in terms of the planning activities that our commission is working on and just about planning in general in Rockville. Just to review the Planning Commission's responsibilities, the Commission reviews and acts on certain applications, such as Level 2 site plans and plans of subdivision. The Commission makes recommendations to you, the Mayor and Council, on zoning text and map amendments and project plans, and to the Board of Appeals on special exceptions. One major responsibility the Commission has is to prepare and approve elements of the comprehensive plan. And the Commission also approves annexation plans when those petitions are brought forward and reviews and acts on proposed public projects in accordance with the land use article. And to conclude that review, I'm going to turn it over to our current chair, Meng Sun, who will talk about the accomplishments and activities of the commission in 2025.

Thank you, Mr. Westlake, for the introduction. Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council Member. Tonight, it's my pleasure to present the Planning Commission activities in 2025 to you. I am Meng Sun, current chair of the Planning Commission. Our chair during 2025 was Jamie Espinosa. Mr. Jim Westlake is our staff liaison, and Mr. Nick Domains is counsel to the Commission. The plan commission has seven seats and currently filled with six. The commission is composed with a very diverse group of members who are passionate about planning in Rockville. So I'm joined in chamber tonight by fellow commissioners Eric Futon and Jeff Zines. and I'm joined online with Commissioner Susan Pittman, and Commissioners Cheyenne Salahuddin and Jamie Espinosa can now join us tonight. Our newest commissioner is Jeff Zions. He's a retired Rockville resident being appointed in December 2025. Commission sign brings to the commission his expertise of 32 years with Montgomery County Planning Department, 14 years as a land use attorney for the county council, and finally, an interim county planning board chair in 2022. The 2025 Planning Commission Annual Report provides an overview of the planning in Rockville and detailed activities in which the Planning Commission has engaged last year. As has been the case historically, the report is thorough, well organized, and provides a clear and comprehensive overview of Commission's activities and accomplishments. I want to first express my great appreciation to the extensive assistance from the planning staff to ensure the smooth operation of the commission meetings. From staff reports to live broadcast on TV and to document all the meetings with minutes and videos online. I want to thank Mr. Westlake and Mr. Domains who constantly provide us with vital guidance and support with their professional expertise. And special thanks to Ms. Holly Simmons, Ms. Katie Gerbers, and Mr. John Foreman for their dedication in the zoning ordinance rewrite process. And as you can see on this slide, I'm proud to report to you that the Commission has accomplished quite many activities in 2025. A total of 16 Planning Commission meetings were held. The Planning Commission has reviewed and provided recommendations on three zoning tax amendments and three project plan amendments. we approved 19 subdivision plans and five site plans with a total of 1,005 dwelling units and 719,000 square feet of office and R&D space. Regardless of the application's size, location, or potential impact, the commission evaluated each proposal through the lens of Rockville 2040 comprehensive plan and city zoning ordinance. Every application received a fair and thoughtful consideration, informed by community input. We are committed to ensuring all participants are welcomed, respected, and heard through the process. Our commission values thoughtful debate and diverse perspectives, recognizing that our decision can shape the community for generations to come. While differences of opinions are a natural part of our work, we maintain a strong culture of collaboration, respect, and shared purpose throughout our work in 2025. The highlight for 2025 is the work sessions on zoning ordinance rewrite and comprehensive map amendment. The Planning Commission has held five robust work sessions to help prepare the draft zoning ordinance that was published in December 2025 for citizen input and review. The work completed in 2025 has position as well for the next phase in 2026, which will focus on public input, refinement, and final adoption in June. Next slide, please. As you can see by this map, the Planning Commission 2025 activities has an impact on every neighborhood in the city, with the focus on growth corridors along Rockville Pike and I-270. I want to highlight some projects here. To the north, in April 2025, Planning Commission recommend approval to annex the Shady Grove Metro Station. This will be a strategic move for Rockville and we will become the only city in Maryland with three redline metro stations. This will bring Rockville additional opportunities in implementing more transit-oriented development and strengthen Rockville's impact to the region towards smart growth. Not far from the Shady Grove station, level two site plan for three new research buildings along Gator Road were approved. This project responses to the increasing market demand for the life science uses in the area and aiming to eventually create a overall life science office campus. Many new applications are concentrating around the town center area. Examples including the level two site plan to convert retail space to 13 residential units at 198 East Montgomery Avenue, and the project plan to allow construction of a 147 unit, 100% affordable multi-family building at 41 Maryland Avenue. Those projects have demonstrated Rockville's commitment and flexible strategy to supply affordable housing in a workable location. To the south, near Twinbrook Metro Station, a multifamily redevelopment known as Twinbrook Hines were approved in February 2025, bringing 437 multifamily residential units with a ground floor retail. This project will continue advancing the implementation of the Rockville 2040 vision to supply housing near transit and to enhance Rockville Pike's market potential. I'm excited to report to you that several projects approved by the commission are under construction, including the Northside, Farmstead, Tower Preserve, Rockshire Village, and Bartlett Square. These activities highlight Rockville's continuous strength as a regional destination that attracts new development and residents seeking to leave work and enjoying being here. Next slide, please. To look ahead for 2026, the Planning Commission will continue its responsibility to review and act on development applications, to make recommendations to Mayor and Council on zoning tax and map amendments and project plans. My commitment to you is that we will continue to advance the goals of Rockville 2040 Comprehensive Plan while upholding our longstanding commitment to public engagement. So far in 2026, the Planning Commission has held several substantial roles in the process of zoning ordinance rewrite, holding multiple work sessions and public hearings, and have in-depth discussion on various topics. The Planning Commission will consider its actions through a lens of modernized zoning ordinance, streamlining the development approval process, and developing a user-friendly code that implementing comprehensive plan as well as providing flexibility for innovation and adaptation to future market and community needs. To conclude, on behalf of my fellow commissioners, I want to thank you, Madam Mayor, and members of council for your vision, leadership, and dedication to Rockville, where we all call home. The Planning Commission is an integral part of Rockville community, bringing together dedicated volunteer residents to help shape the city's future. Our work would not be possible without continued support from the mayor and council, as well as the active participation from the community members. I look forward to a productive and successful 2026, and thank you for your time.

Thank you so much to the entire Planning Commission. Thank you to the staff liaisons. We will not grill you on questions. This is a special presentation, but just wanna say a heartfelt thank you on behalf of each and every one of us. We know you have very important decisions and a lot of homework to do, and we greatly value the expertise that you bring to the table. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you.

And I'll just say one note to Mr. City Manager is that we take a look at our population estimate. Because we have put some new units online. It's in the report and just want to make sure we send the updated number to the state when we file it.

Just a few units. Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you. We'll now move on to our consent agenda. We have several consent agenda items and I will note this is typical because we're coming on the end of the fiscal year, which ends at the end of June. We have consent agenda item 9A, which is adoption of resolution to revise the city's statements of investment policy for the investment of the city's operating and capital funds. 9B, award and authorize the city manager to execute a contract responsive to invitation for bids, which covers the LED streetlight conversion as part of our climate action plan. C, award and authorize the city manager to execute contracts responsive to IFB 16-26, which is construction, repair, and maintenance of concrete and brick infrastructure. 9D, award of the IFB 19-26 to support the Glenora Park Stream Restoration Spot Repair Project. E, to authorize the city manager and award to execute contracts responsive to IFB 17-26 that supports streetlight maintenance. F, which would award and authorize the city manager to execute the rider agreement, H-E-F-P-L-L-C, in the amount not to exceed just $1.194 million, with pricing consistent with source well contract for electronic senior shuttle buses and direct current fast charging. So that supports both seniors as well as our climate action plan. And the full numbers are listed online. I am summarizing very briefly. G would authorize the city manager to execute a rider agreement with Astound Business Solutions for the purchase of dark fiber upgraded and new internet lines at the following city locations to support City Hall, the Senior Center, Police Station, Taft Court, and the Data Center. H would authorize the city manager to execute contract amendments to 28 contracts issued pursuant to request for proposal for professional architectural engineering and other related services. I, to award and authorize the city manager to execute contracts responsive to temporary labor services to PT Cleaning Services, LLC. And that is where we are, A through I. Does anyone have anything to ask or pull? Council Member Valeri.

Yes, Madam Mayor, I would like to pull item F, the electric senior shuttle buses. And item G, the dark fiber and internet upgrade item. Thank you very much. And Council Member McGrath.

So not necessarily polling, but I know I exchanged with staff with regard to item D. And I just want to clarify, because I think this, I won't need to pull it. City Manager, I know that there was a discussion during this budget session with regard to what we're doing for stream renovations surrounding Watts Branch. And the areas surrounding Falls Mead. I know that Glenora Park Stream flows into that. My understanding is that those are still being put off, but because of investigations that we've had based on our spot checking for environmental regulations, this is separate and needs to be done separate from those CIP. Is that correct?

That's correct.

Okay, so this is not in those general restorations, which are more macro, talking about Watch Branch.

Correct.

Okay. And we're still within our permit allotments and requirements by doing this spot check.

Absolutely.

All right. Madam mayor, I'm not pulling it. That answers everything I do.

Thank you. Given that there are some questions on the fair number, I'm just going to say, why don't we ask our questions and then we can maybe approve all at the same time as the body support that. Okay. Thank you. Council member Larry.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Yes, that was my understanding of the process, so I do just have a couple of questions for Mr. City Manager. On item F, the electric senior shuttle buses, can you share, I know I've raised this before, just generally, what specific routes are using these buses in particular?

These are mainly to take seniors on to specific events that they need to attend to. Our senior buses are in really poor shape, got poor gas mileage, and honestly, we're uncomfortable for the seniors. This addresses all those issues, but more importantly, provides it with a more sustainable current.

Gotcha. I ask this because, not that it's not important, but I think that we've talked in the past about getting more seniors from farther away parts of the city to the senior center. So not necessarily getting seniors out and around, but more so the route, if you will, making sure that more folks feel connected to the senior center given that it's not in everybody's backyard. So I just want to make sure that that's something, you know, that we're looking at. We also use shuttle buses for other things, for other constituencies, other groups of folks. So I just want to make sure that we're we're acting equitably in terms of where we're investing a not insignificant amount of money. I think it's absolutely worth it and we're gonna make it back in many ways, but I always kind of, my eyebrow goes up because I think that all folks could use access to these sort of Shuttles, on item G, and this is my last question, I was not going to ask this question. Can you share a little bit, I did not have time to look this up, why part of our rider agreement is the Equinox data center in Ashburn?

That's just an area where some of the data is processed. That's really it. If you think about all those city locations, senior center, police station, TAF Corp, tremendous amount of data going back and forth. We're purchasing the dark fiber to make sure that we have enough internet capacity moving into the future, and that data has to be processed in certain areas, including data centers.

Okay. I just, you know, it's a little bit like the old Sesame Street, like one of these things doesn't belong when I was reading through that list. So I just wanted to make sure, seeing as this is a topic that a lot of people are paying attention to, and that does make sense in terms of our internet access. So thank you. That is actually very helpful.

I just will share a couple quick updates. Just we... One second here. Question for you, Mr. Mihalik. The senior center bus can pick up some residents at special requests, is that correct?

That's correct.

Okay, so I just want to note, because I was talking to seniors who were feeling isolated, and I appreciate your question, just to support geographic equity to the center for the senior center. They can get in touch with the senior center if there's a special need. for transport that's correct and we also take seniors to the grocery store at times we do yes so um thank you to everyone at the senior center and thank you for advancing this initiative all right is there anything else okay do we have a motion to approve Who wants to do it? Council Member Jackson.

Thank you, Mayor. I move to approve agenda items A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and I.

Thank you. Do we have a second? Council Member Fulton seconds. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Thank you. Excellent. We'll now be moving on to agenda item 11A, which is adoption of the ordinance to amend ordinance number 2A-226 to appropriate funds and levy taxes for FY2026. We are not changing tax code, just to make sure people hear that headline and know that we have maintained our tax at the same rate. I'd like to welcome Mary Sue Martin, senior management and budget analyst in finance, as well as Stacey Webster, our CFO, and Kim Francisco, Deputy Chief Financial Officer. Thank you. Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the Council. This is the fourth budget amendment for FY26. This amendment includes a $4 million increase to the general fund transfer to the CIP, and that's funded from excess reserves to support capital projects programmed through the five-year planning period. Also revenue supported adjustments for recreation programming and the red light camera photo enforcement program based on higher than budgeted activity. Adjustments to several special activities fund accounts supported by program fund balances. Water fund arbitrage expenses and contingency replenishment. Additional funding for Blue Plains operating costs to cover the city's settlement charge for actual usage beyond billed. estimated usage in FY 25 and year-end administrative adjustments to align budget authority with updated estimates for leases and spas as well as depreciation if this budget amendment is adopted tonight the total appropriated by fund will change as shown on budget ordinance in your attachment one and Tonight staff recommends that the mayor and council introduce the ordinance waive the layover period and adopt the ordinance. Thank you.

I

Thank you very much. We appreciate always the work that you do in finance to not only plan for this fiscal year, but to help keep us on target and fiscally strong. Does anyone have any questions? Council Member Valeri.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I did have one question. Actually, yeah, I do have just one question. The $4 million in the CIP transfer, I know that we were it was previewed in last budget work sessions. That's not a surprise. But I am curious about the allocation of that $4 million for that time period of fiscal year 2027 to 2031. How are those decisions made in terms of, again, resource allocation at the end of the day? We have so many different CIP. I'm just curious about how this will be allocated.

