Baltimore County, MD Budget Town Halls, 2 Feb 2022

Previous Meeting Next Meeting

⏯

youtube image

►

From YouTube: 2022 Budget Town Hall - District 3

Description

County Executive Olszewski and Councilman Wade Kach gathered together with residents and stakeholders who live in District 3 to get their input and ideas on what should be prioritized in the County's FY23 budget.

A

Andy remmel deputy director of the county executive's office of community engagement. It is a pleasure to welcome all of you here for our fourth budget town hall series city engagement is the hallmark of our county executive administration, bringing you all residents to participate in our county's budget process.

A

Tonight we continue with fiscal year 2023 budget discussions in district 3, hosted by york, county executive johnny, osteen junior and your council member raised cats.

A

After the county executive's budget presentation, we will call on and unmute those that have signed up to testify in alphabetical order by first name, if you did not sign up in advance and would like to testify, please let us know in the chat feature of webex the county executive, the appropriate department, head or councilman tech will address their inquiries, concerns and ideas.

A

If we cannot answer a question tonight, we will have a coordinator from the office of community engagement. Follow up with you and now it is my honor and privilege to welcome your councilman wade.

A

B

A

We can hear you counseling.

A

Can you hear us.

C

D

C

Hear you wade oh good good. I've had some difficulty getting on we're live right.

E

We're live you're on sir.

C

E

He just kicked it to you.

C

So you did not try to keep me off, I'm only kidding, you know only kidding so anyhow, I uh uh johnny I. I certainly appreciate this opportunity uh that you've, given my constituents to express their concerns and needs for the third district.

C

I just want to make a few comments. First of all, when the county executive appointed our police chief, I said that that would be his most important appointment, because uh crime safety are our num. In my opinion, are the number one issues in baltimore county.

C

I speak to police frequently when I see them and we've got to make sure when you see a policeman. You thank thank him or her for the job that they do and I always let them know that I have their back.

C

I've seen some tapes, you know they all wear body cameras, I've seen how some people treat our police and it's despicable, despicable and should not go on. I want to thank this administration for their cooperation.

C

Whenever there is an issue in our district, this administration is very easy to work with and, in most cases, solves our problems.

C

Even though we're of different parties have some very different views on some issues that never gets in the way- and uh you know because of this administration and this county executive, uh the needs of our district are being met.

C

We're getting a senior citizen center at hereford, which was in last year's budget fields in northern baltimore county hereford rec does not have any fields, and money last year was in the budget for that purpose, and I can't thank this administration enough, and I can't thank the many constituents who have brought these issues to my attention and have been such fantastic advocates.

C

But the main thing um you know yesterday was a great day in our district a great day when the county executive called me up to tell me that delaney high school was going to be replaced with a new building and that towson high school was going to be a 21st century school that we all can be proud of.

C

I was just overjoyed overjoyed and so thankful. uh You realize this is a county executive who inherited a deficit and have has turned things around so that we can meet the educational needs of our children and the friends of delaney the job they've done to keep this issue before the county government before the school board. I can't thank them enough, so mr county executive, I thank you. I uh will send you a list of additional things. I think our district needs, but the first item on the list is a new delaney and towson.

C

So actually uh my list is a little out of date and I'm very happy. It is and thank you and I look forward to hearing uh your uh you know, idea what it is you're thinking of doing in uh 2023 budget, and please remember that uh government is there to protect people and, uh let's make sure, as I'm sure you have, that our police and our firefighters have every resource they need to keep all of us safe and secure in our area. Thank you very much.

E

Well, thank you, councilman and uh appreciate your partnership and your leadership in d3 and across baltimore county uh speaking of lists. I still very much remember our first d3 town hall up at the maryland state, fair, where you literally handed us a very, very long list um of issues that you and your residents and our residents wanted to see the county tackle and I'm proud to report that working together with you.

E

Thanks to your leadership and your partnership and the advocacy of so many people in district three in northern baltimore county, we have made significant progress on many of those issues.

C

I think most of them, I think we together have resolved most of them, and you know we never let politics get in the way, and I think the main thing that I really respect you for is the fact that, uh when it comes to decisions regarding things that districts need uh you, don't let politics get in the way you evaluate each need and uh determine what priority uh should be in place and you're, unfortunately, an exception to the rule, because an awful lot of elected people will do what is politically advantageous, and you do things uh because you care about people as I do and again I thank you so much.

E

Well, that means a lot. Thank you so much for those kind words. uh My friend my partner councilman. um I will say that uh having partners like you on, the council makes that work uh both possible and enjoyable and rewarding. So, as you pointed out earlier, even when um you know, even if there are disagreements on on policy issues, we've never stopped that stopped that from making progress together.

E

So thank you for the ways in which you've led with urgent conviction and never compromised your principles, but still came together in so many ways for us to drive progress here in baltimore county. So.

C

I I appreciate that and I I uh do hope you realize that I'm right all the time, but we have to go into that so, but.

F

G

C

That and- and uh you know, I know how difficult it is for you, representing uh so many diverse individuals in baltimore county and addressing their needs, but I think you're doing the job. I know you're doing the.

E

Job, thank you. It's it's! It's that honestly, it's a joy and uh to have so many wonderful uh districts across the county, um and so I'm thrilled to be here with you tonight good evening. Everyone thank you for for tuning. In for tonight's town hall.

E

I want to thank all of our department heads who are here tonight all represented by either our director or deputy director, so we have all of our departments from baltimore county here for you tonight and just thrilled to be working alongside an incredibly talented team and the councilman uh to continue building a better baltimore county. I do wish we were uh meeting together in person as originally planned uh early on.

E

We just made the decision with uh the omicron variant, overwhelming our hospital systems to move to make our first several of town halls virtual um at least the first first couple, and uh you know we know that vaccinations are the best protection we have against serious illness and we have about 78 of baltimore county currently vaccinated. That means about 170 000 people are still not, uh and we did.

E

We have seen um you know in large part, a lot of the burden has been actually among those who are unvaccinated according to the maryland hospital association as much as 84 of those we've had hospitalized um are unvaccinated and again remember that 80 that 84 number is actually coming from the 22 of our population. That is unvaccinated.

E

So, if you are not vaccinated, I just urge you to consider getting the shot and as soon as you're eligible, I urge you to get the booster vaccines are, without a doubt, the best tool we have to keep our kids in the classroom, keep our businesses open and running strong and to get back to normal. I can personally attest to the value of vaccinations and boosters through my own experience to register yourself or a loved one for a vaccine or booster. You can visit baltimorecountymd.gov vaccine speaking of vaccinations.

E

Our teams have done a great job to vaccinate our residents. We speaking of the state fairgrounds where we had our first town hall. We set up a mass vaccination site there. It was recognized as the best in the state by governor hogan. We established community clinics and mobile units around the county and we even worked with uber to provide rides to our clinics and to stand up a program separately for homebound residents. We have done and will continue to do whatever it takes to give this vaccine that saves lives to our residents.

E

I'm also proud of all the work our team has done together to support our residents as we weather this storm. Recently. Amid the most recent surge we distributed over 100 000 at home tests, we stood up a large-scale testing site at the white marsh mall and we expanded hours at other test insights at randallstown, towson and dundalk.

E

In the beginning of the pandemic, we put out a county-wide food distribution program in partnership with the school system bcps and the maryland food bank, and that program has given out over 18 million meals across baltimore county.

E

We took bold steps together both steps in eviction prevention, putting forward millions of dollars to keep more than 1 500 families in their homes. Both steps in working to close, the digital divide, providing internet essentials for thousands of families and that's a program. We continue.

E

We plan to continue through the american recovery plan dollars both steps in creating a child care subsidy program for low-income families with school-age children as well as county employees, and in providing 26 million dollars of direct support to our business community.

E

Of course, that's just a snapshot of what we've done and we're going to do even more in the months ahead. As you may know, baltimore county is set to get 160 million dollars as part of our american rescue plan. Back in november, we announced our proposal to get those new resources out into communities. It's a plan that focuses on investing those unprecedented resources, especially in communities that have been hit hardest by the pandemic.

E

It's a plan that includes uh money and funding for creating equity districts to promote investment in more vulnerable communities.

E

Sixteen million dollars towards the creation of an affordable housing development fund, four million dollars to support small business and county tourism on top of, what's already been funded, over 2 million for child care providers in baltimore county and more than 2 million for behavioral health supports, including the expansion of our crisis response program and providing trauma-informed care for county employees.