Sure. So the $4 million isn't assigned to a specific project, but rather because our CIP is balanced over the five-year period, that additional $4 million allows us to do the things that we have programmed as funded in the CIP that you were presented with over those five years. City Council Chambers, Sorry, I didn't catch the last part of that, though everything that's funded through pago funding over the over the five year planning period of the tip so 27 through 31. that PAYGO funding supports those programs.

Okay, so that's essentially the allocation is anybody that has it connected to the PAYGO funding. Okay, that makes absolute sense. I think that was all, I think that's all that I had on here. It was interesting to see that our, that the citations, the red light camera citations exceeded budget. Maybe everybody should follow the rules of the road. But with that, are we just kind of setting that portion aside? I know that is a budget amendment, but I guess I'm trying to figure out that difference in the budget. Does that also just kind of get pushed to the next budget cycle? Or where are we looking to allocate those additional funds?

Are you talking about the difference between what we need to pay for our red light camera program and the amount that we bring in in revenue?

Yes, thank you.

So at this point in time, it's just an addition to fund balance, addition to reserves.

Sorry, I didn't catch the end of that last one.

I'm sorry, I must not be close enough to the microphone tonight. Sorry about that. It's just we have it shown on your, I think it's attachment two, as there's an addition to reserves.

Okay. So it just gets added to reserves.

Okay.

Thank you very much. That's really helpful.

Thank you. I have a few quick questions. The arbitrage, I just wanted to note staff is closely monitoring that and thinks this will be brought to resolution. And to my understanding, this is budget neutral. It's not costing us anything per se. We're just reimbursing the interest. Is that correct?

That's correct. We have to pay to the IRS the – a portion of the interest that we've earned that exceeds what was paid to the bondholders.

Excellent, thank you. And that will support water main and rehabilitation, and those projects are planned for, we have things coming up on agenda and you're moving forward. Excellent, thank you. I just wanted to also note that it appears that there are more people who have needed help, and so the Senior Assistance Fund, where part of this budget amendment is to support our seniors, as well as the Housing Opportunities Fund. So I just wanted to note that. The other thing that I think is important for the public to know is that we still remain within the budget amendment, maintaining 20% of our reserves. And in fact, we're still going to be $4 million over. Is that correct?

That is correct.

Over $4 million over the 26 target. Excellent. Thank you very much for confirming. OK. Seeing no more questions, can anyone introduce the ordinance? Council Member Fulton.

I introduce the ordinance to amend ordinance number 2A-26 to appropriate funds and levy taxes for fiscal year 2026, budget amendment number 4.

Thank you. Do we have a motion to waive the layover period? Council Member Van Graak.

Madam Mayor, I move to waive the layover period.

Council Member Jackson seconds. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Excellent. It's unanimous. Next, we need a motion to adopt the ordinance. Council Member Valeri.

I move to adopt the ordinance to amend ordinance number 2A-26 to appropriate funds and levy taxes for fiscal year 2026, also known as budget amendment number four.

Thank you. Do we have a second? Council Member Shaw seconds. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Excellent. Thank you very much. Okay. We have, thank you to the finance team. We have about two and a half hours of work sessions coming up. I'm going to propose a small break, if that's okay with everybody? All right. Let's come back in about five minutes or so. Thank you. Welcome back, Rockville. We're reconvening meeting 16-26. We have a work session under agenda item 12A, discussion and direction of chapter eight, election code rewrite recommendations from the Board of Supervisors of Election, Historic Preservation, PLATS, and subdivision. I don't know why that says that at the end, but we're just going to do elections. We've already had that discussion and we will meet again on that part on June 29th, but we're going to focus today on the election code rewrite and we welcome the feedback. I know Ms. Sarah Taylor-Farrell from the city clerk's office is going to focus on sharing the updates from the Board of Supervisors of Election and we also appreciate Cindy Walters, Acting City Attorney. And as a panelist, we also have Veronica Mitchell, Boards and Commissions Coordinator for the City Clerk's Office. I also want to acknowledge that we have several members of the Board of Supervisors of Election in the audience with us today. Steve Squared and Mr. Kernick, thank you for being here. I also just want to say thank you to all of you for helping us to re-examine where we are on the election code rewrite.

thank you to the bsc all who are here and who were here earlier for your work to examine where we are and to provide solid recommendations with that i'm going to turn it over to our presenters good evening mayor and council tonight we are going to focus on this work session it is intended to provide an overview of the board of supervisors of elections recommendations in preparation for November 2nd 2027 municipal election where our outline will do an introduction our timeline or BSC recommended actions are BSC recommendations for the 2027 recommendations for Marin Council recommendations amending chapter 8 and recommendations for the BSC and city staff and some closing remarks. I will start by the purposes to review the recommendations received policy direction from the mayor and council and establish framework for the election code rewrite and the charter amendments. These recommendations will be discussed, they were held and discussed by the BSC after the 2023 election as election concerns of the code and also those lessons learned during that 2023 election. Next slide would be the timeline. The city is currently approximately 18 months from the November 2nd municipal election. Staff in the BESC have developed a timeline to complete the Election Code rewrite, the Charter Amendments, and the Election Preparations. Key milestones include June of 26th, Mayor and Council Policy Direction, which is tonight, Summer-Fall 26th, Drafting and Review of the Election Code Amendments, October-November 2026, Public Hearings and Adoption, January 2027, new election code and charter amendments become effective. Spring of 2027, the candidates' information packet and materials for voter outreach, and November 2nd for the municipal election itself. Our first slide, these are BSE recommendations that the three that they would like to outline outside of the Chapter 8 itself. The first one, use of vote-by-mail to conduct the 2027 election. This would allow us to have the third vote-by-mail election, and it has been received very well by the community, and it has shown to increase voter turnout. The second one I request is to establish a third vote center on the east side of Rockville Pike. This would allow those new developments down in the Twinbrook Quarter and also to have a designated vote center since the population is grown in that area, and also to make those residents feel more inclusive in that area that may not know that they're eligible to vote in the municipal Rockville election, because we had some of that in 2023. The third one is to provide a stipend to the BSE members who served the year of the election. $2,500 would be for the board members and $3,500 for the chair. We have did some outreach. There are several jurisdictions that do pay their BSE members, and we can go into more detail with that. The city of Gaithersburg... Pays their election workers $2,500. Frederick, primary and general, $2,000. Tacoma Park, $40 per meeting. I did not hear back from Annapolis. Bowie, Maryland does pay their board members, but it is established through the mayor and council annual budget process during election year. With that, I would like to just pause and get your feedback on those three recommendations, or any questions at this point.

Thank you. I did have, I know in the staff report there's one more item in this section, and it's regarding the city attorney participation. Is that? Is that something that you meant to not include in this section, or are you going to address that later?

No, that's going to be a given in this rewrite, so we'll leave that out.

Okay, I just want to make sure I didn't miss it. I know that was really important to the Board of Survivors.

Yes, it was, but we've had our conversation with that. Okay, so you're moving forward on that. Yes.

Perfect, thank you. And I just wanted for the listening public to note that we did have detailed discussions on the referenda and went line by line through the election code and provided mayor and council's feedback. So this session is focused on listening to the BSC and then moving forward, responding to their specific recommendations. I know you're gonna take our recommendations that we went through previously and on the referenda, combine it with what we provide you tonight, and then move forward with the election code, is that correct?

Absolutely, and bring back a draft.

I received a different number from Gaithersburg on the BSC. It's They said 1500 but I just would maybe we can get some additional work done or not. So just to confirm Excellent.

Okay, we'll check into that.

Thank you So we started before with council member and Greg I will come back to you as you requested and then so that would put you up next councillor Jackson

Thank you, Mayor. So I guess thanks to the BSE for the recommendations and for your presentation. Yeah, I just have a question about the stop-ins. You know, I understand that they do a lot of work, especially in an election year, but they are... one board among many boards and commissions, and so I just worry about the slippery slope. I mean if we have one body that is getting a stipend regardless of whether it's warranted or not. other bodies, especially semi-judicial, quasi-judicial bodies, might expect the same. And I mean, I can't really argue about that. The thing in particular about the Planning Commission, as well as the Historic District Commission. So, you know, I mean, if we're gonna go down this road, we should have a broader conversation about compensation for every board and commission rather than just one. would be my initial comments on that. As to the other recommendations, it looks fine. I mean, I think the vote by mail continuing, we just... That's a no-brainer. I mean, we know that vote by mail increases turnout. The ease with which you can cast your vote is proven. And it's really a good way for people with disabilities, vulnerability challenges, to be able to cast a vote without traversing to a vote center. So I totally, totally support that recommendation. I think vote by mail is proven to be the way to go. No more questions. I look forward to the rest of this conversation, but I think we're off to a good start.

Thank you.

Thank you again. I want to echo my colleague in saying absolutely on verb by mail. I know that's a given, but given the national discussions, I feel it's important to say Rockville was the first jurisdiction In Maryland, to do vote by mail, I want to thank our city clerk for leading that charge with the city council at the time. And it practically almost doubled the voter turnout. And as my colleague mentioned, it really does expand accessibility for voting for people of different needs. So I really appreciate that, and I want to continue to support it. The third vote center, absolutely. I know this is something that we discuss as a body to try to make sure that we're looking at geographic equity across the city. So thank you for noting that. And in terms of the stipend, I do believe that we should at minimum be reimbursing. To my understanding, there's been some question about whether BSE members can be reimbursed. They actually do a lot of things where they're traversing the city They are traveling at night. They may be paying parking, whatever it is. I do think at minimum they should be getting reimbursed and maybe even retroactively for the work they did last time if they did not get reimbursed. I think that I would like to have a better understanding as to what were the limitations there because. they should not have to pay to serve. I feel very strongly that we need to at least be reimbursing them. I do agree with my colleague that we do need to look at this in the broader context because I was looking at, and I appreciate this being raised in the broader context, when other jurisdictions have moved in that direction, they have paid other boards. And so we need to look at which boards are those in addition to the ones my colleague mentioned with HCC and Planning Commission, there also has been Board of Appeals, as well as the BSC. So I think that may need a holistic discussion. I don't know if that's something that we should have a work session on. I'm open to that. Or even like when the Compensation Commission meets, they have a methodical process to looking at what other jurisdictions are doing. So I just wanted to say I would love to get more information about that, but we should at minimum be reimbursing so that they are not coming out of pocket to serve the city. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Absolutely want to co-sign what my colleagues have said so far. Very much we need to double down on our commitment to vote by mail now more than ever, so absolutely. I am ecstatic to see the recommendation to establish a third vote center on the east side of Rockville Pike. I think that's going to make a big difference. is all about accessibility and a visual reminder that we have municipal elections and you may be eligible to vote in them. I think that is phenomenal. So I'll be interested to see what sites might come under consideration. I think that that'll be interesting. maybe not tricky, but that I think will play a big role in whether or not the location is successful, in my opinion. I also agree with the stipend discussion so far from my colleagues before me. I think if we are going to have the stipend discussion, then we do, in the interest of equity, at a minimum, include the Planning Commission which we actually saw tonight during their report to us, do quite a bit of heavy lifting during the course of the year as well. But again, that might be the bigger discussion of all the quasi-judicial commissions being provided a stipend. And maybe on an ad hoc basis, other commissions in which the workload is extensive, As myself and councilmember shower on the Charter Review Commission that met Very toward the end of the report met. I felt like every day, but I don't think it was every day But very late into the night, so I think that that that's a bigger and broader conversation I am with the mayor that at a minimum compensation for transportation parking, which is a necessity for BSE members, and especially given the economic realities right now in terms of the cost of gas, I think that would be an extremely fair thing to do to provide, and I know that they do quite a bit of traveling around during our election year, so that's kind of where I land as well. In the immediate, providing mileage reimbursement, travel reimbursement, and then have the longer conversation about stipend.

Thank you. Council Member Fulton.

So at the outset, I want to say I'm recused from any conversation about compensation for boards and commissions. I defer to the body here, but if we're actually having that conversation, I'm happy to step out. If we're deferring the conversation, I'm happy to keep going.

I think that from what I'm hearing so far, there's only been three. We're not having it? So we haven't gotten to the fourth yet to see if we're going to move or not. So I just wanted you to know that you may want to come back to that part. I don't think we will have it. I think we're going to at least get to travel. I think this may be a broader discussion. I just don't want to be here for that.

If we're not having it, then we're not having it. On the other two questions, yes to vote by mail and yes to a third vote center, I will note that the... The item that was taken off of the presentation because it was decided, I actually do have, I guess, questions on. We don't have to decide it now, but mere physical presence of the Office of the City Attorney doesn't answer a lot of questions like is the guidance that's given the binding? Is it like who's the client in that scenario? I do think there's something that needs to be discussed on that. We don't have to have it here, but I don't object to the overall recommendation.

Thank you, Dr. Miles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I associate myself with the majority of my colleagues with regard to, well, I'll take a minute or vote by mail. If the city clerk and board of supervisors of elections think that they can pull it off for this election, then I'm supportive. If they need more time, I'm supportive of that, too. I will follow your guidance on that. Number two, establishing a third vote center, I'm in support of that. Number three, With regard to compensation, I associate myself with the comments of my colleagues, particularly Madam Mayor. I think Council Member Jackson, I think, introduced the concept of equity across other boards' commissions. That's all.

Thank you very much. Council Member Van Graak.