E

We're doing this because we believe we have an opportunity to build a stronger future for all communities and it's a chance not just to rebuild and go back to where we were, but to aspire to where we always should have been it's an opportunity that we plan to seize with. All of you.

E

I'm also proud to report that, even amid this crisis, we've continued to make unbelievable progress for all of our communities.

E

We've proven that transformational change is possible here in baltimore county and we're committed to ensuring we realize our potential, and for me that starts with making sure our local government remains open, accessible and accountable to the residents we serve. In our first month in office, we introduced with the councilman's support major ethics and reform legislation to strengthen trust and accountability. In county government, we created the county's first office of the inspector general. We strengthened our lobbying laws and we created a public financing system for local elections again thanks to councilman catch for his steadfast support.

E

In that open connected government programs, we also launched this signature town hall series we've since engaged thousands of residents in our county's budget process and we're proud that even amid the coven 19 pandemic, it's a town hall series that we've continued engaging even more residents. Virtually we've also created bc stat, which is the county's first data-driven performance management system.

E

We put forward the county's first open budget platform, where you can see our revenues and expenditures down to the individual check, and we have an office of community engagement to ensure that every district has a dedicated representative here in district three. Your outreach coordinator is carmen christiana and she is on tonight for any follow-ups.

E

So, let's talk budget baltimore, county's total operating budget is about 4.2 billion dollars. This operating budget supports our government's day-to-day operations and provides funds for both our workforce and basic services about half of this budget. Two billion dollars goes to support our county's workers.

E

Other expenditures include things like county contractors, debt service for capital projects and borrowing supplies and other materials. This money comes from a number of sources, but primarily the funding comes from property and income taxes.

E

We also take in some revenue from the state and federal funding partners, as well as the metropolitan district fund for our water and sewer system. Nearly half of our total budget goes to education.

E

Obviously, the most important investment we can make in local government that means about 2 billion and local funds go towards bcps's operating costs after education.

E

Our top priorities are public safety mentioned by the councilman earlier, with 450 million dollars to support law enforcement officers, firefighters and first responders, who keep our communities safe and just in a moment of personal privilege, I had the opportunity earlier today to attend the funeral of the three fallen heroes from the baltimore city, fire department and I know, there's a lot of connections to our own fire service, and I just want to thank everyone who stepped up from baltimore county to support the men and women of the baltimore city fire department.

E

In this time of need. It was a touching tribute to three incredible lives laid down in the sacrifice of others, so just want to thank and recognize those incredible heroes for a moment.

E

We, in addition to rightfully investing in public safety, we also invest significantly in public works, with over 450 million dollars, also going to support our local infrastructure with investments in water, sewer and roads, and just one example here is: we've put forward millions of dollars to replace the water main along york, road, an area that many of you know is had a number of water main breaks over the past months and years. um These investments all make sense as education, safety and infrastructure are the core of what we do in local government.

E

In addition to that operating budget, we also annually adopt our capital budget funded largely by bonds and supports school construction projects, police stations, community centers and similar investments. You all may remember voting on local borrowing, initiatives back in the last election in 2020 and that capital budget directs how that money is actually spent about half of all of our capital funds, repairs and improvements for our water and sewer systems, and these are some of the most expensive but essential responsibilities of government.

E

We also have about 200 million dollars allocated for school construction and renovation biannually in our borrowing plan, and even as we borrow to strengthen our communities and invest, we know the importance of balancing those investments with being fiscally responsible and having strong stewardship.

E

That's why we're proud that, even amid this pandemic and economic crisis, baltimore county has retained its aaa bond rating. Now, that's a top tier financial rating that fewer than 2 percent of all counties nationwide enjoy. It speaks not only to the responsible fiscal management of this government, but it also allows us to borrow at lower interest rates, which saves all of you, our taxpayers, millions of dollars we're also delivering on a vision to modernize county government and improve our services this year.

E

We continue to make investments in core government services that improve your quality of life. Perhaps the most notable example this year is the return of bulk trash pickup the first time it's come back to baltimore county, since it was canceled back in 1992..

E

In addition, we're we are revamping and re-imagining our code enforcement approach, we're hiring more code enforcement officers, we're launching a new code enforcement dashboard and we're creating a new fund to address derelict properties.

E

We're also committed to expanding broadband to every corner of our county, a critical service that has been proven to be even more important as we work from home and rely more on virtual connections.

E

Last year, baltimore county received 2.25 million in grant awards to significantly expand access to rural broadband for more than 900 residents across northwest baltimore county. The permitting process and build out for that plan will continue through 22 and 23 and more recently, we also applied for another broadband broadband grant, uh which would help us bring internet access to 1500 more homes, with grant announcements expected to be announced in march and build out plan to go through 2024.

E

We are hopeful that this uh grant is awarded and we can do even more for district three as we work to strengthen our neighborhoods, we're also working to build a robust local economy. We are making investments to revitalize our main streets across the county and make our economy strong.

E

Towson, for example, continues to thrive and was named main street affiliate in 2020..

E

Reisterstown has become our county's second main maryland main street catonsville music city maryland became our county's first ever arts and entertainment, district and sparrows point over on the east side is an economic engine that is once again through trade point atlantic bringing thousands of jobs to our region.

E

Ccbc has proven to be an essential partner in workforce development, enrolling 50, 000, full and part-time students every year as they prepare for their careers. We'll continue to do all that we can to break down barriers for opportunity there. It's why working with councilman cash and the county council we've been able to for three years in a row freeze the cost of in-county tuition at ccbc we've once we once again expanded the college promise program providing free community college in this year's budget to another 500 students.

E

At this point, more than 850 students are attending ccbc for free as a result of that program, with hundreds of more already graduated through that opportunity.

E

We're also working with ccbc to expand early college access and to expand their p-tech programs, which is a partnership with local businesses that help students complete their high school diploma and their associate's degree within six years at absolutely no cost to our baltimore county students.

E

We also believe in the importance of investing in our seniors, who are the foundation of our neighborhoods last fall. We launched the age-friendly baltimore county action plan to ensure that all residents feel welcome and can take comfort and knowing that their needs are met. We also launched and have continued no senior eats alone day to combat social isolation.

E

In partnership with the weinberg foundation, we created the because program that helps seniors with major home repairs and and to age safely in their homes in northern baltimore county we've committed in this year's budget, three million dollars to build a new north county senior center. As we all know, the hereford senior center currently shares a building with the hereford branch of the volunteer fire company. Upstairs our team has identified land for this new center and we are now going through the appraisal process and we're optimistic.

E

We have, we can have an announcement on land purchase soon to allow us to move forward with planning and design and then eventually, construction.

E

In addition, we've committed two and a half million dollars to expand the parking lot at the cockeysville senior center. That project is currently in the design phase, with a bid for contractors going out this summer. We've also finished our feasibility study for the jacksonville senior center and we're committed to doing whatever we can to continue to be a place where all of our seniors can thrive in baltimore county we're also reimagining how we get our residents around the county from day, one we've been committed to improving transit services.

E

Last year we announced the launch of the towson loop. This is the county's first ever fixed route transit service, and we view this as a critical first step in moving forward into the future, we're already starting to lay the groundwork to potentially build similar services and communities around baltimore county, and while we work to bring those innovative new transit services, we also remain focused on the basics. For three straight years, we provided significant funds for things like road repaving and traffic. Calming we've also increased continued to increase our investments in public safety.

E

After being named as the county's first woman police chief chief melissa hyatt, began implementing her new public safety plan, among others we're doing things in baltimore county like targeting crime prevention efforts in hot spots, using data to drive our deployment and using that analysis, to improve our policing strategies.

E

Now this is a plan that is beginning to bring results with many crime categories. Continuing a downward trend. Violent crime over last year is actually down 16 county wide thanks to the hard work of our law enforcement officers and the upstream investments we're making in education and other areas, we're also very proud of baltimore county's 81 clearance rate, which is significantly above the national average. Again, thanks to the consistent and dedicated efforts of our police department for anyone interested, you can track our crime data online by precinct by area using bc stats online dashboards.

E

Now we know, however, that baltimore county experienced an increase in homicides last year, as we saw similar national spikes in homicides. So, as we begin the new year we are, we are committed to doing whatever is necessary to ensure baltimore county remains a safe place to live work and raise a family.

E

We know that about half of baltimore county's homicides are believed to have had a behavioral health or domestic related component, and these are tragedies that cannot be prevented with just law enforcement alone.

E

That's why, as we mentioned earlier, we launched the expansion of our police department's mobile crisis teams program where trained police officers are paired, with a licensed mental health clinician to respond to calls for everything ranging from family conflicts to juvenile complaints, substance abuse and other incidents requiring access to social service resources.

E

We're also creating a new program in our 9-1-1 call center, adding call center clinicians utilizing mental health clinicians to help screen those incoming calls to connect residents with the most appropriate resource for them.

E

Some of the largest challenges that face law enforcement today in addressing domestic violence is actually connecting people who are with victim people who are victimized in the privacy of their own home. So we are also in using our arp funding to support 10 domestic violence coordinators, as well as 10 vulnerable adult coordinators.

E

We believe that in taking this holistic approach to public safety, both supporting our law enforcement, but also expanding access to mental health resources and making upstream investments, we can and will continue reducing crime and keep our neighborhood safe.

E

We're also taking steps as we do that to ensure our policing practices are equitable as we keep our communities safe. In my first year, we created an equitable and equitable policing work group to review our practices and recommend changes in 2022 amid a national spotlight on policing issues, our county became the first in the region to enact major policing reforms with with bipartisan support.

E

We passed the smart policing act which banned chokeholds prevented officers with prior records of misconduct from serving in our department and codified many other reforms underway to ensure they aren't undone by a future administration. In addition, we have public data dashboards that now track the use of force and complaints against law enforcement.

E

We know there's more to do in baltimore, county across maryland and even our country, but we look forward to partnering with all of you in the years ahead as we work to support the mental and behavioral health of our residents, we're also tackling the opioid epidemic head-on.

E

We've expanded harm reduction services like syringe service programs and drug take back boxes, we're also increasing access to treatment, working with cadenzia to open our county's first new treatment center in owings mills back in 2020 and we're partnering with shepard pratt to develop a first of its kind hub and spoke model for treatment at shepherd pratt. It's a model that provides comprehensive care for individuals experiencing addiction and mental health conditions.

E

The county is in the process of building our own hub and spoke model for treatment which will connect those seeking help with a network of healthcare providers. We will continue to do whatever we can to address this ever-changing epidemic.

E

Baltimore county is also taking big steps to build a more sustainable future that starts with getting the basic rights so back in so recently we actually restarted the county's glass recycling program that was discontinued back in 2013, but that was just the beginning, so we didn't stop there.

E

We also created the county's first chief sustainability officer to coordinate and work to promote green energy, combat climate change and protect our environment, and after exceeding the prior administration's renewable energy goals, we set an aggressive new target to achieve 100 of renewable energy used for baltimore county purposes by 2026 and to reach that goal. We are taking action by doing things like installing solar panels that are capped. Landfills. We are expected to generate the equivalent of 35 percent of the county's electricity demands in the years ahead to go even further.

E

We're also converting methane gas to renewable energy at our eastern sanitary landfill, we're also working to promote the use of electric vehicles, including a partnership with bge to install electric charging stations. I've also issued an executive order that requires all new and replacement passenger vehicles to be electric or hybrid.

E

Protecting parks and open spaces is another part of this more sustainable county. That's why this current budget provides a record 75 million dollars of state and local funds for parks and open space. With this investment we have more budget for parks in this year than the past six years, combined in northern baltimore county.

E

In addition to some of the field space, the councilman mentioned the 13 acres on chevrolet road and northeast towson. We acquired a new rec and parks headquarters with the potential for a new community park. We acquired the 24-acre villa maria property in timonium, which will continue to be used by local rec councils for baseball fields.

E

Last year we started operation retreat in baltimore county, a new effort to expand our tree canopy and our more urbanized communities and using art funds. We have allocated millions of dollars more for trails and parks around baltimore county. On top of that, we have dedicated 5.3 million dollars for agricultural preservation.

E

Recently, in december, we permanently preserved a 23-acre farm in the piney run. Rural legacy program in northwest baltimore county, the first easement funded through the county's rural legacy programs 2015.

E

ensuring the preservation of this farmlands, continues to support baltimore county's rich rural legacy for generations to come.

E

To that end, we are looking forward to working with the ag community and to support our farmers as part of the county's allotment of arp. We have 200 000 proposed for grant programs to support our farmers, the department of economic and workforce advisory, the department of economic and workforce development is also exploring the creation of a new agricultural advisory board and we are forming an ag subcommittee on our economic development board, as I mentioned, which will provide recommendations as part of the county's fiscal 23 development process moving to education.

E

As a former teacher and parent of a bcps kindergartner education, as many of you know, is my passion. It's one of my top priorities as county executive and as we plan for our children's future and the future of this county, we have an obligation to put forward the resources to have our students, teachers and families thrive. That's why the budget we're currently in provides 40 million dollars, over and above the maintenance of effort requirement, which is that 40 million dollars represents the largest real dollar increase in the county's history.

E

Our budget continues to fund all of our teaching positions in order to preserve smaller class, smaller class sizes. As we return to school, we also have fully funded step increases for bcps staff, on top of a well-deserved, two percent mid-year cost of living adjustment.

E

In november, we work with the school system to use arp to raise pay for school bus drivers and eliminate pre-employment barriers like the cost of physical exams, and I want to just say I know our teachers and support staff are doing incredible work, especially during this pandemic, and we are proud to support them in the budget ahead.

E

We will continue working with bcps to continue raising pay and providing strong benefits so that we can give our educators what they deserve strong wages and to be able to fill the hundreds of essential positions that currently remain vacant.

E

You know after teaching, uh in a trailer my first year and for many years after I know firsthand how important it is to have a quality learning environment and we believe that everyone deserves safe, secure and supportive schools.

E

That's why we've committed hundreds of millions of dollars to finish the schools for our future program, improve our facilities and ensure that every school in baltimore county has air conditioning locally. Our investments have included an addition at pine grove middle school, which will have a ground breaking in may security improvements at loch, raven, high school ada, compliant elevators at delaney and hereford high schools, a second bus loop at hereford middle and expanded parking at the carroll manor elementary school moving forward, we're laying the groundwork to address our needs.

E

You know over the past years I've toured all of baltimore county and I've seen the incredible need. I've seen the overcrowding I've seen the brown drinking water and I've seen schools that are literally crumbling into the ground and, unfortunately, in past years, baltimore county has significantly undervested underinvested in our schools.

E

I know we have to do better and I believe we can with a comprehensive plan. That's why we spent over two years conducting that extensive process with community input and public surveys with over 22 000 responses.

E

We worked to try to identify our priorities and develop that plan in surveys and meetings overwhelmingly, we were told that residents wanted to see everything addressed within a 15-year window and to do so equitably as we led that public engagement effort, we worked with independent education experts to assess and rank every school according to facility condition, capacity needs and our school's ability to meet the learning needs of students.

E

Many of you know that led to the culmination of the multi-year improvement plan for all schools, a long-term road map for our schools and the first of its kind in baltimore county. That plan represented 2.5 billion dollars over the next 15 years in and of itself. It's transformational in terms of impact and investment.

E

It ensures that every school gets meaningful investment and it's paid for with funding mechanisms. But let's talk about a few of the highlights: it provides a place for every student within the school building. It ends the practice of placing children in trailers within a decade. It funds overdue modernizations at schools across the county.

E

Now I want to just jump into what councilman cash mentioned earlier for years. We know that conversations about the future of delaney and towson high schools have been top of mind for residents of the third district and late. Last year we wrote to the state sharing some of the fiscal and historical constraints of those projects, but noted that we were pushing for and with additional state resources.

E

Baltimore county aspired to raise the bar. So tonight I'm pleased to reiterate the good news. After meeting with those state leaders, including governor hogan, speaker adrian jones and senate president bill ferguson, we were thrilled to see the governor put forward one billion dollars towards school construction this year as a result of that new commitment, as well as a greater than originally anticipated level of funding through the healthy school facility fund and the built to learn, act.

E

Baltimore county can and is now accelerating projects across the county and investing more in those projects, including delaney in towson. So tonight we're proud to reiterate and say that, thanks to these additional state funds, baltimore county is ready to move forward with plans for a new fellaini high school and a like new towson high school.

E

Moreover, I plan to include planning and design money in this year's budget for both projects. We know that these have been two projects that have been the works for years and have been top priorities for my administration and for your councilman.

E

We're proud to now be able to take those next steps towards bringing them to reality, while maintaining our administration's commitment to that equitable road map and raising the bar for all of our kids. So in the meantime, we look forward to learning more about the additional details of the newly announced state partnership, but we'll continue to work with all of our state leaders to secure as much money as possible for baltimore county.