So first, I think we're all pretty unanimous that vote by mail has been a tremendous success in the city. There's no reason to go back to something that's been successful. Third vote center, absolutely. We really got the kind of three sections of the city, the west of 270, central area, as well as the east of 355. There is no reason for us not to have to have one voting center in each of them. And with regard to the stipend, my understanding is one of the main reasons we and many other jurisdictions do have some compensation for the Board of Elections is because they're not just meeting in City Hall. They are meeting out on voting sites. They are actually having to deal with moving ballots to and from, especially in an election year, There is significant outlays that they have to do themselves that is not the same as just folks meeting at City Hall or meeting remotely. So to the extent we are addressing this, not necessarily as a stipend, but as a recognition of the fact that they have outlays themselves on a regular basis on behalf of the city, that's not compensated. I think that fact is appropriate. and makes it different than most other boards and commissions that are generally just meeting here. And I think that fact needs to be acknowledged because they are, whether it's a compensation for their own expenses or that we presume what that amount is approximately going to be in a given year and assign it that. And I don't know whether stipend is the right word. It really should be some type of compensation for the fact that they are outlaying their own time using their vehicles. I've witnessed members of the Board of Supervisors elections taking ballots from the ballot box, driving at different places, and doing it throughout the time period. And that's something that we shouldn't take lightly and they shouldn't have to outlay themselves.

Councilman Burchard. I agree with my colleagues and wanted to thank the BSE for the recommendations. I agree with all of them. Using vote by mail is fundamental to inclusive elections, and we have shown that in Rockville. I think there's actually a whole lot more that we can do to make it more inclusive, but we must have vote by mail. I definitely agree with establishing a third vote center in East Rockville. And in regards to providing a stipend, I was under the impression that there, so yeah, I totally agree with this, but I was also under the impression that if there were expenses, they could be reimbursed to some extent. I'm interested to hear more about that, because thank you.

Thank you. Council. So I'll just note that I asked that very question and was told that for some reason it wasn't happening. So I have a follow up specific towards our city managers team to help ask and just clarify for the future because sometimes there's finance policies. Uh, that I usually use for normal situations like requiring a 50 mile radius for some travel reimbursement that we may need to adjust. But I know the city manager will help us get to that in a 2nd.

The reason why I was asking that was because of, um, I just remember serving on the. Um, the charter review commission, and that was that was offered at some point. Um. It was during COVID, I believe, so I don't think there was a lot of travel. But I was just curious about getting that information. I will also just say, as well, there's actual data that says when you provide a stipend, that for some jurisdictions, I know they did this in the county, it makes it more accessible for more diverse communities to be a part of boards and commissions. So I definitely agree and I agree with having a broader conversation for all boards and commissions.

Thank you. So this came up, and I know we talked about our current code allows reimbursement, but I don't think there has been reimbursement for the BSE. I just wanted to say, Mr. City Manager, going forward, you've heard from us that we would like to make sure at least that the BSE is reimbursed, and we'll have a broader discussion in the future. But there may be some travel policies to look at that don't necessarily align with driving 50 miles. that they're actually shorter locations, but it's personal travel that they're paying for. Would your team be willing to work with the city attorney's office and city clerk's office to address this and to come up with potential new policies?

Yes.

Thank you. Okay. Council Member Valeri.

I would also put forward too that maybe what it is is that we don't look necessarily solely at a reimbursement because maybe folks cannot put the money forward at the time. but that if someone knows who is on the BSC, who knows that they'll be driving their personal vehicle and perhaps can come up with that estimated mileage, that that is also another option because I know that reimbursement seems like the cleanest, but if you do not have a sort of funds at the time, it won't really be helpful then in the long run.

Thank you.

Council Member Shah. So I also just wanted to clarify my point. I think in addition to the reimbursement, there should be a stipend. Just paying our community members for their time is also just incredibly important.

Thank you. And we should also, when we have that broader discussion, look at the volume of commissions we have and see if we're going to do just quasi-judicial. But I would note that. There are other commissions like HRC that works really hard. So I think this is a broad discussion we need to have and say, how does that impact the city budget as well? And then there are some entities that look at it as a per meeting, like I know Tacoma Park does that as well. So I know you all have a lot on your plate, but when we can have a discussion on how do we equitably approach this.

Thank you. It's noted. Thank you. We'll look into it. So next we have about six slides and I think it would be a good approach to take each slide and get our policy questions and recommendations answered rather than do them all and then come back. So we're gonna move forward with our first set of recommendations for chapter eight of the city code. Our first sections, 8-1, we have expand definition of campaign materials to include robocalls, prerecorded messages, and communications with audio components. This would make it more clear that non-tangible campaign materials must be included in the disclaimer required by Section 8101-7. Second, definition of committee. This would support authority that without a definition of a committee, Rockville's campaign laws were unconstitutional and vague. We did have an organization who did report that to us during our review of campaign finance. They were a committee, but they said there was not a clear definition. Another 8-1, the board is recommending deletion of absentee ballot. The reason, because vote by mail eliminates the need for absentee voting. When everybody who is a registered and eligible voter receives an absentee ballot, even our overseas and those who are requested absentee ballot originally, it's mostly those who are overseas. and has an address that gets mailed to either their home address or to their overseas address. So anybody who is on the registered voters list is eligible to receive a voting packet by mail. Last 8-1, insert definition of contribution and expenditures with exceptions for those items not deemed reportable, like volunteer activities, campaign personal expenses. Virtually every other campaign finance law in the U.S., including the FECA, follows this pattern. So it would just be more in line with across-the-board state federal elections that that campaign contribution and expenditures would be more clear. So that's our first slide.

Would you like us to provide feedback now?

I'd like you to provide feedback.

Thank you. Council Member Jackson, now this is your official turn.

Thank you. Unfortunately, there's a little bit here, and I agree with all of it. I mean, I think to clean up the code is a great goal, and this slide which I'm asked to comment on. It just deals with the definitions and cleaning up the code, and I totally agree with it.

Thank you. I also agree. I just wanted to ask two questions. One is I believe we've dealt with text messaging, but I just want to confirm this focuses on audio components for campaign materials. Are you also addressing text messages? Because that is something that came up in the last election.

Yes, absolutely.

So that will also be required and considered a campaign material. For those who want to opt in and opt out of a text message. I guess robo-texting, if you will. Okay, all right. And the other question I had is just as we remove absentee ballot, just making sure we have a clear process because there are people who may be at college or overseas or on assignment, military people, just how they would engage with us and what's the process to request that. I just want to make sure that somewhere in our information that is clear to the public.

Yeah, that's an education piece and we've always struggled with that. What happens is this onus is on the voter itself to update the voter registration. And that is in one of those four mailers that go out. We always stress, please check your voter registration. Please update it. That's even for those college students. Some who have graduated, they forget, oh, I'm back home now, but they forget to change their registration back to their home address rather than sending their ballot to their school. So we do try to reach out to all those voters that we can and stress to them, please check your update of your voter registration.

Thank you. And I just say it in the spirit of like if we're going to remove absentee ballot, which I understand why you're recommending that, we need to actually provide education on. I know you're away. If you're away and you need your ballot mailed, here's the process. Just so that is clear. Because some people look at absentee and they're reminded, oh, I'm going to be away. I need to. I'm not going to be home to get that. What's the process? So I just want to specifically call out something that is a trigger. If you're traveling or away for whatever reason, here's the process. And we have that on our website and on all materials.

We can include that in our outreach as well.

Okay, thank you.

Council Member Valeri. Yes, hello. Okay, so I am really good with the expanding the definition of campaign material. I think that's something that we'll probably have to review somewhat regularly because things will change and technologies will shift and I'm heartened to hear to Madam Mayor's question that text messages are included in that. We're already hearing from some folks who are receiving unbidden text messages so I can only imagine that this will occur during municipal election years as well. I'm cool with the inserting a definition of committee, can only do good things, be super clear from the get. I agree with Madam Mayor on absolutely delete the definition in the code, that makes sense. But that is, it's become shorthand for, oh no, I'm going to be away. So even just as part of the educational efforts, having, you know, even just a section on the election website that's like, absentee voting, like, are you going to be out of town? Well, we're a vote by mail, and et cetera, et cetera. I think it's a good teachable moment, but it is kind of in my head, like you said, it's like shorthand for, oh, I'm not going to be around on election day. And if folks are new to Rockville, maybe they're not quite sure how that works out either. So that makes sense. And I agree also as well with the inserting definitions of contribution and expenditure. With the exceptions for those items not deemed reportable, I presume we're going to be getting into in-kind contributions because I see that the exceptions would be considered under federal laws in-kind contributions that would have to be reported. i.e. volunteer activity, that kind of stuff. I just want to make sure. But yeah, no, I'm good with all of this.

Thank you. Council Member Fulton?

I support all of these recommendations.

Thanks. Thank you. Dr. Miles?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I also support all four of the recommendations listed on this slide.

Thank you. Council Member Van Graak?

Okay, before I get into this, I need a little bit of help and try to understand. And the reason I say that is we've got a version of Section 8.1, all the different sections. Then this is the fourth version of something that we've seen. There are edits to the existing statute, but we've got four different 8.1 definition adjustments here. But on what we have, only one of them is there. We only have the expanded definition of campaign material. We do not have an insert definition of the committee. We don't have the clarification of absentee ballot. We don't have the insert definitions. And I think this is critical, because we've clearly got a problem with the definition of committee. There is an easy way to interpret, but what we have in our draft has committee the exact same definition as what's in the code now. We do have an expanded definite campaign material, which is good, but I think it should even be expanded more. And we also don't have the clarifications of the definitions of contribution expenditures. As we go forward into the other sections, there's also changes that this body has voted on that are in this code that's changed. So my question is, what is the draft that we received with the blue red line edits? Is that intended to incorporate all of what we received, just some of what we received or a starting point or just part of the way there?

Are you talking about the draft received on April 27th?

What we have in our agenda booklet specifically includes a part of the election code with specific red line edits, some of which has these changes, most of which don't have the changes, but also don't have changes that we voted on that are in this code as they are the same.

Okay, so those were the additions that happened in 2023, right before the 2023 elections. Those were the changes that went into the current code that we are in now, the Chapter 8. Those are in there. That is just showing you the comparison of what changes were made right before the 2023 election.

So these are the changes that were made by the previous body. Absolutely. So these are all incorporated. So it does include text messages. Our current code does. And we're talking about expanding those definitions to even broaden even more than what we have in the code currently.

Correct. Because there were some issues about text messaging and how they should be reported. And we weren't that inclusive at the time to understand what those rules and regulations were at that time.

So despite there being red lines, and some of those red lines are here, we're saying we need to do more than those red lines in what we're suggesting here. Absolutely.

We need to tighten some more of those provisions, yes.

So then the next question is, does this also mean that some of the other aspects that we've already voted on that are in here that we've suggested to change are also going to be changed or we're only looking at implementing these changes?

No, your other changes and lists that we have, we're incorporating these and what the previous mayor and council, you have adjusted for us to implement into the rewrite. This is just only... the BSC's recommendations only.

Okay.

That they're bringing forth to you to say, this is what we need to tidy up Chapter 8. So as administering the election, we need more depth to Chapter 8 with these provisions.

In addition to the other things we've talked about as a body. Absolutely. So anything that we've talked about as a body, we don't need to add. We're just trying to say with regard to these additional things that the Board of Supervisors of Elections is adjusting. Absolutely. All right. So I would say not only are these issues, and especially the first and second one, critical, but I think they should really get into it. I mean, the degree to which committee, I think, has been utilized by other organizations to get around our rules is critical. And we need to make sure we have a robust definition. Same thing with campaign materials. You know, when you get into campaigns and people are trying to take advantage, whether it's committees, whether it's organizations, whether it's candidates, the more, and I'm going to use one of our city manager's favorite quotes, clarity is kindness. And we need to have as much clarity as possible. And I think under the definitions, it's one of the best places to have that clarity. So there's no confusion. about what is established and who's governed. So I support all of these. I agree that we need to make sure that there is a clear way that someone can receive an absentee ballot. Even though we're doing mail-in, there are people who are still Rockville residents who are not going to be receiving them at home. So to the extent we can make that available, I think it's important. But all these definitions, I think, are critical for a proper election code. Thank you.

Council Member Schaaf.

I agree with my colleagues. We definitely need to clarify these four items. I will say for the first one, it would be helpful also to clarify the exceptions, because I think some of the exceptions are included as member organizations, unions, associates. There are some exceptions where you're sharing or texting or whatever to an internal organization or it's internal. I think also family was also included. So there are some clear exceptions. And I think there was some confusion around that, especially if, for example, there's an organization where community member signed up to receive information like a newsletter or receive text messages from that organization out in the community, that could go under the exception or it could not. But I think clarifying where those exceptions are is really important because that would help candidates to know if they should put the disclaimer there or not. And then I definitely agree with the rest and defining what a committee is, and it makes complete sense for an absentee ballot, and then also some more clarity around the fourth one.

Thank you. Um, I was just going to, um, just note if, can you tell us, are there, is there a state law on exceptions? I mean, I obviously, if someone is sending something to their family, that's makes sense, but we do need to be mindful that there are lots of associations and groups and the goal is to be as transparent as possible. So I think that's, that's what we want to be if safer to include it. Sure.

I mean, I'd have to look into what exceptions there are. I mean, generally speaking, the state election code does not apply to us. So we can define things as we wish.

Yeah, I mean, to the extent possible, if someone is sending a one-on-one message to one person, I think that's fine. But in general, I think disclaimers are better if we can just be clear. I know that we're trying to make sure that people know where they're getting the information from. Council Member Valeri.