E

Meanwhile, we're also continuing to move forward with plans to address overcrowding at a number of elementary schools, including carroll, manor, timonium, 7th district 5th district ryderwood, pretty boy, lutherville and cromwell valley.

E

We've commissioned a study for the northeast area to address the significant overcrowding and provide much needed relief to both loch raven and perry hall, high schools and we're taking steps to modernize our schools with funding to redesign open plan schools which not only pose security risks for students but create unnecessary distractions to learning in district 3, we plan to commit funding to renovate open schools at 7th district, elementary school pine grove elementary and pine grove middle. These schools will receive capital investments that will improve learning, experience and safety for all of our students.

E

My ipass also makes career and technology education and stem education a priority. It includes funding for community schools and our special and alternative schools. Now I don't want to, I want to be clear.

E

My ipads, the my ipads plan, provides a solid baseline and it's, but it's also based solely on existing funding, and it proposed to scale to it was proposed to scale to meet our budget, and we know that we have to go further to do that and meet all of our needs, just as we announced for towson and delaney, because we do have tremendous needs in every corner of our county.

E

Our county is the has the third oldest school stock in the state, we're also the third largest jurisdiction. That's why we've committed record funding to complete schools for our future. It's why we worked with your state partners and legislators to pass the bill to learn act, which is a transformative investment for our school and it's why we're pushing for more even more annually. Our school budget includes, as I said earlier, about 100 million annual commitment and, on average, a little over 40 million dollars from the state to their cip program.

E

The bill to learn act adds 420 million dollars more in state funding about 40 million dollars a year for 10 years and again, this funding has been transformative for the schools that have been touched, but we are seeking to have this level of state funding be sustained so that we can elevate the standards for every school community across baltimore county.

E

The built to learn act gets us closer to a 50-50 state match and we hope it's not just a short-term solution. So I'm optimistic that this might represent an important first step in sustaining our critical partnership with the state, and we hope that we can obtain up to 800 million dollars of extra school funding over the next several years. Investments we critically need for all of our schools.

E

With that additional funding, we will raise the bar for students across our county, just as we're doing at places like towson and delaney.

E

Raising the bar means that we can significantly enhance all of our our our all of our older high schools. It means that we can build classrooms that accommodate the 3 000 more learners, who will be signed up for our pre-k programs across the county, including millions in district 3.. It means we improve the security of all of our schools and that we can modernize our classrooms all the while bringing meaningful investment across the county. So I'm excited I'm looking forward to this budget.

E

In april we will introduce our fiscal 23 budget to councilman catch and the county council. uh The council will review and must approve it by may 31st, as you all know, especially for those returning. You have an important role to play, so I look forward to hearing from all of you about your priorities for this budget. uh Your partnership is so important and uh looking forward to turning the floor over to you tonight for uh feedback.

E

So with that mandy, I think I think we're turning it back over to you to moderate and uh we'll open the floor up.

H

Sir, that is correct. Thank you so much mr county executive and thank you all of you who signed up to testify in advance. I will call on you in alphabetical order by first name, at which time you will 90 seconds to state your budget idea or ask a budget related question. We have a lot of speakers signed up to testify this evening.

H

If you do hear the same community issue or project that you plan to testify about, please when you are called on state your name and let us know your stance on the matter and any additional information that you would like to add. Once your name is called to testify, a member of our team will unmute you. We ask that you, please be patient, as there may be. A momentary delay. The county executive, the appropriate department, head or councilman catch will address your inquiries, concerns and ideas.

H

If we are unable to answer your questions tonight, please leave your email in the chat feature and we will have a coordinator from the office of community engagement. Follow up with you if you are signed up to testify, and you are not called on, please leave a comment in the chat feature of webex to let us know mr county executive. In addition to the speakers that we are going to hear from this evening.

H

I would like to let you know that we have received 32 additional emails from community members sharing their support for budget-related topics such as a new delaney high school, increased public safety funding and colas for retirees and some other community-specific initiatives which we have compiled into submitted. Written testimony for you and with that I've reviewed.

E

That so I I thank everyone for their their uh involvement and it's it's. I think it's a great sign uh that we have so many attendees on tonight, and uh so many folks have signed up to testify and have submitted written um testimony we'll make sure we get that to you as well councilman catch. Thank you written summaries.

H

All right, mr county executive, are you ready for your first question of the evening.

E

Let's open it up.

H

Wonderful, our first question tonight comes from mr andy, catchmen of the maryland state fairground, mr catchment. You can go ahead with your question.

I

uh Good evening, uh councilman catch and county executive chesky. Thank you very much for hearing me um we're here at the maryland state, fair, we're proud to be part of the mayor of the baltimore county and- and we have a building here- that we're working on um it's our farm and garden building and we're trying to improve it. The building it was built in 1962, and it has some serious issues and we have it.

I

We use it for our farming garden building, but we, our attorney, would like to turn it to be our baltimore county or the maryland state, fair agriculture, education center. We have all our events in there that are farming garden related. It would be the flower growing, it would be vegetables, aid crops, fields and we use this building and it needs to be it's not heated.

I

It's not air conditioned, um there's uh no uh real bathrooms in it and we're trying to get something a little bit better and we're working with the state and the secretary of agriculture and um they're trying to get this done and we're working together and we're hoping that baltimore county would be able to help us in this deal. To get this uh building improved or replaced, and that's our what we're trying to do. We have several events here year round.

I

We have over um two million people that come on the fairgrounds a year to visit, and uh this building just needs um to be replaced, and it's um that's what we're attempting to do and we're working pretty hard to get that done.

E

Thanks andy, I appreciate your service. I know uh the state fair has been state. Fairgrounds has been an incredible partner throughout the pandemic. um You all have allowed us to set up again that, like award-winning gold, standard of testing and vaccinations and just really appreciate the partnership, food distributions have been so much good in partnership with you. So thank you.

C

Donnie I I also want to say that the timonium fair has been a real asset to the third district. They have been so supportive of community activities and very generous with the use of their facilities by the community and also very responsive to issues that the neighbors might have with uh activities that go on at the fairgrounds. So I just want to pay tribute to the fair and the fact that they are such a plus for the third district.

H

Thank you councilman and thank you, mr county executive. Our next next person scheduled to testify tonight is miss ann george from timonium, miss george. You can go ahead with your testimony.

J

Good evening, county, executive and councilman catch and all the uh visitors here tonight, I speak tonight as a long-time animal advocate and county tax paper, not as a member of the animal services advisory commission, to which I was recently appointed by councilman catch. Thank you by the way, council and catch for nominating me to serve. I am not here to ask for more funding for animal services.

J

I am here tonight because of my concern for the most fiscally responsible way of providing best animal services in baltimore county and to consider the urgent need for informed leadership, direction and vision in its delivery.

J

What is the future of baltimore county animal services and how will we, the tax payers, pay for it? The 3.5 million dollar allocated for funding of baltimore county services this year is generous compared with other municipalities.

J

In my last conversation with jen brown several years ago, barks was only getting about one million dollars per year from the city, with animal intake numbers far larger than baltimore county. I have many questions. Should baltimore county continue to totally fund the cost of our public shelter will more be needed in the future. What national private sources are available, and is this something baltimore county should even consider contrary to the conclusion of the study done three years ago by an outstanding outside consulting group?

J

Is there now a successful existing non-profit with a proven track record in providing animal services that might be interested in entering in a ppp, a private public partnership?

J

The number of large and small non-profits on the national scene with which funds, shelters, rescues and animal advocacy group groups is growing daily, is now the time for baltimore county to investigate what is available and whether it is good fit for baltimore county in the 19th century. Municipal animal service was all about controlling the number of strays and zoonotic diseases.

J

The 20th century took up the issues of abuse and neglect. Animal advocacy in the 21st century focuses now on maintaining the strong bonds of humans have with their non-human family members.

J

There is currently an emerging national trend to significantly reduce the number of animals entering shelters by employing strategies that keep lost pets and pets that are in need of a new home in their communities and only bringing to the shelter animals who are injured or need immediate placement. For other reasons, today, the current laws in our county would prohibit the strategy.

J

This causes overcrowding in shelters and forces. The staff to euthanize animals in their care. Citizens who find straight pets are required by law to take them to the shelter in remote baldwin within 24 hours, and yet recent studies indicate that when these animals are kept in their communities, 88 are returned to their owners by fellow citizens.

J

Today's emerging version of animal service relies on small community groups who volunteer to help reunite lost pets and their owners and instruct owners on how to quote self-re-hone their pets when that is needed within the legal 24-hour limit. This is occasionally happening in baltimore county today through social media is this. uh In this sense, animal service is becoming more of a social service which relies on facebook and other forms of social media media than it is animal control.

J

Here is my ask: let's form a blue ribbon commission similar to that used for other reformative efforts such as procurement fill it with professionals who are experienced and knowledgeable of emerging trends related to providing community animal services.

J

This is not about assessing existing delivery of animal services task the commission with identifying the best way forward for baltimore county and before any decision is made about future directions regarding the various possibilities invite the concerned stakeholders to weigh in on those alternatives.

J

Thank you for listening, I'm proud of the service of my elected representatives, both uh councilman catch and count and county executive.

J

um I just think I've you're doing a great job. There are obviously challenges ahead for all of us and we are standing behind you. Thank you. I'm happy to take questions.

C

I just want to thank you very much anne for all that you've done for animals in baltimore county, and I appreciate you taking the time uh seven years ago to explain in detail what was happening in baltimore county and we have turned the corner, and I appreciate your advocacy, continued advocacy and the fact that you are keeping up to date on the most up-to-date way that we can serve animals that are neglected in baltimore, county and the county executive. And I will discuss this issue and I thank you very much for all that. You do.

C

J

And thank you for your. Your support. You've been wonderful through this and without you, a lot of the progress we've made thus far wouldn't have happened.

E

And ditto wade's point and uh we're glad that you're going to be able to continue feeding uh these ideas through the commission and we will absolutely take a good look at all any and all ideas that come forward, including what you share tonight. So thank you. So much thank.

H

You thank you, mr county executive, thanks, miss george and thank you councilman. um Our next scheduled uh attendee to testify this evening is mr bill langluts, and we do ask that everyone scheduling to testify here tonight um stays to our 90-minute uh testimony when we, so we can have a chance to get to everyone this evening. So thank you so much and mr langlets, you can go ahead with your testimony.

K

Good evening uh bill, weingloss farming, garden, superintendent of maryland, state, fair, the new farm and garden building being planned with air conditioning will greatly enhance the longevity of our fruit, vegetable and flower exhibits at the fair the present time. We must do daily patrols to remove all the entries that go bad from the extreme heat.

K

A new facility with ac will reduce the amount of entries that will need to be removed due to deterioration.

K

Bathrooms will be a great help in the building, as during the fair it takes one person to continually answer the question of where are the restrooms?

K

Also, the building will give us classroom space to train new judges of agricultural products.

K

I thank you for your support and chance to uh express the concerns for the need for the new building. Thank.

E

You, sir appreciate it.

K

C

H

Thank you very much. Our next speaker scheduled to testify this evening is mr bob manikill, mr manikel. You can go ahead and provide your testimony.

L

Yeah, thank you uh county executive olszewski. I want to thank you uh for funding towson high. I am a towson high grad and I'm glad to hear the generals will persevere, and I also appreciate the allocations you made to northern baltimore county as as of now uh my name is bob manikel. I serve on the governor hogan's commission on asian pacific american affairs.

L

I am also the president of hereford sports boosters, which is why I am here today over the course of the last several years we have seen the tennis courts and outdoor track at hereford worsen and in the last few years deteriorate exponentially is now to the point that it is a safety concern and I believe there is a growing concern for our children's welfare.

L

We must all act as parents and there's a latin term in loco parentes, which means in place of the parent as leaders of the county and community. We must all act in local parenthesis with each child using the courts from all parts of the county and state as they compete at hereford.

L

We need to know without question that their safety is the utmost priority. Preventing injury and harm is paramount, and what can we do about that? Primarily I'm asking for time and consideration.

L

I would like to investigate opportunities to fundraise and collaborate with the county to see how best to combine our expert abilities to create a safe environment, not just for hereford children, but for all kids using the sports facilities we like to pursue the same type of resurfacing.

L

Reynoldstown high school was able to procure and looking for the time and engagement with the county to try to make this happen.

E

Bob thank you for for that. We welcome the opportunity to work with you in the year ahead to see both with the state budget and our local budget. What we can do to partner with you and the parents at hereford.

C

M

C

Been a pleasure working with you- and I have mentioned this to the county executive- who, who was very very interested- I mean if you have a situation which I've seen where the track I believe is unsafe and the concrete at the tennis courts is broken up. I mean we, we have a problem here and uh I appreciate working with you and hopefully we'll be able to get a state grant and some help from the county and also some fundraising uh with your group.

C

So I'm optimistic that we're going to be able to uh get uh this done and appreciate. I appreciate all of your work. I.

L

Appreciate your help: uh county executive olszewski. I appreciate everything you've done. um I know the families at hereford and.

N

Really everybody.

L

That uses the courts are going to be very, very appreciative that they could play without harming their kids or endangering their kids. So thank you.

E

Absolutely and director johnson, since you're on or if someone from record parks just want to briefly talk about how we are trying to get through some backlogs and start investing and addressing both the courts and the track issues across the county.

O

Of course, mr county executive, um we are looking to um really address the multi-purpose courts, many of which have um gone un unpaved and undone and we're trying to knock them out. The challenging part is that one can one court can cost up to three hundred thousand dollars. So, as you can imagine, um we are, we are very challenged with that, but we do have a list and we will coordinate with our partners at bcps to make sure that this is also on their list as well.

G

Thank you. Everybody.

D

Thank you executive. If I might chime in, uh we did include 400 thousand dollars in the school budget for the tennis court improvements at hereford. I thought we did thank you director, blades sure, so we will have to follow up with them on the status.

L

That's so that's such great news, I'm glad you chimed in mr blades.

E

Bob we'll we'll make sure that uh carmen and our our outreach team follows up with you. You have the benefit of uh director. Blades is also uh our hereford representative in the senior leadership team. So he's got his pulse on all things. uh Hereford we're lucky to have him so.

C

He's an excellent advocate for northern baltimore county. I can assure you.

L

H

L

Great news, thank you.

H

Our next speaker this evening is mr chuck, mr bodanowicz. You can go ahead and provide your 90-second testimony.

H

N

H

There we go, you can go ahead with your testimony.

N

A good evening, my name is chuck bondonowicz and I'm the vice president of the jacksonville senior center council. I am here tonight to support and request the county to appropriate funds for the construction of a new jacksonville senior center building.

N

Due to our increased membership of over 1 000 members, the department of aging has reclassified us from a community center to a regional center. However, because of our limited space, we cannot offer the variety or scope of services that a regional center would normally provide.

N

The county has already completed a feasibility study on constructing a new building and developed a preliminary site plan budget and building layout.

N

Fortunately, a new building can be built on the existing county property and we would utilize the existing parking infrastructures and curb cuts.

N

We could occupy our existing building during the new construction and as an added bonus, the department of rec and parks who share this site could occupy our space when we move the older population in the northern tier of district 3 is aging in place and will depend more and more on the types of services and activities offered at the jacksonville senior center. I want to thank you for your time and consideration and keep up the great work.

N

C

You so much, sir. Thank you very much.

H

Thank you. Everyone. The next person scheduled to testify this evening, is mr daniel gollumbach from lutherville. Mr golembeck, you can go ahead with your 90-second testimony.

P

Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity and thank you, mr county executive, for the transformative changes you're implementing in our county. I want to ask you that when you formalize the capital improvement budget, you include more sidewalks. We need a walkable community people walking interact more with neighbors, creating stronger, healthier and safer neighborhoods. Thank you.

E

Thanks danny, it's good to hear from you, and uh I do want to just give- uh I don't know if director walker, I see director walker um who is working with us on any number of sidewalk projects, and I think that what we're trying to do is get the department to a place where we actually have a community fund where we are tackling these issues of walkability. But director walker. Do you want to chime in a little bit on this issue in this topic?.

Q

Thank you, mr county executive, and thank you for the request for additional sidewalks. As you know, connectivity is very important to the county executive and this administration. We did present um during our presentation to the county executive, a new, innovative look at how we do connectivity around the county and asking for additional funding associated with sidewalks in the county. So we are putting a plan together uh to institute more sidewalks in the county and more ada um branches associated with those sidewalks. So we hear you loud and clear.

H

Thank you very much director. Thank you, mr county executive. Our next speaker this evening is mr david, gordon from the maryland state fairgrounds, mr gordon go ahead with your 90. Second, testimony.