Just on this point, there is, and I can't recall what it is off the top of my head, but there is an equivalent to the CAN-SPAM Act that applies to text messaging, which is why the text stopped to opt out of future text messages. I cannot recall for the life of me, but there's an equivalency there to allow for people to, you know, whether or not there's a pre-existing relationship to opt out of communications from that communications channel.

Council Member Shaw. I know we're going to go through this later on, but I think one of the exceptions could also be if there's only one text message going out, then I don't know if we would need the stop function. I think it's good to put it in there, but I think if there's only going to be one stop, I'm sorry, one text, I think it would just, again, just be good to clarify that.

How do people know if it's going to be one text? You're just saying if they can't?

No, I'm talking about in the code. Oh. Like if there's only one text message going out.

Council Member Valeri? Thank you council member shy I get kind of where you're coming from but again under canned spam you could send one email you can send 50 emails you have a certain set of criteria that meet that you have to create a way for folks to unsubscribe and that's kind of the at the heart of it so it again. It's not so much about quantity, but it is more about allowing folks to not get that communication channel and providing them the way, the path forward. So I think it's more information is better. I think it's more to protect individuals and their ability to determine what communications they get at the end of the day.

Council Member Schell. I wholeheartedly agree. I think some of the communication previously came from members of the community that did sign up for things that could unsubscribe to lists or organization lists or newsletter. And I think being able to unsubscribe to all communications is a good idea. Thank you very much.

Next section.

OK. Our next is 8-6A, close registration to vote city election 60 days rather than 45 days before the election. And the reason for this would allow time for us as the BSC to check the voter information. There would have been three. at least three mailers out, and the county would have already provided those updates in the system before they send the bulk update, which is the final update to the vendor. That would allow us as staff and BSE to work with our IT and our GIS to do an overlay and to make sure that that voter database met all areas of our city and registered voters before. And it would allow us to see If they provided something called web delivery, which happened to us before, that was not something that we were used to even, well, had no knowledge of because we're an all-vote-by-mail. So web delivery was sent to the vendor as those who opt during the federal and state elections voted. to receive a web ballot which we do not offer web ballot nor have the capability of a web ballot but this would allow us more time to review our data before the state sends it up to the vendor because we do not have they do not allow us municipalities to send our own data up to the vendor provided through the state 8-41 a substitute provision for specific locations of vote centers and drop boxes a provision stating that vote centers will be established and drop boxes placed at locations recommended by the BSC and approved by the mayor and council The BSC recommended this change currently because they would know from previous elections the voter turnout in these areas where we have drop boxes and also We think putting it in a code, you would never be able to move these locations around. You would have to continue to place drop boxes and vote centers in those areas if it's written in the code. 8-41C. reduced the number of notices and reminders from 4 to 3. This is the one that we were saying that we have four mailers that go out. By the time the fourth mailer does go out, we're bulked up with the review of that voter database. So anything that is received back after that fourth mailer, we can't send it to the county or the state for any kind of updates. It's more just information to our community because it's not enough time allowed to do any kind of updates before the vendor gets the final bulk up of the voter registration to mail out the voting packets, the ballot packets. 8-42A, delete provision on absentee voting. We already went through that. That just eliminates the vote by mail provision. I won't go any further than that slide. We'll move to the next slide after that.

Thank you so much. I have a question about the 841A. I know the comment was that we may not be able to make a change, but it can always come to the mayor and council to make a change, correct?

Absolutely. They would make recommendations. You would have to approve it at each election cycle, yes.

Okay. And for the closing of registration and city elections, what's the number of days that the county has with that? Because people are normally registering with the county oftentimes.

Absolutely. But even closing registration, you still have the option of voting same-day registration here. That is just so it closes off the registration, the actual registration list that gets bulked up to the vendor. You still can register and vote on the same day of the election.

Understood. But the county usually allows... Do they have a shortened registration period before election, or do they...

No, no they don't. I mean, but they have control of their voter registration data where we don't.

Yeah, that's true. That's a difference. I was looking at this from the perspective of the voter versus us. So I just like to give people the most that we can. I totally understand and respect that reducing them in postcards doesn't help us clean our database, but it does provide an extra push to a resident to get educated and reminded. And Rockville has been doing very well compared to some other jurisdictions. We always need to do better, but on voter turnout, and I just would be uncomfortable with doing anything that would impact the voter per se. So I would say for these, I would, and I know me being the minority here, but I would not change those. But I do understand that you won't be able to necessarily clean the database. It's really about an educational message, which I think is still valuable.

Yes.

And I'm also, for that purpose, support, you know, would keep the 86A. And I do believe that the BSE can come to the Mayor and Council. The only reason why I was... I think there's a dance between the BSE and the Mayor and Council to be able to look and make suggestions on how we evolve and add these vote centers. I think that we, the Mayor and Council, have pushed in the past to add more of a geographic equity, and I value that, that it's clear where it should be. And I'll give you another example. In 2019, we pushed on, I know I pushed on getting materials in Asian languages and it wasn't in code so they didn't have to do it. So I do believe just clarity is kindness to quote the city manager and my colleague. So I'm fine with keeping that section as is and I do support what you're saying on 842A with the comments on education that we made earlier.

Council Member Valeri. Yes. Okay, so on 86A. I can see both sides of this, but I think it's more that it's like the cutoff point for the mail house to ensure that the ballots get to individuals. So less about like we're cutting off registration to vote because we do have same day voter registration. It's always going to look different to the county because county is not exclusively vote by mail. So closing registration for them is looks extremely different than closing registration for us. I think we could probably do, you know, in all our free time, a better job of promoting same-day voter registration. I think that a lot of folks don't realize that's an option. You know, in 2023, I feel like I talked Bloom in the face because I was like, you know, we got vote centers and we have same-day voter registration. A lot of folks out there that have lived in the county their whole life that don't know about same-day voter registration. So I think I'm cool with 60 rather than 45, as long as on the parallel track, we are pushing out information about same-day voter registration and really empowering folks. to come to a vote center if they find themselves in that place, which then goes back to more vote centers, better. So I'm cool on that. I am okay with the substitution of 8-41A as long as we maybe create guidance or parameters on that, you know, in the recommendations from the BSE that there is an emphasis on equity. not only you know for lower voter turnout areas but in general i think equity as well because That's really what I think a lot of us up here have been saying. I was very heartened by the additional vote center because I think it does bring equity on a variety of levels. Maybe we'll get to a point where there's a vote center in every quadrant of the city, but I think just guidance and parameters there I think are helpful going forward. More clarity is kindness, I suppose. On 8-41C, again, I can appreciate the need to reduce our costs for sure. We still have so much to do on voter education that I see that forth as just that, hey, just a reminder, if you haven't gotten your ballot, Here are the vote centers. There's still a lot of voter education that can be done with that fourth mailer. I think it is the adage in marketing that you need seven touches to make one sale. I think four is less than seven, so I'm cool with four. And to that extent as well, I'm cool with the deleting the provisions on absentee voting.

Thank you. Council Member Fulton.

I support the first recommendation to close registration, specifically relying on the rationale just articulated by Councilmember Valeri that it's not actually closing registration. I'm okay with substituting a provision that allows for sort of flexibility on vote centers and drop boxes, recommended by BSE and approval by mayor and council. I would want to include in there something that I think was mentioned, like minimums. I wouldn't want to lose the minimum number of vote centers and drop boxes, but I understand that we might need to make changes to where they are. Uh, I don't want to reduce the number of postcard mailers for reasons said by my colleagues, and I am fine with deleting the provisions on absentee voting.

Thank you Dr miles.

Thank you madam. I'm actually okay with all. Of the provisions are changes proposed on this slide. Uh, the. Only addition was that many of the colleagues have made to the second one, 841A, minimums and things like that with regard to vote centers. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilman Van Graak.

8.6A, I mean, I definitely support closing the registration to receive a mailing ballot from 60 days to 45, as long as we make sure that we still have the same day registration. 8.41a, obviously the difficulty here is in the details. As long as there can be an oversight, I think, from the mayor and council with regard to what happens, ensuring that the geographic distribution, the number is okay, I think that's fine. I do not support reducing the number of postcard mailers, and Well, we might be able to delete the provisions of the absentee voting. I still think there needs to be an absentee voting. That option's got to be there for, for example, a college student who still lives in Rockville that wants to vote in Rockville elections. Some other aspect, or someone who's going to be abroad for a month and is not going to receive it. So I still would allow that provision to be there.

Councilman Buchel. So I am going back and forth with the first one. I did have a question about voter registration and same-day voter registration, so that was clarified. I guess I would lean towards having it maintaining the 45, because that just provides more opportunity for the community. But I'd like to see more information on that in terms of the mailer. I do agree with 8-41A. I strongly disagree with reducing the amount of mailers from four to three. There are a lot of people in the city that may not check their mail regularly and could rely on another mailer to be helpful. And I do agree with 8-42. Thank you. Council Member Jackson.

All right. Last but not least, let me ask on 8-6A just to clarify again. So what is the reason to go from 45 to 60?

It allows us as a review of our own database before we turn it back over to the county and say we're good with sending it to the state for the bulk up. It's given us time to review it and to make sure they included the updates from the three mailers.

So has there been a problem before with the 45 days?

Yes. It pushes you with the vendor close to the packets being mailed out and you don't want to rush the state via the county to send something that we're not prepared or have reviewed. So that's what happened the last time. And we wanna make sure that doesn't happen this time. It's just more of a review for us and before it gets sent to the state via the vendor.

Yeah, I have been going back and forth with this one, but 86A, I'm a no. I think we should keep it at 45 days. I recognize what you're saying, but I do think it's important to be consistent with the time. On 841A, I'm okay with that. Having the Board of Supervisors of the elections establish the drop boxes in place of locations, I'm fine with. I understand what the body has been saying about having mayor and council. input, but I just, I don't think I feel that strongly about it. And then A41C, I'm also a no. I think it's important to have four mailers rather than three. And 842A, yes, I'm for deleting the provisions on absentee voting. I understand what Council Member Van Graak is talking about. But I don't think we call it absentee voting. It's something else entirely. But yeah, I'm for that provision of deleting absentee voting.

Thank you. So I believe that we have four going forward with the recommendation on the 60 to 45. However, I think semantics matters. And so here it says closing registration to vote. It's not closing registration to vote. It's not closing. Because that really sticks out to me. And I'm saying that's why I was so strongly against that. It really is the ability to receive a mail-in ballot.

Right.

So can we clarify that? Because it doesn't look good. OK. as written, that would be very, very helpful. And since you mentioned vendors, There have been some issues with vendors. How are we gonna prevent issues in Rockville?

Well, if the state continues to assist the city with their election process, we have to use the vendor that the state uses. Otherwise, we'll be looking for our own vendors to run our whole election ourselves. So that's where we are with the vendor.

That gives me great pause, and I just want to do some homework to understand what quality checks are being put in place, what has been learned, but we do not want to have a second example of what happened this year, and then to become national fodder. Road by Mill pretty much was initiated in the city of Rockville for Maryland, and I want to continue to have Rockville be stellar on this front.

I think it's a little different for us, though, what the vendor was provided versus we're non-partisan versus.

I know, but it's not necessarily what was the mistake. It was the fact that there wasn't a quality check that I'm concerned about. So I think it's worth a conversation to say, how will we make sure that things are done well? And there were some vendor issues in the last election with the vendor that was tabulating and putting things online. I just want to have an honest conversation about what could go wrong and how we're preventing those issues.

Okay.

because it's just worth saying what have you learned, what will you fix, especially if we have to use the same vendor. I don't even know who the vendor is. I'm not commenting on specifically on the vendor. It's more about quality checks for the city of Rockville.

Absolutely. We feel the same way.

I appreciate that. And then I heard from my colleagues in favor of supporting the recommendation by the BSE, but I heard a caveat that being specific about the number. Okay. And then as the BSC was considering this, are you planning to present to the mayor and council any changes before they're made? Or are you just saying the BSC can do whatever they want and put the voting centers with it?

No, we would put those recommendations in front of the mayor and council for approval. We just wouldn't.

That wasn't clear to me in the write-up. So that's what scared me. I just wanted to make sure. Okay, I did see approved here. Thank you. And then I heard not enough support for the reduction and the majority supported 842A. Do you have any questions of clarity? Because I know we had, there was a lot on that one.

No, we're following. Okay. Our next is 8-44A1, eliminating certificate of persons assisting voters. This some certifications serves no purpose really because we cannot verify that voter assistant other than if they're registered voter and I and at this point, I mean that's not what we're looking for and assistance so that is the reason why we would like to eliminate that certification of personal assistance. 8-71A1, clarify when one becomes a candidate. This will eliminate confusion caused by conflicting provisions of the chapter because we get this all the time when candidates, you know, it's always been when do you become a candidate? Well, you become a candidate when you're certified, but, you know, that is still clarification that needs to be done, provision in the code. 8-72 requires slates to disband after each election cycle so that slates cannot collect contributions in support of one group or a candidate and use those funds year after year to support different groups or candidates. 8-73 Oh, sorry, I went too far. We only have three on this slide.

Thank you. Just an overarching question. For the person assisting the voter, was there, and this predates me, but was there a concern at some point, and I believe there was discussion about this in 2019, that someone could be assisting multiple people, and it was really trying to find if someone was Uber, just at a broad level?

The one issue that we had was that there were persons assisting other people into the vote center. And they were kind of directing them on who to vote for and who not to vote for, but we were telling them, if you're gonna do that, you have to fill out a voter assistant card, and it did not happen. So therefore, we had to tell them that you can't come in with a group of people and assist them with voting if you're not gonna fill out the voter assistant card. So our thing with eliminating that, at the time, they said that they were there assisting as maybe language barrier or whatever, but we can't, as the election judges and the BSC that are in these vote centers, we can't tell somebody they cannot assist somebody in language, although they're there. I mean, that could be, we could get ourselves in trouble with First Amendment with that and voters' rights.

And you were previously trying to track trends of if there was someone who was doing this for a lot of people. Right. Okay.

Council Member O'Leary. Yes. Hi. So when we're talking to the certification of personal assisting voter, we're talking about the state of Maryland voter assistance form. OK. So because that's what I had pulled up. Well, if it comes to language assistance, it is interesting because it's only provided in English. So that would make some things difficult. I understand that it's an affirmation, right? You can't actually check that the person is not lying to you, that the person is not the employer or an officer or agent of the voters union. I still think it's good to have, just because there are unscrupulous individuals out there. So simply by signature and I would be real hesitant to eliminate the voter assistance form. Again, it's I don't think we're sitting here going, you know, you got to do a background check on these individuals. But there is a process and through the state of Maryland that if there is a problem, Hey, they signed this and said that, you know. So I understand where the BSE is coming from, but also as I know others on this day as well have assisted individuals in voting due to disability. I think this is important, an important safeguard to keep in. Appreciate, again, clarity, kindness. We all like being kind. So any clarity when one becomes a candidate can only be extremely helpful. And also an agreement on requiring slates to disband after each election cycle. So thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Fulton.

Thank you. So on 844, I'll start by saying this whole section needs a rewrite. Okay, we're getting nods. You know, this body has talked a lot about sort of updated inclusive language. There's some downright offensive stuff in here. So if we can do a full rewrite of 844, that'd be great. On the actual topic of the voter assistance form, I'd like feedback from the community because I guess I have personally been voted like had signed these things and the person that I had to sign it for was offended that I had to sign for it so I think I understand the protection but I I'd like to know the community that needs it what they think about it before we make that call so that's that one yes clarity on one becomes a candidate I'm actually curious on Yes, we need clarity on when one becomes a candidate, but I would like to know what that is. Yes, it's when we file. The current code says, I believe, a lot about receiving contributions. In excess of 300 makes you a candidate, and or when you file. 8-71 then makes... doing something of conditioned precedent. So I see the confusion, but I do think there is, if people aren't a candidate until they file, there's a whole lot of stuff you can do before you file that is then unregulated. So I think we need to provide clarity. I just don't, we should probably have a conversation on what that is. So yes, I support it, but that probably requires more conversation. And yes, slates should disband after each election cycle.

Thank you. Dr. Miles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, for the reasons articulated by my colleagues, particularly Council Member Valeri. I am in support of having some form of certification or some check, just to make sure we have some way to monitor for bad actors. Not presupposing it, I just don't want folks particularly people who may have challenges understanding the ballot to be misled by someone posing as an assistant. I support the recommendation for 871A1, the clarity, becoming a candidate. And then 872, I did send this question. I'm just trying to figure out what is the process? I support that a slate disband. What is the process by which a slate disbands?

They would have to close out their funding at the end of that election, which would probably be either the January 15th or 30th of the following year of when you, after an annual year of campaign finance reports.

Okay.

They would do it the same way a candidate or a slate would do it, and that is you either give it to a nonprofit or to another campaign or something like that, but you'd have to close it to a zero balance. and share that.

Thanks for that clarification.

That's all.

Thank you. Councilman Van Graak.

I guess with regard to 844A1, we've got to be able to allow people to provide assistance, whether that's through how we have, whether this is viewed as too onerous, we just have to make sure that that is allowed, because certain people are going to need assistance, and so there's got to be some method to do that. Now, if this method has been creating problems, sure, let's change it, but there's got to be to make sure that we allow that and that it can't be taken advantage of. This is just one of those areas, and there's a few different areas, we've talked about it before, where you have conflicting sections that clearly were not passed at the same time and that creates problems candidates one of them we've had committee we've also had violations there's a lot of different sections so we need to go through but certainly candidate there has to be one single definition of when you become a candidate now if we want to have other rules apply differently such as when a candidate first receives funds, we can do that. But when you're a candidate has to be clear. And I also support requiring slates to disband after one election cycle.

Thank you.

Council Member Schell.

I agree with my colleagues on 8-44 to make sure that there's a way to allow assistance, as well as having more clarity around the definition of a candidate. That was, I think, confusing for some candidates. And I also agree with 8-72 to disband slates after the election cycle. Councilman Jackson, please.

Thank you. I'll be brief. I agree with my colleagues on 844A1. I don't think that we should eliminate certification of person assisting a voter. On 871A1, definitely, I agree with my colleagues, especially Councilmember Van Graak. I mean, we need clarity on when one becomes a candidate. There's all kinds of candidates things associated with candidates sprinkled throughout our code. And I think we need just clarity on when one becomes a candidate. So I definitely, definitely agree with that one. And then A72, I agree, requires slaves to disband after each election cycle. It just makes sense.

Thank you. I just want to clarify with Council Member Van Graak and Council Member Shaw that there will always be someone who can do the assistance. The question is, do we eliminate the form? Can you just clarify as we're tabulating because we don't have a majority on each and just want to make sure we're clear.

Yes, when you're at a vote center, there are judges, the chief judge, and there are also the BSE member there that would provide voter assistance. That's what the ballot marking station is, a voter assistance for language, for Braille, for larger print. they are there to assist. So it wouldn't be necessary. And we have language. We have different, we procure different staff there that speak different languages to help assist at these vote centers as well.

So the help is there. The help is there. The question is if there's an outside person who keeps coming in or has multiple people or just one person. Right. That they would fill out a form.

This is what happened one year to us is there was a whole group bus driven up and several buses came in and there was one person assisting 25 or 30 people in the vote center. That one person caused total chaos and jammed up the vote center because she's trying to assist everybody, not just them entering into the vote center, but assisting them in other ways. But we've seen her actually trying to tell people who to vote for and how to vote. And that's not assistance.

I just want to clarify for my colleagues, can you just opine on whether you want to eliminate that form or keep the form?

Had to keep it I mean my view is I want a third person Like a family member to be able to help someone not just those voter if this is the way we need to do it fairly Through this certification. Yes. I do want that ability now if this specific Process is problematic and we're looking to substitute it in another format sure, but I want to be the ability for a for example, someone's husband who assists them even in walking and getting there to be able to be there.

Thank you. Council Member Fulton and then Valeri.

Sorry, this just got confusing. Because now I want to be clear. You do not need the certificate so that a family member can help. A family member can always help you. It's whether the family member needs to then also fill out a certificate. Okay.

So, Council Member O'Leary.

Sorry, thank you. No, that's exactly the case, is that My thought process behind it is that you do want to do your due diligence and have something to refer back to in case, God forbid, it is a bad actor, right? If the form is eliminated and it is a bad actor, there is nothing there that would show in any way, shape, or form that the state of Maryland form was not used. I think it's unnecessary liability risk to not have this form, because it is something. It's a paper trail to show that the process was followed to the letter of the law by the election judges.

Thank you. Did you want to say anything else? Are you good?

Okay.

All right. With that said, and I think you previously agreed with Councilman Van Graak, so I assume that you still agree. Okay. So I think that we then have... majority on not eliminating, but making sure that the assistance is free and available and we're not creating onerous processes, but a simple form. And I support that. I support everything else that the BSE has recommended.

Thank you. Our next slide, 8-73, this is on campaign financing. Adopt a provision on independent expenditures that would, one, require persons to register within 48 hours of making an independent expenditure of an amount set by whatever. Two, file a report within 48 hours of making an independent expenditure of at least X. And three, describe in those reports the identities of those largest contributors. And four, name a Rockville resident of an agent for service of process. This provision would mimic the treatment of independent expenditures under the Maryland Election Code Section 13-306. and presumably it would lower the amount obligated for them to register and report, but this requirement of naming an agent of service process would facilitate enforcement and prevent invasion of service like we had before.

Can you clarify service, a process?

Just lay it out. So those who contribute to a campaign and was of a independent or independent expenditure to a candidate or a group or whatever, We were not able to first put a dollar amount on that expenditure and nor were we able if we needed to follow up and ask for clarification. We had nothing on file where to find that person to enforce process of service like there were three or four that we had issues with and we still have not received any feedback although we tried to find them but it would allow them to have to register with the city clerk's office and also their campaign finance reports with the state like the candidates do 8-74B, eliminate the requirements of maintaining a petty cash ledger. Actually, petty cash ledgers, it's something if the candidate or somebody, I think it's $5 or less, you can give somebody a receipt. and then you have a receipt book that you write it in. We just think it's really, at this point, it's just, we need to admit it. Petty cash was a long time ago. 8-81A1 required committees to file their first pre-election campaign finance report 45 days rather than 30 days before the election. This we could collect because committees begin collecting their contributions and making expenditures earlier in the election cycle. So therefore, we don't know what they're out there collecting if we're not asking for them to provide a report of what contributions that are being accepted or being made on behalf of another candidate or group or slate. 8-81A4, change to due date for annual campaign finance reports, that annual that everyone has received in November 8th. We're asking to change it to either January the 15th or the 31st. This would be in finance laws of the U.S., including the FECA, and follow their pattern as well. And it would be very clear of other campaign finance reports being filed.

Thank you, Sarah. Council Member Fulton has the first opportunity to weigh in here.

Thanks for this. For the first recommendation, yes, I support it in part because I want to highlight the part you mentioned about it's mimicking state law. We didn't just make this up. Because that was my first question would have been like, Why? So if we're mimicking state law, it makes complete sense to address a known problem. I also would think that the dollar amount should somehow be proportionate to the total funding coming in as compared to where we, Maryland, right? Like some calculus there that makes it make sense, yes, to eliminating a petty cash ledger. On the pre-election campaign finance reports, I'm actually not sure about this one because it gets to the question of what is the purpose of the campaign finance reports. Now, there's going to be later recommendations about being able to act faster if people are late and higher fines if people are late that I will support. But if you have those in place, I don't know why the 45 days serves out the purpose of what the review is for.

This would allow a candidate or committee to report their campaign finance earlier than later. We had a person who made it on the ballot that didn't file. So therefore, this would eliminate that from happening again.

Oh, because it's before the ballots are finalized.

Absolutely.

If the reason is because it's before the printing of the ballots is finalized, then yes, I support it. That's what I was missing. Thank you. So I support everything here. And omit the petty cash litter. Yes.

What about you? Are you good with the change in date?

Oh, I'm so sorry. Yes, I'm good with that too. I'm good with everything here. I think I said. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Dr. Miles.

We're going to get.

Sarah, would you like to confer? I'm fine with that, if you'd like to.

The chair wants to have just, he was saying something in response to quarterly, but we're gonna get to that. We'll get to that, thank you.

Dr. Miles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. A question I raised as well on this one for 873. If it is an independent expenditure, being made by a group organization, how would they know to follow these rules? I just don't. You see what I'm saying?

Because they would be required to follow the election laws like a candidate.

Understood. But if somebody goes out, some group X goes out and makes a flyer in support of a candidate or a group of candidates, Just out of their, I mean, they pull money out of their own campaign committee or they just on their own or a group of business developers, whoever the group may be. I mean, they don't know what they don't know. I guess is what I'm saying.

Well, they do know if they hit a threshold that they're filing. There is a requirement across the board at any election that once you hit that threshold, you have to file something. with some agent, either my office, the state, you have to file something. Anyone involved in elections knows that there is a requirement to file.

Like even a private individual?

Oh, absolutely.

Man, I mean, I just, yeah. I guess what I'm getting at is that it presupposes folks know, and people can get dinged for stuff they don't know about. But I mean... In general, I support it, 873. I'm just curious about how they know. And the rest of them, 874B, 881A, subsection one, 881A, subsection four. That all makes sense. I can support it. I just, you know, the question's notwithstanding for 873. That's all.

Thank you. Councilman Van Graak.

Yeah, 873 is a must. We've gotta do as explicit information as possible, and if we're gonna follow the state, we also have to make sure that part of the reason for the agent for the service of process is also you've gotta list all the information. both if it's treasurer or the chairman, all that information will be publicly available. So we've gotta make sure that all of that is upfront and open for the public. And so the filing of these reports, the disclosures of the information, as well as everything, We need to have it open, and so the more information we have, the easier it is for the BSE, and then we'll obviously get to this later if there's violations of these. We've gotta make sure that the violations are clear, can happen immediate, and they're substantial. With regard to the other three, I support them for all the reasons stated before.

Thank you, Council Member Shaw. So I had some questions. So I generally agree with 8-73. I think it's another conversation to figure out the amount. I know the last election, there were independent expenditures upward of 20K, and then there were ones that were far, far less. And so I think trying to figure out the amount would be incredibly important. For naming a Rockville resident as an agent, and I know this mimics the state, does that, is number four naming someone who resides in the state, is that how that equivalent, because I'm sure it doesn't say a Rockville resident. And I also know that for candidates, I think at one point, the treasurer had to live in Rockville, and then it was expanded out to Montgomery County or Maryland or something like that.

It has to be a registered voter within Montgomery County.

And not just Rockville, right? For a treasurer?

Correct.