R

Good evening, council, executive, oleszewski, councilmember cash members of stash staff, as others have said earlier tonight, I'm here to request budget consideration for the renovation of the farm and garden building at the maryland state, fair. I'm. Currently we can sum up uh the maryland state fair's mission statement through two main areas um provide agri, providing agricultural education and showcasing maryland's number one industry, agriculture, as you we've heard about earlier today, we have approximately 1 600 farm exhibits in the farm and garden building from farmers across baltimore county in the state.

R

We provide educational opportunities in there for the county, beekeeper association and the baltimore county farmers market, and because the buildings, uh age and deterioration is becoming less than an adequate place to showcase these wonderful projects and products that are created in the county. Also, we are a great partnership with ag education programs and currently host pinewood elementary at our site and with a more adequate building. We hope to grow this program and to be able to host more of the county schools to provide ag education opportunities year round.

R

In short, currently the building is aging and deteriorating and is starting to become uh require uh extreme maintenance costs. uh We are looking to replace the building with a reasonably cost building that would increase the functionality for exhibits, programs and community events that we could host at the maryland state. Fair. uh Thank you again for the county partnership that we enjoy together and thank you for the consideration of this request.

E

Thank you so much.

H

Thank you. Next on our list, we have miss deborah bacharach, scheduled to testify miss bacharach. You can go ahead with your testimony.

H

Miss bacharach, deborah bacharach.

H

We will go ahead and make sure that you are unmuted miss bacharach. Are you able to hear us.

H

Okay, we will work to come back to her uh next. We have miss donna myers from the maryland state fairground as well. Miss myers. You can go ahead with your testimony.

H

Can you hear us.

H

Miss donna myers.

H

Give it another second, I know we have unmuted her mic.

H

Miss myers. Are you able to speak.

H

Okay, we will come back to miss myers. Next, we have miss elaine kashmir of cockeysville, miss cashmere. You can go ahead with your testimony.

B

Park user: for many years, I have dismayed by the neglected state of the nature center dim lighting buckets under leaky roof trips, exhibits that need repair and updating, and the hardworking staff who create wonderful, informative programs or in cramped and unair conditioned spaces.

B

Now, instead of improvements, there seems to be a plan to bring a commercial company to the park and give them acres of force to build a pricey attraction that can only be accessed by the well-off. This park is a special place precisely because it is a large track of undisturbed maturing forests. Programs here are aimed at exploring nature as it is not as something to be conquered. These programs are at little to no cost to the public and educate and excite thousands of school kids throughout the year.

B

During the pandemic, more and more people are walking the quiet trails and peaceful contemplation or family togetherness. In the light of climate change, we should be learning to preserve, not disturb our environment. Please save our woods. No commercial entities instead improve our trails for walkability and habitat protection.

B

Allow us to educate our children and adults to be good citizens of nature in an improved nature center and allow everyone, regardless of means to enjoy our part in serenity.

B

And thanks for the lady.

C

Miss miss casper could will you this is uh councilman catch. Will you contact my office? Please yeah? I certainly can. The number is 410-887-3387.

C

H

I will thank you very much, ms kasmir, and I just want to check miss deborah bacharach. Are you able to share your testimony.

H

Or miss donna, myers.

H

Okay, next on the list, we have mr jerry brewster, chairman of the state, fair board,.

H

Mr brewster.

S

H

There you go, we can hear you.

S

Okay, great uh I'm gary brewster, the chairman of the board of the maryland state fair. I want to start by thanking county executive oluseski and councilman catch, and your entire team that are on this call. uh You all have been absolutely terrific partners. It's one of the reasons why the partnership between the county and the state fairgrounds won the 2021 national award in san antonio texas for all of the exhibition, exposition halls and convention centers and fairs throughout the entire country for the number one effort to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

S

Everything from the testing to the vaccinations, the food distribution to the red, cro cross blood drive emergency staging working with your baltimore county health department, who did a great job. Everything was just great. That brings us to our ask.

S

We don't have enough new modern air conditioned buildings on our campus, your health department, when they're doing testing and vaccination needed to move out of the cow palace, because it's not air conditioned to the 4-h hall. Just recently, within the last month, we partnered with your team again to to distribute test kits, but we had to put them in the horse. Sales pavilion near there because again we have, we have parking. We have location we're on the interstate.

S

We have a light rail stop, but the lack of modern buildings, baltimore county's own independently commissioned johnson consulting group said that if the maryland state fairgrounds were modernized got modern buildings, it would uh generate an additional 60 million dollars a year to the local economy. uh You know yourself, mr county executive, you tried, and the chesapeake bay boat tried for eight years. There are waiting lists for eight years to get to our campus and in their previous location, they had to send a lot of their profit out of state.

S

Now that they've come to the fairgrounds and we're a non-profit all that money stays in maryland. Any money that comes to the fairgrounds goes to service the people of baltimore county and goes to service all of maryland. So we thank you county, executive oluseski. We thank you councilman catch and we're hoping that we can get a new air conditioned building with working bathrooms. So we can continue to be of service to the citizens of baltimore county from dundalk to catonsville from towson to hereford.

S

We serve them all and we look forward to doing more with your help. Thank you.

E

Thanks gary appreciate your partnership and your friendship.

C

Yeah gary, thank you so much for your leadership at the fair and uh gary, and I served in the legislature together from 1991 to 94.. Am I right.

S

C

And uh so thank you for all. You've done, you're quite you're really committed to the community, and we appreciate it so much.

S

Thank you wade. Thank you. Jonio.

H

Thank you. Next we have dr erica odefeld from cromwell valley.

H

You can go ahead with your testimony.

H

H

We will move on to miss heather langenberg from cockeysville miss langenberg. You can go ahead with your 90-second testimony.

T

Hi, my name is heather langenberg and my son is a 10th grader at student at delaney high school.

T

So I was originally going to speak about why delaney needed a replacement high school, but instead I wanted to thank you profusely from the bottom of my heart and I'm sure from many other parents, teachers and students that we are so thankful for your announcement yesterday that you are going to have a replacement high school for delaney, and I know we've waited seven years for it, but um all of our petitioning and all of your help has gotten us there. So thank you with that.

T

I have a couple questions in terms of you had mentioned that planning and design money was going to be in the budget for this year. Do you have any other time frame in terms of when you intend to break ground or when the schools would hopefully be completed?.

E

Yeah, first of all, thanks for your involvement in your child's education and the school community, and for your for your remarks, um I know that, typically, what happens is the design, the the the study, the planning and design process actually starts to dictate um the scope of the project and also determines the the timeline and the expected horizons. We do that in partnership with bcps.

E

I see that uh dr jennifer lynch is on tonight. I don't know uh jen, for if you have anything beyond you want to add, but but really, unfortunately, we know that these are large complicated projects, so they are certainly going to take several years um from design to completion, um but the the more detailed timeline really is informed by that planning and design. Dr lynch, I don't know if you wanted to add anything to that.

U

uh Sir, I think you hit it hit the nail on the head when we begin the design phase. As that unfolds, um the scope of the project will be more clear and with that, um throughout that process, they'll have a better idea about. You know when construction would start and then um a proposed uh finish date as well, but that would be probably closer to the end of the design process.

T

With that just follow-up question: do you think that that would the design process would be completed by the end of 2022.

U

I think that is a question that I will direct to bcps about the length of time. You know those things can vary in time, but I am happy to check with bcps and get back to you. Okay,.

C

Thank you. I I thank you very much for your interest and the fact that the county executive has asked for planning money, etc, means that the funding path is in place, and uh you know I wish we could.

C

We just don't know enough to know when this is going to be the ground's going to be broken and the school open. But uh this is such a major step in the right direction. uh You know it's been a it's been a real up and down path, and- and you can't imagine how happy I am uh after advocating so many years so. Thank you very much.

V

H

Thank you all. Next we have james curtis of hampstead, mr curtis. You can go ahead with your testimony.

H

Mr james curtis.

H

Next on the list, we have miss janice cornelius of timonium.

M

And I am the vice president of the baltimore county race, fair, which has held its minion fairgrounds in the cow palace in july. A new ag building would be so much help as far as teaching the kids with we would have more classrooms, uh there'd be bathrooms. It would just be so much easier and I think we'd be able to make a much better displays during the county. Fair and thank you.

H

Thank you very much miss coronas.

H

Next we have mr jeffrey budnitz, mr budnidz, you can go ahead with your testimony.