Okay. Is there any reason why then in this case it would have to be a Rockville resident as opposed to someone in Montgomery County if the treasurer, which is also responsible for the candidate, has to live in Montgomery County?

Well, that's a good question, but we would want a Rockville agent. I mean, we had somebody within Montgomery County, and we still were unable to serve that agent.

Well, I mean, I think that there were still some people, there were some candidates that lived in Rockville that maybe you were not able to serve in a timely manner. So, or candidates that weren't filing that perhaps lived in Rockville. I was just curious why living in Rockville as opposed to Montgomery County makes it easier.

The process of service. I mean, we had to use it. It's a difference in the process of service outside of Montgomery County. We can't use our local Montgomery County Sheriff's Department. We have to go out and find a process server to serve these agents outside it.

Rockville that's why okay I see us city attorney I basically was just gonna state what the city clerk just stated the difference is if a person is a Rockville resident or in Montgomery County the sheriff can serve them otherwise we have to pay a process server and that's what we had to do in several instances.

So you're saying Rockville or Montgomery County? Correct. My question was also why Rockville and why not Montgomery?

We can say Montgomery County.

OK. That was my question.

I mean, it doesn't have to be a Rockville, but we can say Montgomery County like we do for the treasurer.

Because I know that a treasurer has to be from Montgomery County, correct?

Yeah. We can do that.

I mean, I'm just suggesting that. OK. I'm interested in the amount, because again, I just know there was quite a difference in the independent expenditures from the last election, where there's corporations versus nonprofits kind of thing. But I do agree with 8-74. I do agree with 8-81A1 and 8-81A4. Council Member Jackson. All right, thanks. I will go backwards. I agree with 8-81A4, 8-81A1.

and 874B, the elimination of petty cash ledgers. I have questions on 873, and not because I disagree with what we're trying to accomplish, because I think what we're trying to accomplish is worthwhile. But as people have said, the amount is really going to be crucial. to capture everything they would capture. I also have a question on disclosing in those reports the identities of their largest contributors. As we know, some of these independent expenditures will be made by people that corporations or It's not a 501 , but 501 , other legal entities that don't have to identify their largest contributors. So the devil's in the details. And so we just need to be clear what we're talking about here and that we can actually have identities of the largest contributors record rather than get in trouble because the when people have dark money the definition of dog money is that you don't know who the contributors are are and also we just need to make clear and maybe this in the state ordinance or laws but how many so How many of the largest donors should they disclose? Is it five? Is it ten? Is it the whole thing? I mean, we need to be clear what we're talking about. And I was fine with number four naming a Rockford resident, but as my colleague has said, I mean, If it's either Rockville or Montgomery County and you guys are fine with it, then I'm fine with it. If there's any reason that you think it should be Rockville rather than Montgomery County, then I'm fine with that as well. But yeah, right now, since you guys were indicating that Montgomery County was a good place to stop, then I'm okay with that. So I guess I'm a yes on that one as well.

Thank you. I will be brief and note that I support staff's recommendation and just make a statement. I do think that if the county election is any indicator of what might come to Rockville, and we saw what happened in Rockville's last election with a lot of different groups getting involved, I want to have as much transparency as possible. So in general, I support all of the recommendations of the BSE. Council Member Valeri.

Yes, I'll do what Council Member Jackson did and go backwards. So I'm all in on yes on A4, 881A4. I am yes on 881A1. I would even go as far as 60 days if that gives enough of a buffer. So because the BSE has so much work to do around the time of the election that if it gives enough of a buffer, to increase that. I'm cool with that too, but 45 is A-OK by me. 74B, I'm cool with eliminating the requirement of maintaining a petty cash ledger. On 73, I totally understand where Council Member Jackson is coming from, but I just want to confirm my gut that the state of Maryland actually has provisions that don't allow for DARP money. You cannot hide top contributors to entities. Am I correct in my, okay. So it's slightly different because that's my background too is in federal election law and the proliferation of stealth PACs The state of Maryland has done a really good job on campaign finance disclosure and allowing for greater transparency. So I'm proud of Maryland. So I just wanted to make that clarification. Number four, I'm cool with the Rockville resident. I don't think that's a big significant ask to have a Rockville resident as an agent. Let's make it as easy as possible for the BSE and for the Madam City Clerk's office to get in contact if need be. And it's always easier to get in contact with people in Rockville than in Montgomery County. I would say yes absolutely do three to five of the top donors I'm cool with anywhere in that range top three I think gets you there to that point and oftentimes if they do provide more of the top donors it's good too but I think that that's kind of a sweet spot on requiring persons to register I think Absolutely. I would say at least 48 hours in advance because then you can register and then you could file a report within 24 hours of making an independent expenditure. So you could register at any time. You're on record as being registered and then you have that, you have a much shorter window before you can drop X amount of money. think that that provides the greatest transparency because ultimately you don't want somebody to you know to register and or not register drop a bunch of money there's gonna be loopholes and any way that you can you know extend the amount of time of registration shorten the amount of time that somebody has to file a report I think protects people more from, um, a variety of independent expenditures, some of which aren't corporations. Um, I would also say that a good starting amount, um, would be 6,000 to start with. That's half of a, uh, citywide mailing of registered voters thereabouts. At least it was in 2023. Um, I'm willing to start there. I'm being bold on throwing out numbers, but that was kind of my calculus, was that many independent expenditures go to providing mailings. I'm sure a lot of us have gotten mailings from such entities, and doing at least half of that, I think, is a good starting point for our law.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

I will just add, people can do a whole lot with $2,000 in terms of social digital. I kind of like the 2000 number you put out there, since you were, I just wanted to weigh in on that. So, because not everything is a mailing these days. I've seen some interesting things online in this election.

We didn't, we weren't given a number.

That's true. I appreciate you starting with a number. I'm just throwing that out there. So, it sounds like you have general support with some caveats. I don't know if you want to ask a clarifying question for Straw Poll. I heard two people say...

I just want to know for four, are you good with making Montgomery County resident as an agent for service process like you would for a treasurer? Or do you want a Rockville resident?

Does anyone want to specify, change what's in here? I know everyone weighed in on Rockville resident. Is anyone who wants? I know you have. Yes. But just want to make sure I'm giving other people a chance to also say whether you want to change it from Rockville resident to Montgomery County. Council Member Fulton.

I might. What I heard... staff say is the the reason for the restriction is so that we can serve process through the sheriff's department that's the reason and if we can do it anywhere in montgomery county then i am also okay with montgomery county because it still serves the reason

Do you want to clarify? Do you want to come back to some information, or is that clear?

I'll come back unless the board has a different reason for why they would like resident agent.

So you're going to come back to us and clarify? Yes. Sorry. Shaw, you had a question.

No worries. That was also my question from Council Member Fulton.

Yeah, can you all just come back to us with more information on the genesis of this?

Yeah, and how about identifying their largest contributors, three to five? Is there a number that you all would want to throw?

I think it's finished for us.

Sarah has an additional.

So, um, yeah, because, um, the reason why it's in. The treasurer for the candidate, um, the jurisdiction is Montgomery County. I think at 1 point it was Rockville and then expanded to Montgomery County. So if you could just share some information of why. It went from Rockville to Montgomery County when you bring back the information.

Yeah, that was a change a long time ago. Might need some digging, but we'll bring it back to you.

Because that would be interesting that it would be Rockville, and then for the candidate, it would be Montgomery County if it's based on the effort through the sheriff's office.

I'm going to wrap this up and say, come back to us with more information. We'll come back with that one. I'm watching the time where it's going to come up.

More on that one.

And then you're asking about three to five.

Three to five, the largest contributors.

Councilman Jackson, you had a comment?

Yeah. So on that three to five, I'd also ask for more information on what it means to disclose in the reports the identities of the largest contributors. So is it based on a state law? And if so, how many do they list?

Does the state have guidance on how many they need to list?

Oh, yes.

Absolutely. What is it? Is it three to five? What is the number? Six. Six. The top six. I think we should just align with state law. Yeah. Okay. I'm good. Okay. I'm seeing thumbs up. Okay. I'm going to throw my pen. All right. All right. I'm going to note it is 9.58, and we have another work session. Okay. But this is important. I just want to make sure we're tracking it.

We're almost at the end. We're almost at the end. Next slide. Next slide. 8-83A increased the maximum late fee for filing campaign finance reports from the current maximum of 360. This was because there really is no incentive for those who want to not file in a timely manner. $360, they usually, you know, will let that go. The board cannot go after them for another 30 days, so then it's another 30 days, and it just continues the request longer, and we think raising that rate, that maximum penalty will make I-Barrows raise a little more and the candidates come in compliance easier.

Can I just ask, just for the whole body, if you have a number, anything that you all have discussed or background as you go through these, please let us know. So I don't see an increase to what, but just let us know if you have any guidance so that we can, as we go down the line, can say yay or nay.

They have spoke about $1,000. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Okay. 8-83C, create a more streamlined and rational procedure for imposing and collecting late fees from those that do not file into Tom Lee Manor. As I said, that 60 days just allows candidates to avoid the disclosure prior to the election day, as we have seen in the past. And 8-101, require text messaging to offer recipients a choice for opting out, receiving future political messages. This would protect those residents who object to receiving unwanted political text messages.

Thank you. Dr. Miles, you're up.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm in support of all three of these as written, 883A, 883C, and 8101.

Do you have any feedback on 360 to 1,000, or do you have a number in between?

500, yeah, I'm not, I have no specific number. I'm okay with increasing it to whatever amount you all see fit. 500 sounds reasonable, but whatever, whatever the body is.

Thank you. Councilman Van Graak.

So I think this is something that needs to be addressed pretty significantly. I mean, we can agree to disagree. I don't think the current rules have that 30-day window, but the fact is there's confusion here, and it can be interpreted that way. But regardless, this has to be significantly more than 360. I think even significantly more than 1,000. We've had just from campaign donations alone, now in this most recent election, upwards of above $150,000 being put on one candidate. And that's outside of the independent expenditures that were pervasive. $360, even $1,000 really is still just a drop in the bucket. We have to make sure that our campaign finance laws are adhered. And I think in addition to financial, I mean, we also have the code. It's in there. I'm sure we're going to put in there that there's going to be restrictions with regard to you even being able to be inaugurated as an official if you haven't fulfilled them, but there should be additional. I mean, there was talk, I think it was even in the Board of Supervisors of Elections meetings, of maybe even having a website that says if you've committed a violation under the rules, there's a bad actor, part of the website. We have to let people know that if you are late on your filings, if you've done things improperly, if you've skirted the rules, there's consequences to them. So, I think this is the bare minimum of what we need to do to make sure there's enforcement. And I think potentially even $1,000 is too low. Similarly, there's got to be a more streamlined and rational process for imposing and collecting late fees. And I would argue not just late fees, but any penalties within the rules with regard to following what we've put out. There's got to be teeth into the rules. They can't just be rules for the sake of rules, and there's got to be consequences to them. We heard from the Board of Supervisors of Elections. We heard from numerous members of the public after the last election saying, hey, where's the enforceability? What's happening here? And we need to show that, at least from the city of Rockville, we are paying attention to it. We're requiring people to follow the rules, and there's consequences to them. And obviously, for text messages, if they want op-out, they should be able to op-out if they need to.

Council Member Shaw. I agree with 8-83A. I'm not sure of the amount. I know our elections aren't as expansive as some other elections, but I do agree that we should increase the 360. I do agree with 8-83. I'd like to get some more information what more streamlined means, but I do agree with the concept. For 8-101, I also agree, and I think this should just not be text messages. It could also be email or whatever else that we have in communications. And then just going back to the original point of just clarifying the exceptions. Thank you. Council Member Jackson.

Thanks, Mayor. I'll be brief. I associate myself on 883A and 883C with the comments of Council Member Van Graak. I think we need to do more to hold people to account for filing late or kind of skirting the rules. On 8101, I just want some additional information. I think Council Member Shaw made a good point about other media, whether it's emails or even audio phone calls. But what I want to know, and this is for the BSE and for the clerk, is Is it already regulated by either federal law or others that if you're getting text messages that are political, that you have to have an opt-out? I mean, does that apply to the local text messages as well? Or do we need a specific provision built into our code? I don't know the answer. I mean, I'm fine with doing it and putting it in our code. But if we don't need it, we don't need to clutter it up. So that would be my only question is, is there already some law that governs text messages or not?

Thank you.

We'll have to dig a deep dive into that because, as you know, we are all receiving text messages and emails. I don't see an opt-out provision, so I don't think it is. Yeah, you just push stop. I mean, but it doesn't stop. It comes back again. from the same group or whatever. So we'll have to look into that, but I just think it's there, but it doesn't stop because a lot of them buy lists, and that's where this comes from. They buy your emails and your phone numbers and all of that, so that's where most of that text messaging comes from, an email.

I feel like I get multiple a week. So I just, Council Member, do you have another comment?

Well, it's just a comment, I guess. But so I guess we're requiring text messages to offer recipients the choice of opting out. Well, we'll give them the choice of opting out, but if the actor doesn't choose to opt them out, then what? So it's another example of do we really have teeth, or is there an enforcement mechanism, or if they don't have an opt-out or they don't pay attention to the opt-out, what is our remedy?

I will, I appreciate the conversation among my colleagues. I will just ask for a legal follow-up on this because it's my understanding that the Cairns-bound Act applies to commercial business email, commercial businesses, not necessarily political speech. And so I just want to make sure that if, I would love everyone to have the opportunity to opt out. I just want to make sure we're not breaking any rules in doing so, if you can confirm. So that would be very, very helpful. And otherwise, I support it. But just want to make sure there's a legal check to make sure that we can do that. I support everything that the BSE is recommending. I agree with increasing the fines. I, there's not really a way to distinguish, but you might have like an individual who's new to elections and is trying to figure things out. I remember when you're a first time candidate how confusing things are and it just, it's a lot. So, you know, I feel for that new candidate, But I also feel like outside entities should pay more, but I don't think we can do that. So I don't think we can separate the fees. I think it's blanket, but you all tell us.

But that is why we have campaign finance training for the candidates and the treasurers. And we do point these things out to them, and they should be reading the code if they're running for office.

That is true. And I also have seen, not necessarily here in Rockville, but... people who wait until last minute so people don't see what they're planning in their elections and use the deadlines of campaign when they have to submit carefully. So for me, just generally better transparency is important. I was thinking about a 500 just because I was thinking about that new candidate that may not have a lot of resources, but I'm willing to go with the majority and the BSE recommendation. I do think about the individual, but I am concerned with the outside groups getting involved and not responding. I know you all had a difficult time with that.

Council Member Leary. Yes, this is an exciting adventure in the limits of speech. It's fascinating. Okay, so going in order. I think there's a difference in the maximum late fee for filing a campaign finance report from a candidate versus from a committee. versus from an independent expenditure registered committee. Not trying to make this more difficult, but I think it gets a little bit to Madam Mayor's point that I don't know necessarily what the solution is there, but maybe that's how we treat it differently. I do think 360 is too low. I think 1,000 sounds about right. We're all doing, like, crash courses in the Can-Spam Act right now, so if you pardon, I appreciate the fervor at which my colleague, Councilmember Van Graak, talked about making real consequences. I completely agree. I don't know where that line is, but real consequences are the only thing that are gonna get folks to that point. Because otherwise, you can just, you know, if it's too low, you can just, you know, wait and wait and wait and maybe never, you know, report your donations until after the election. I don't think that's very fair either. Okay, so then, so yes, I'm a yes on A. On 83C, absolutely, I like rational, streamlined procedures. for sure, and however, the best way to do this. I appreciated the rationale in the staff report too, because the current system essentially requires the BSE to wait at least 60 days, which allows candidates and others to avoid disclosure prior to election day. Again, going back, I think it's a very valid point. So let's make that streamlined and rational. On our favorite, the 8-101. So we all keep applying both federal and state law. And while state law can absolutely inform us of all these things, we do run our own elections. What I think is missing in this phrase is requiring text messages to offer recipients choice of opting out, of receiving future political messages regarding municipal elections. We can't control everybody and their grandmother who is purchasing lists of cell phone numbers and just robo-spamming everybody, but we can control whether or not somebody can do that regarding a Rockville municipal election. So I completely support that and I support it because in this case, it could be and probably is going to be an independent expenditure. So that enforcement teeth then is ultimately that registration of a committee for independent expenditures. So they would have to register, they would have to disclose that. and then having the individual that they can serve process to. Whether they're in Rockville or Montgomery County, at this point, let's just make sure that that person is going to have to be contactable, that we are able to contact them, basically. And that's, I think, the teeth to being able to enforce 8-101.

And that's where I stand.

Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Fulton? So on 8-83A, increasing the maximum late fee, yes, I support it. Yes, I support 1,000 or more. I want to clarify that it is a maximum late fee that is day over day compiling. So while I have empathy for, like, misunderstandings or new candidates, just so I'm understanding, you don't hit that number on day four. You have to be accumulating. So I have less and less empathy the longer that goes on, which is why I think the number could be really high. Yes, we should create a more streamlined and rational procedure. 8-101, I actually... I'll say I don't feel strongly about. I think it's complicated. I think it's hard. I think there are different interplays of different laws. I think you'll have to define it really carefully. If a candidate wants to send a text message to 60 people saying, I'm having an event next week, can you come? Does that need to have an automated, you must opt out? So I actually don't, if the body wants to do that, fine, but I actually think it's complicated and the juice might not be worth the squeeze on it, but I don't object. That's how I feel about it.

Any clarifying questions you need of the body here? Thank you. Councilman Van Graak.

I just wanted to add something because I think it goes to what we're saying. 8-83A only deals, or at least the Board of Supervisors of Elections is only talking about the maximum. The per day violation is $10. And at the last election, the last filing was November 1st. The election happened on November 7th. So if someone who wanted to hide their results could just take a $70 fine and not declare their final expenditures or... Donate donators until after the election and quite frankly that to me $10 a day seems low now. We're talking about penalizing if someone makes a mistake. It's one day Let's say that's 25 30 35. Okay, that's a mistake But if yours, you know consciously and you're going a number of days, I think $10 a day seems ridiculously low for a violation that could have consequences when the last Election report is literally only days before the election. I which is meant for open discourse so that right before the election, the public knows who's giving, what is being expended, and what's being done. But if we're only having $10 a day, someone can skirt that requirement that's in the rules.

So that's just, I think, thank you for raising that. That's another just sort of thing to look at more holistically. I know that there's a maximum, but we are, what is the intent? We're trying to make sure people file sooner than later. So maybe there's some additional recommendations that BSE has on that front.

Okay.

I'm hearing maybe more than $10 a day in whispers. Yeah.

Yeah, if you're increasing the fine to $5 or $1,000, you have to increase it per day. Yeah. You would want to.

Yep. Okay. Next section.

All right. The next. Council Member Shaw has one more thing. Oh, okay.

For increasing the fine, there are like several notifications that go out. And before, there's several notifications, right? Oh, yes. Okay.

I would also say if they've registered and you can find them, you all had some trouble finding people last time, didn't you? Yes. Yeah. So best effort to communicate. Right. Yeah. I did want to note that we have two more sections, and I just want to flag for Mr. City Manager, I know you have staff waiting, and I always promised before 1030 that we would take a pause and say we still have a fast work session. Do you want to opine or share what you think?

I'll try something different just for just to see if it'll stick. I think we provide you with a very comprehensive report on fast. I think we made outstanding progress on this. Um. I always encourage you to look at the report in detail and if you have follow up questions, just let us know. Just the thought.

Councilman, I very much support that recommendation in part because, like, I. you're not seeking feedback, right? Like you don't need policy direction from us to move forward on anything. We might have questions, but you don't need policy direction to move forward. That's correct.

Yeah.

Council Member Valeri.

I always love sitting next to Council Member Fulton because I swear we're very opposite, but we're getting at the same thing essentially. No, it's not policy direction, but if we have questions and we ask them in an email to you, then the public doesn't get those answers. So for that reason, transparency, absolute accountability, we need to have this from the dais.

Thank you. So it's my understanding, just like with a special presentation, we have the capacity to post our answers.

Correct.

Okay. I've sent questions, and I know you've already posted. They haven't been posted yet because we were just discussing this. Fair enough. There could be a page on FAST or somewhere on the CPS site where you would practice. Happy to do that. Okay.

Yep.

Thank you. And I will just say I think maybe there is a future webinar for the community where you just post a video of what we've done just to highlight the many good things that the team has done.

I think that's a terrific idea. I'm happy to do that.

Okay. All right. Is everyone okay with this approach? And I'll just say you've done a fantastic job. I appreciate it.

Thank you, Mary. I'll share that with the team.

Thank you. Back to our regularly scheduled program. Okay.

A little more. We have two new ones that they would like to propose. Adding a new section describing the authority of the BSE to include conduct municipal elections, determine adequacy of nominating positions, and certification of candidacy. of nominees, three, issue forms for reporting other purposes, four, review and determine advocacy of campaign finance report, five, supervise canvassing of ballots, six, investigate violations of Chapter 8, seven, issue municipal infraction citations to those who violate Chapter 8, and eight certified the election results. This would resolve questioning regarding authority of the BSE, which might arise in any litigation. The last new provision would make it a crime to threaten an election official or an election worker or an immediate family member of an election official or election worker because of that elections or election workers' role in administrating the election process. This provision would mimic the Protecting Election Officials Act of 2024 of the Maryland Code Election Law Section 16-904 enacted by the state of Maryland. This is different than I think there was a little confusion. There was something about protecting the locations of polling places versus those who actually administer election process. So that is the difference here.

Thank you. I do want to just note, because I fully support, just an overarching question before we go out on the line. can we just include what state law says, because it is a state law, or do we have to do something different? I mean, I think it's a statewide law, right, that applies to our election or not?

It doesn't apply to our election. This is in the election article of state law, and it defines an election as not a municipal election. So it does not apply to our municipal elections.

Okay.

So we could adopt something similar, but it would have to be part of Chapter 8.

And you are proposing to leverage almost to the T what the state has done, but clarify it's for municipalities, municipal elections. Is that correct? We're not going farther or less than what the state's doing.

I mean, candidly, these are the BSE's recommendations. I believe that is what they're recommending, is to mimic exactly what the state does, but do it for a municipal election.

That's good clarification.

Thank you.

I'm just curious, can we straw poll this? I feel like this is, unless people have specific questions. Do you want to go down a line on this one?

Yeah. Okay, all right.

All right, all right. Dr. Miles. Did you go? Did we go? I know we went to Kate. Okay, so we'll go back to Councilman Van Graak.

So, I mean, in general, I'm okay. But I think a lot of this is in the language. I mean, what does it mean to conduct the municipal elections? My understanding is the conduction happens with the clerk's office. And so what we had talked about before and what I've talked about is making sure with regard to the tasks that are within the code, the buck stops somewhere. And so, with regard to making sure that certain buck stops with the Board of Supervisors elections versus the clerk's office, we've got to make that clarification. So, for the most part, I'm okay. We get to these last two sections where we've had conversations in the past with regard to investigating violations and issue municipal infraction citations. We're getting into kind of some, I guess, difficult territory here. What does it mean to investigate violations? Obviously, there's got to be someone that looks at violations, someone that, you know, If someone sees a picture of a sign that has, you know, the wrong nomenclature on it that is in the code, someone's got to look out to it. It's the Board of Supervisors Elections. On the other hand, does investigate violations mean that they have, you know, a star chamber ability to bring in everybody and therefore have, you know, subpoena power that... there clearly is um there has to be an understanding of what is the variation of investigate because they're also the ones who are helping enforce the violations that we saw with the late fees so what that means i'm not sure um there's got to be some authority for them to be able to enforce along with the clerk's office or the city attorney's office. Similarly, issue municipal infractions. Once again, I'm not aware that we really have a municipal infraction volunteer body within the city. On the other hand, there have been tasks independently to do something. So I think there's a middle ground that, you know, we've talked about the difficulties and the details, what is being allowed. But once again, and we come to the same theme as before, Clarity is kindness. We've got to fully understand before we approve any of these, what is actually being given the authority. For the most part, I'm fine. But the last two, give me pause because that authority, you know, could be too large that we're necessarily giving to individuals and we have to make sure that it's being done properly. And with regard to making it a crime to threaten an elected official, absolutely. We've got to make sure that our election officials and our Board of Supervisors of Elections and anybody such as the clerk's office who's administering the election is protected as much as possible.

Thank you. Councilman Brashoff. Generally, I do agree with all of these, and I agree with my colleague, Councilmember Van Graak, around having more clarity. I would also like to just understand a bit more around number seven, issue municipal infractions, if that would be done with the city attorneys, like consulting them or just getting information from them. I would just like to have some more information around that. And also, I do agree with the new provision to add a provision making it a crime to threaten an election official or worker. I would like to have some more information about what is considered a threat. And the only reason why I'm asking that is because we would want these laws to stay throughout all future BSEs. And we don't want someone to take advantage of this. And so just having just some more clarity. Thank you.

Council Member Jackson.

All right. So looking at this, I'm fine with most of what we have here. Like Council Member Van Graak, I have concerns over six and seven. I won't say the last two because the last two were, the last one was certified election results, which I'm sure he's totally on board with. But I just want to ask on this new section,

Is there anything new that we're putting down on paper or says we're just codifying exactly what this authority is that that six and seven would come with the enforcement part of the new election rewrite and what authority you all would be given to the board versus what provisions or what New Standard and operating procedures the board would have to follow for issuing and that enforcement part and we haven't gotten there yet Okay, so I mean that's all kind of right.

We're working out the details right and I mean I It's a cliche, obviously, but I think clarity is conscious in this case. I'm going to start counting how many times you say this.

Jeff is just hitting it.

I can't resist.

Repetition is not. Are we at seven? We're at seven.

But I think we have to clarify six and seven and what we mean by that. Now, the other question I have is, you know, we list eight things. Is that it? Or do we include a provision in the code that says and or, you know.

I don't think that that's exhausted. I think that what the board was getting at, many other jurisdictions have a powers and duties section that says specifically what the powers and duties are of the board or supervisors of elections. And we don't. really have that. And so I think those were some examples of what we might put in or what we would put in, but we may want to put some other things there.

Yeah, it's not really exhaustive. Exactly. Maybe other duties. Correct. Okay. And then the last one, I was actually uncomfortable with that provision until you said something that really kind of made me think, okay, we need to add it, which was that the state law does not apply to municipal elections, which we don't have those protections in place. So I'm totally in favor of adding that provision. I didn't realize that state law left us out, and I think that's I think we need to rectify that.