W

uh Good evening, everyone I'm here in my capacity as a multi-decade volunteer for baltimore county reckon parks.

W

The first item I would like to bring up would be increasing the department of recreation and parks annual budget on a going forward basis to bring the department in line with operating a capital budgets of surrounding counties, recreation and parks, budgets on a per resident basis, relative to that, the department historically has been grossly underfunded to prior administrations, relative to actual taxpayer demand on services and facilities and under funding that has only been recently remedied through the leadership and wisdom of county executive oshewski and the balance of his administration.

W

So, therefore, my comments are to set a going forward pattern that can be sustained into the future. The next would be evaluating additional budget resources for the baltimore county property management, based on significantly increased utilization of many county facilities and assets that they maintain.

W

The third would be connecting the jones falls trail to the north central trail via lake roland and meadowwood park, leveraging the recently approved 120 000 state of maryland feasibility study grant for that very route and the best route to take. For that connection, I would also like to advocate for increasing parking options for cromwell valley park uh regarding the entrance at 1517 providence, road for the benefit and access for hikers and birders when visiting the park.

W

This would include needed trail improvements, including stream stream, bridging and better visual buffering for the entrance and parking to reduce the impact on the surrounding neighbors that affront that entrance.

W

The fifth would be increased walkability at district three via sidewalks and trails, and, to be honest with you, I would be remiss because I did not realize there was an air conditioning need and ag building need for timonium fairgrounds, not to advocate for that as a huge supporter of ag and equine industries. Thank you.

X

H

Thank you very much. Next we have miss jennifer jones of jacksonville, miss jennifer jones. You can go ahead with your testimony.

F

Good evening my name is jennifer jones and I'm a member of the board of directors of the jacksonville senior center of northern baltimore county.

F

We are requesting approval of 4.5 million dollars for the building of a new senior center on land adjacent to our current center prior to covet 19, our current senior center had difficulty accommodating our fifteen hundred members. Large gatherings were limited to sixty people. The jacksonville senior center mca, macadamia nut sing-along folk group performs free concerts throughout the northern tier of maryland.

F

We have 11 members and include guitars portable keyboard, amplification equipment, sound board, microphones and stands. We are unable to perform rehearse or store our equipment at the center due to a lack of space.

F

The last train garden, for which we are very well known, as the county executive, knows, um hosted over 7 000 people over the course of the month of december. During that period, any other large gatherings were prohibited as it used the largest community room.

F

Smaller groups were impacted because only two other small rooms were rarely available, as smaller smaller groups usually accommodated in the community. Room were moved to the smaller rooms about one third of our recently registered members are newly retired and first-time registrants to our center.

F

We have one of the largest growing senior communities in the state, and our current membership stands at 1, 000 and rising. They cannot be accommodated in our current building. Your support and your approval for this capital expenditure would be very much appreciated.

C

Jennifer this is a wade catch. I can tell you that the administration is very aware- and uh I think you're going to have some good news in the future, and uh you know I. I was very disappointed that the christmas garden uh no longer resided at the jacksonville senior center I'll be so happy when it's back. Yes,.

E

I will say.

F

E

Councilman I had a chance to see the incredible partnership with the aviation museum personally and it was outstanding per usual.

F

E

They did a good job.

C

Yes, yeah well, but well, okay, but I want it.

F

Was our people? I mean these were our our train garden modelers? Who did this down at glenelg mark martin yeah.

C

And and people listen, it's not the usual plastic buildings that you buy or or any pre-made things. These are all architecturally designed replicas of buildings in baltimore, county baltimore city, and you would be amazed. The only thing I'm a little upset about is: they have mount rushmore. They have joe flacco on it and uh help me out who else is on it, but I didn't see my picture and and so that that was a little upsetting, only kidding.

F

I'll talk to rick about having that fixed. Thank you.

C

Thank you very much.

F

Thank you thank.

E

You all right before we go to the next speaker mandy, I I know that was the second question about um um aging buildings. um Department of aging building, so in our senior center is that I don't know director o'reilly. I know you've you've put forward quite a bit of requests uh if you want to just sort of chime in at all.

Y

uh Thanks mr county executive and yes, jennifer, your train garden is um the envy of all including the year that the county executive and I were actually miniaturized in the train garden. So there are pictures of us there, but um we're very much aware that many of our senior centers need more space, updated space jacksonville is on our radar. Obviously, we've gone through the um through the feasibility study and our next working on the design phase. So believe me, you have not been forgotten, we're very much aware of that.

Y

You need many many many many more square feet um and we expect to put that into a future budget. Thank.

C

Y

So much laura.

C

Thank you for all you do. I appreciate it.

Y

Thank you, councilman.

H

Thank you all. Next we have miss jesse yeager from lutherville, miss eager. You can go ahead with your testimony.

Z

Hi, thank you for having me. um I want to take a moment to acknowledge and thank the county executive, our elected officials and, more importantly, the tireless advocates who have fought for our towson and delaney high schools. The news yesterday was incredibly welcome and I'm definitely thrilled. I will add. However, we are. We still have an overcrowding crisis in the central district that needs to be addressed.

Z

We have more dwellings than desks while I completely agree that we need more affordable housing and more transit oriented development. We cannot put the cart before the horse and we must give our schools the priority they need to remain the cornerstone of our community.

Z

I really want to request more funding for free meals in our schools. This year, all meals have been free for all students. It would be to everyone's benefit for this to continue.

Z

I know that bcps has requested more funding to support the community eligibility provision, and I would like to emphasize that request and ask for more when students have their basic needs met. They do better in school when students thrive in school, the schools thrive and therefore the community thrives.

Z

Keep up the hard work, y'all are doing a really great job and let's make sure that every student has a seat and every student has a meal. Thank you. So much.

E

Thank you so much.

H

Thank you. Next, we have mr justin harrison, president of the baltimore county farm bureau,.

AA

O

AA

County executive, oscesky, uh councilman wade, koch. Thank you very much for the opportunity here. There's been uh some very good testimony. I think earlier this evening regarding the need to revitalize part of the maryland state fair. um Mr cashman spoke earlier, and I had a chance to speak with him earlier this week and learned a little bit about the program, and I know that for baltimore county farm bureau we are 100 behind them in the efforts to revitalize that space.

AA

I really do believe it is an epicenter for agriculture, but I I think, in light of that, um one of the areas that I would like to address is is the the need for ag education um and specifically keeping the ag center there on schwann road, uh a center for and about agriculture, um county executive oshevsky. I think you can relate to me. I have a three-year-old daughter at home and I'm very fortunate uh to wear a lot of different hats.

AA

She knows that as a farmer, if I go out on the tractor, we're gonna go and feed cattle and she gets to sit with me right there in the jumper seat in the tractor. uh I also am the owner operator and brewer of pharmacy brewing and we're located up in butler, and she knows that if I'm up on the platform and I'm working, she knows that there's one tank. That's next to me, that's that's! For people uh that's going to become beer.

AA

She knows that in the other side of that, though, they're spent grain and we're going to take that to our cows as well, and we're going to feed that- and she really is an anomaly- and I I say that as a proud father, but I also know that how lucky we are um and there's not a lot of other kids in the state that can relate to that.

AA

I think that, having places like the fairgrounds and having places like uh the ag center, where, where children have the opportunity to have that experiential education and specifically when it comes to agriculture, uh is so vital, and so I have had an opportunity to work with director howie with edab and the ag subcommittee, and I hope to continue that work and I hope to see that, through with the ag advisory board and more efforts in the county to to kind of bolster ag education and the opportunities that our young students have here.

AA

So thank you very much. I appreciate your time.

E

I appreciate all those comments there. Thank you very much and uh thrilled to have you in the county, thanks for being a shiny example of uh tourism and industry, and uh just I I owe you a visit in a pint soon, but uh looking forward to coming out that'd be great.

D

C

Thank you very much.

E

C

Mr connie, if I I've been there- and you know that I'm not much of a alcohol drinker, but I did try the beer and it was good, it was very good, so please go out and to the brewery and justin. Thank you so much for mentioning the ag center. I this is quite a gem in baltimore county and the name of it is the maryland agricultural center and uh I'm sorry, it's not a reckon parks facility.

C

It is an agricultural facility and you know we, as a county as a state, have preserved nearly 70 000 acres of land in northern baltimore county. What we need to do is we need to make sure that future generations are going to take over and farm this land. The average age of a farmer is what in the 60s somewhere, so we need a place where the ag education can take place where people can test crops etc last year, because of some issues really not much happened in that regard.