Thank you very much. I agree with my colleagues for the majority. I do like the opportunity to be more clear with the BSE. I think that was an issue last election. However, I do think that we should note, investigate In consultation with the city attorney and the city clerk, the city's resources, and the city attorney's office will have to go and defend in court if we get to that point. So I think it's important to at least consult. The city attorney's office and I. I would like to see a little bit more information because I do believe that we need to have teeth to our laws, but I also just want to have the balance of the rest to the city as well, given the potential protracted process it could entail. And it notes investigate violations of Chapter 8. I didn't want to inadvertently take away the requirement for other departments within the city to help with signs. Right now, the city manager's office helps with signs. I certainly don't expect members of the BSC to get a pickup truck and start running around the city and picking up signs. I wouldn't want them to be in that position, but... I just want to be clear. What are you proposing for signs? I didn't want to inadvertently put a bunch of work on their plate, and I do think that we have staff who can work on that.

We have a campaign policy that now falls under the city manager's office, and that is one of those duties. Okay.

Mister city manager and to be clear, I would delegate that to the code portion department, which we haven't done in the past when we've already been doing this election cycle. So we need to keep doing that.

Yeah, we have done in previous election cycles.

Oh, okay. Yes.

Well, I don't know which office you're saying for CPW versus correct. The city manager's office has managed it, but I don't know which department it was in.

Yeah, we should use our code enforcement officers to pick up signs very proactively during the election cycle. That's just my opinion. And hopefully council backs that up.

Thank you. And I'll just note there are a lot of signs in right away right now.

Every time we get them picked up, they come right back. But so noted. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. I just wanted to clarify that. I would feel for Mr. Mihalik or the BSC having to do that. I want to make sure that's clear. And then I also just, I know that in our election code and when we got the other draft, I said that there were protocols developed. or administrative processes. I think some of these sections would really require to have some administrative policies as to how you investigate and how you administer municipal operations. So there's not a willy-nilly approach depending on who is at the BSE versus not, that there's some standardization and continuity from multiple boards because people change, you know, council change, staff change, so just some guidance there. I would assume that we would be creating that as well.

Absolutely. You'd have to do the SOPs after the enforcement has been in place.

Okay. And I do, since you clarified that the state law does not apply here, I do support aligning with the state on that. I think you noted it might be a misdemeanor or, you know, you redo your homework on what's the appropriate approach here looking at state law. Now, my question is the polling locations does apply to the city or not?

It would be vote centers. So we would include vote centers, not polling places, because we don't have them. Correct. Yeah.

But does the current state law apply or not? I didn't have a chance to really fully review the email that we got today. Not for us. Not for us. So then I just wanted to note we should look at that more broadly. And then the last thing I'll say is there is some discussion about ICE around polling locations, and I just want to make sure that we're thinking about those issues as well to protect our community and make voting free of intimidation.

Council Member O'Leary. Yes. OK. So on the news section describing the authority, I'm in agreement with many of the previous comments. This is, I guess, more of a question for our acting city attorney. But if we solely put that the BSE has the authority to conduct municipal elections and we don't include in conjunction with the city clerk or whatever, city clerk's office, not whatever, do we have any liability concerns? As far as in the conduct of an election, let's just say something goes awry and the liability, the risk of a lawsuit, if it's not, if it's solely the BSE as the entity with that authority, you kind of see where I'm getting at? Yeah. Do we have a concern there?

I don't have a concern. I understand what you're saying, but candidly, the city has insurance. And they're covered as, you know, agents of the city or the body. And that's fine. That works for me. That was one of my questions that I had on that.

I'm in support of, for six and seven, adding something to the effect of in close consultation with the city attorney. Not just in consultation. I think it should be very close. And to a certain extent deferential, because I think that that's not the primary authority of the BSE. Everything else looks okay by me. Thank you for the clarity on the new provision. I'm shocked that municipal elections are not covered by this. Maybe, I'm like, where's Linda? Maybe that's what we should have added to our MML list. That leaves a lot of people without coverage, not just us. And I don't think that that's that they carved out local elections because I think the same issues could apply. So I'd be down for advocating for that in the next legislative session. I think that to an earlier point by Council Member Shaw, threatening and intimidating are defined under law so that there's not a lot of wiggle room and I'm sure the officers who are here every night with us, could give us more information if we were curious about what threatening intimidation the legal standard is. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Fulton.

Yes, I support making sure that our elections are protected the same way the state protects its elections. So yes to the bottom one. On describing the authority, yes, we should have somewhere a section that describes the authority of the BSE better than we currently have it. but this is an area where I could use a lot more like benchmarking or comparison or how do other people do it? I don't mean to be flip, but like the justification is it resolves questions regarding the authority of the BSE. Well, yeah, but which way are we resolving it and why? So, you know, I, I try to do a little looking myself. Like I, I mean, I don't know that most of our other municipalities have this. I don't know that our cities nearby give the BSE this kind of authority. So I want to resolve it. I just don't want to presuppose the correct way to resolve it without a whole lot more information. So yes, to the broad, yes, we should add the section. But what actually goes in it, I'd want to know a lot more before I decided what. Thanks. Thank you. Dr. Miles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Comments are largely similar to my colleague, Council Member Fulton. And as was kicked off by Council Member Van Graap with regard to the first section, the new portion, points one through eight, and then the second new section with regard to crimes and threatening election officials, I support as written. Thank you.

Thank you. Just to clarify, were you open to the polling locate, not polling, vote centers as well? We added that in.

That's cool.

Okay, you said as written, so I want to make sure. Okay, thank you. Council Member Valeri?

I think we, if we're doing the vote center addition too, I think we do need to actually add drop box locations as well because the BSE is the one, the entity that collects them all, so the threatening and intimidation It could occur there as well. We would. Okay. Thank you very much.

Councilman Bouchard. I did just want to clarify with my comment around defining threatening. That could... We could just include language from elsewhere in the code, but just to make sure, because this is very new and we're adding this, just to clarify, or we can say refer to wherever, but just to have some additional information here I think would be helpful. And then the comment around ICE, Madam Mayor, just to clarify, you weren't saying that the BSC would be responsible for that, right?

No, you were just talking about... No, I'm just asking that staff think about ways to support voter security as well and anything that we need to be learning. I was seeing some news reports about intimidation at polling locations.

Okay. Yeah, I definitely agree that we should have a plan. I just wanted some clarity. Thank you.

No, just one more. We're almost there. So the BSC recommends the following to the BSC and city staff. Prepare a handbook for prospective candidates, providing guidance and describing common pitfalls, which the board is working on and has worked on and completed. Electronic signature for nominating petition forms. We are working with IT to see a pilot and where we can get that done. Work with IT and also our GIS department to ensure that the Properties have been included that were excluded from the voter database in the last election. Make necessary arrangements with our UPS to our United States Post Office to retrieve ballots postmarked on or before Election Day. Provide vendors with mailing addresses of those Rockville voters who have opt-out web delivery in the state and federal elections. and to reach out to our residents and newly added properties and communities. And that we were talking about that twin brick quarter and adding that third drop box location. With that, I thank you to the mayor and council for taking the time to provide directions on the BSE's recommendations in order to move forward with revising the election code and ensuring implementation prior to the November municipal election. Your direction tonight will provide guidance to staff BSC to hold our work sessions with both the city clerk's office and the city attorney's office to propose a rewrite on the draft by August 21st to the mayor and council for review. And with that, we're in closing.

Thank you very much, Council Member Shaw. Do you have any comments?

No comments, Madam Mayor.

Council Member Jackson.

No, it's been a long process, but I think it's been a good process. And I'm looking forward to you guys taking what we said away and working on language and then coming back to us and, you know, us getting into it because i think that we did a lot of good work tonight but there's a lot that is still left to be done and so i'm anxious to get underway because the deadline of course is coming upon us so so thank you for the good work and let's hurry up thank you we want to hurry up too

Thank you very much. I appreciate all these items here. I did have a question about how were you making sure that new communities are included? Because I will say this. Before it became an issue, I remember that there was the new whole section at the village that was missing from my GIS system. I happened to be checking and noticed it was missing, alerted staff, and they were able to get it before it became a vote-or-mail issue. How are we going to avoid stuff like that?

With that voter overlay and to check all districts and look at the districts and make sure all districts are included in that voter database. And that's how you can do it. That omission was done when the county did a redistricting and they left that area out. And so... You know in 2019 Yeah, we were talking about the Glenmere but district 10 is included in that Redistricting and that was part of district 10. Okay. Yes.

So and then as we develop new properties and You're working with CPDS.

CPDS and sends us an address listing, and it also goes to the county. So we have to do checks and balances with the county, so they will include that at their GIS to ensure that those properties have been included in the voter database.

Okay. This is an exploratory thing, but I don't know if you're seeing any examples of boards of elections dealing with AI. We haven't discussed that at all. I don't know if there's anything you can do about disclosures on it. There's some AI being used with mocking people and videos can make them to look real. I don't know if we have any teeth there, but I think it's something to watch to see how this evolves because a lot could happen in a year. The other thing I wanted to note is this was before I got on council, but there was an issue with the process on vacancy was very messy. It was hard for the people who were on council to deal with it. And I just wanted to know, should we be looking at that vacancy section in case there's ever a vacancy on the mayor and council to be more clear on that process? And the rewrite, it actually was less clear. So I just want to make sure we're looking at that holistically. And then the last thing I'll say is if there were any significant non-reimbursements of the BSE from the last election, I would be open to some sort of,

Recompensation just want to comment on that Councilman O'Leary Thank you all this is phenomenal phenomenal work I appreciate that We have so many more new communities on the horizon so that point in particular is of great interest to me because I think we just need to consistently across the city make individuals feel you know from the moment that they they move to Rockville that they're part of the process and that voting here is they're welcome and it's a very special thing that we have in vote by mail so to that extent, just anything and everything that we can do, we should do. So that was kind of my biggest point out of that last slide. And thank you all for just tremendous work. And I'm with Council Member Jackson. Let's get her done. Thank you.

Council Member Fulton.

Nothing more to add. Thanks. Good work today. We have a lot more to do. Agreed. Dr.

Miles.

Ditto.

Excellent.

All these additional recommendations are working in the right direction. Obviously, we've got to marry what we did today with what we've also said before and some of the other edits that was previously done from the city attorney's office. So, it's not just as easy as what we did. I mean, today and the previous version and the previous version before that are all good starts. Now it's a matter of, I know, putting it all together, which is the tougher part. So, as much as thanks for everybody, I'm issuing forward thanks for all the work That's going to have to happen in the next couple months.

We thank you for that, and we appreciate tonight's comments and feedback to help us move forward.

I'll just, did you have anything? Council Member Schell.

Yeah, I just also wanted to echo my colleagues and say thank you. I know this has been quite a journey for a very long time, and I know we also, like going back to the Rockville Charter Review Commission, so it's been, it's just been a very long journey, so I'm glad that we have made the progress that we have.

I'll do the final thanks on behalf of all of us. You've heard us say we really appreciate all the hard work. And I also want to look clearly at the BSE, those who are here, those who are not greatly appreciate their work because they had to do a lot of quick reviews in short order. And thank you to our city attorney and our city clerk. I know you've had to hustle on this and thank you for the previous work of the city manager as well.

Thank you.

We are looking forward. We'll be watching this schedule very closely. And I just would ask the city manager and city clerk to make sure this is all mapped out in six-month calendar. And also just encourage my colleagues. They're articulating in here when we're going to get drafts. Some of it's during recess. So it just may require us to send questions as early as possible so that they are prepared and we can have very productive work sessions.

Noted.

Thank you very much. We're almost on time with the change that we made, so thank you, colleagues. We made adjustments to be on time. It's okay. So thank you very much. I know we already went through the mock agenda, but I'll just pause to see if anyone has any other comments. Please look at the leadership planning team meeting that we did this morning. Old new business. Councilman Van Graak.

I just want to add, based on kind of what we were talking with FAST II improvements, I mean, if one of the reasons that we happen to be going long is because people want to get their questions on the record, if there's a way in which we can actually have each issue and agenda item have questions that are published on a regular basis that might make our meetings go quicker so that questions are published, as Councilman Valeri said, a public forum to be able to do so it might potentially make it so that we don't end up on a regular basis here till 11 or midnight so just something Larry I appreciate what you're saying I think sometimes well that you absolutely can do that I I don't know if I'm alone in this but I I

I get benefit from hearing the rationale of everyone's, you know, I am thinking this way and this is why. You can't capture that in a list of questions necessarily, nor could I have some of our wonderful rejoinders that Council Member Van Graak and I have. I think this is more than like I need my questions on the record. It's more about, you know, collaboration to come to a decision point and maybe, you You know, we learn a little bit something that we didn't know before.

Thank you. Can I just maybe we can take this one offline in the spirit of time. But I just want to say thank you for. moving forward with the questions that we had. And just on FAST alone, incredible progress. I actually was today hearing the city of Rockville was great. I know we still have some work to do because there's a couple times we have hiccups because we're all human and systems are not perfect, but we're trying to be better. But I do think that this is something that we should work with Ready and the team to get out because I think the business community would benefit of seeing the presentation as well. So thank you for that. I just want to flag one thing. I did hear last week that WSSC has flagged some concerns regarding another section of the Potomac Interceptor that there is a plan to address it. But I just wanted to say I appreciate the collaboration of the city and the county with WCC and DC Water. And please just keep us informed on next steps. I think there's an action plan.

Will do. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Does anyone else have anything to add? Council Member Shai, I see you want to make the motion to adjourn.

I move to adjourn.

Thank you. Do we have a second? Council Member Fulton seconds. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Excellent. Thank you all. Have a wonderful evening. Thank you to all of our staff and residents for watching.

Hmm.