C

So, let's please, let's make the ag center agriculture and move forward and let's make sure that people are going to continue to farm in northern baltimore county, and you know I appreciate the county executive's efforts when it comes to energy etc. But let me say I do not believe that solar panels belong on prime and productive farm land.

C

Prime and productive farmland is for growing crops and once it's gone, it's gone. So, uh let's move forward uh the ag industry is a huge part of our economy and it adds so much to baltimore county, and you know I know the county executive has appointed a member of his staff to work on these issues, and I appreciate the efforts that she has made.

C

uh So let's go forward with really fulfilling the goals at the ag center. Thank you very much.

AB

H

Thank you. Next we have dr erica ofelt, dr o'fall. You can go ahead with your testimony.

H

Doctor, oh felt it I do believe we are getting some.

AC

I'm dropping you.

H

We can hear you now.

AC

So you can hear me now.

H

AC

Her, like I said my service is coming in and out um so my name is dr eric ofelds I'd actually written a letter um to the county executive for the last budget meeting um after my daughter, and I had been actually had, someone come after us um due to an issue with parking near my home. um That's caused a lot of issues for my family and for my neighbors it's become a public safety concern, um so we have.

AC

um The county executive had said that he was going to reach out to us and work with us on these issues that we had as a community, um and we were very, very optimistic that that was going to happen. We've talked to amanda carr and his uh from his executive team, who was great to talk to talking with me and the neighbors we have.

AC

We talked to um james benjamin, the county attorney who's been who is seemed to be very, you know, understanding of our concerns and the issues that we were having um as a as a community. We felt, like you, know everything. The administration really pushes claiming to be. You know very transparent was true. um However, we found out recently that the county has actually asked to increase parking next to my home, which is going to cause significant issues. um It's going to exacerbate the issues that me and my neighbors are already having.

AC

We also found out that when they made this request to the state on top of it, they did it under the pretense that the neighbors were in support of this, um which is something that's very concerning, um especially with an administration that has been so so vocal about how transparent and how they want to work with their community um to say that our community was blindsided by this would be an understatement.

AC

We right now. I know myself. You know my optimism to working to resolve this issue is at an all-time low and I feel, like I have very little unfortunate. Unfortunately, I have little little faith anymore and I'm in the government and working out issues. um However, I do know that, after seeing how everything played out with the high school and delaney and how well this administration has worked with, you know, with both parties and the state.

AC

I I'm basically asking that you know the county executive kind of you know keeps with his. You know, history of being transparent and working with the community um and really looking at the public safety issues and the other concerns of our neighbors, who have written and been extremely vocal about the problems that we're experiencing.

E

Chris ellefeldt, thank you. I will tell you. I have not been uh very directly involved in the situation you just outlined, but I assure you that I will work with councilman catch. We will have a community meeting and I will be part of it.

C

Johnny I have visited the site and erica is absolutely right, placing a parking lot. There will be a real danger for her family and other families in the area. When you have a path that was never intended to be a road or an area that was never intended to be a parking lot it. It sets up a really dangerous situation, and I can assure you that there was really no community input here and I'd be more than happy to work with you on this issue so that we can uh resolve it. And you know this.

C

This administration is very open, very concerned about people and uh the commitment the county executive ma just made uh you can you can count on it so erica? Thank you very much for all that. You've done, and uh you know we we will definitely meet and resolve this issue.

H

Thank you. Thank you very much. Next, we have miss kathleen causey, miss causey. You can go ahead with your 90. Second testimony.

AD

Good evening, can you hear me yes, ma'am.

C

AD

Yes, I'm kathleen causey. I appreciate this opportunity to provide comments as an individual informed by almost three decades of living, praying working playing learning and serving in baltimore county, also informed by my service on the board of education for over six years, I'm speaking as an individual and not on behalf of the board.

AD

I appreciate the collaboration and example and personal support of so many dedicated community leaders, uh councilman catch senator west delegate, guyton, delegate, forbes, uh senator broshan friends of delaney, yara shaikh, my board member colleague, julie hen, so many more, the baltimore county delegation, governor hogan and the many state officials, and so many others working hard to improve the lives of children and family. I welcome the news of funding for planning design money for a replacement of delaney and towson high schools very much appreciated um in the interest of time.

AD

I'm simply going to list a number of priorities for the upcoming budget, especially many have already been mentioned this evening. uh Support for full support for baltimore, county police department and baltimore county public schools, outstanding school resource officer program, which is exemplified by the national award-winning officer, danielle moore, serving bcps in overlea high school, the baltimore county fire department um just feeling immense gratitude for all first responders and their families, especially in light of the three dedicated firefighters who gave the ultimate sacrifice in their service.

AD

Also, student support network uh community uh group very effective, especially grow growing through the pandemic, began at loch raven high school and spread rapidly to schools around the county, to support students suffering from homelessness and poverty, protect and support environment and agriculture, including utilizing cte funding for a new barn for the only agricultural program in bcps, which is at hereford high school.

AD

I also support the maryland state, fair and agricultural society's request for matching funding to a state grant that they're hoping is coming this year to replace the farming garden building also, as mentioned the hereford high school track and tennis courts as well as many improvements needed at loch raven high school, even delaney high school also needs sports things and all the schools in the district.

AD

I also want to mention about full funding for education. I appreciate the county executive's outline, but also including full implementation of public works recommendations. They were contracted by baltimore county to complete an operational efficiency review of baltimore county public schools. The 700 page report is publicly available on page 19.

AD

It states uh the bcps school board and system have an opportunity to transform the school division, its culture and climate operations and its academic program to become more effective and higher, performing the cost of ignoring the findings and recommendations or postponing any consideration of implementation is a disservice to the needs of bcps stakeholders, staff and the students.

AD

And finally, overcrowding has been mentioned quite a bit and I believe the county council should be encouraged to officially consider the recommendations of the apfo task force to try and deter additional school overcrowding through on through inappropriate uh additional developments in overcrowded school districts, and I believe, I'm out of time. So thank you.

C

Kathleen it was its weight and it was my honor to support you in your effort to be elected to the school board and would do it again without any hesitation. Kathleen was the chairman of the school board for two years. She is a phenomenal advocate for the students in the third district and the students in baltimore county, and I can't thank you enough for your service.

C

I know that you devoted so much time and effort, and you know I know thanks, doesn't even come close to the recognition that you deserve. I just thank you so much.

AD

Councilman catch that I really appreciate that coming from you, um it's been really an honor to serve my community through which, which is the entire baltimore county, the entire baltimore county public school system.

AD

So um I especially appreciate the opportunity to work side by side with the county government with maryland state fairgrounds in fighting the pandemic through the mass vaccination site and through the testing that they had launched early on, we've all been through a lot together, and I just appreciate the ability to serve and appreciate all of you and the complexities that are faced um by leaders in making tough decisions uh to meet all the needs. So I appreciate that.

AD

H

Miss causey next we have miss carrie, heeman.

AE

Yes, um I hope you can hear me, I don't have any political aspirations. I don't belong to any boards. I have lived in baltimore county, my entire life. I am a retired emergency physician and because I have multiple sclerosis, but my point is: I find it somewhat troublesome about the rising crime in baltimore county and I realize some of it is inevitable.

AE

Some of it can't be avoided, but I think too often we blame the police department or we blame it on too many guns and I'm just wondering what the plans are in the near future to when you apprehend someone and they're found guilty through a trial. When will these repeat offenders um actually serve some time when convicted?

AE

E

Thank you, sir, and thank you for your your service to others. I'm going to give the chief a moment to chime in a little bit about the department and some of the efforts that are being done there. We talked about some of some of them. There have been some reorganizations and the data-driven crime fighting and some other approaches. I will say that, once once um individuals are arrested and they go through the criminal justice system, uh neither the police, department or county government has very limited uh input over what happens to the judicial system.

E

That's really more of a state legislative conversation about set things like sentencing, guidelines, etc. But, uh chief, I wanted to just give you and or your team, an opportunity um to say uh anything you want to add, but I know that the chief shares my commitment to ensuring that baltimore county remains a safe place to live work and raise a family. So, chief I'll, let you chime in.

AF

Thanks for giving me a moment, sir, and thanks very much for that question um and really uh mr county executive. Just to reiterate your point uh when someone commits a crime of violence in baltimore county, um our investigators and our patrol officers are relentless and you know they're going to find the individual.

AF

They are going to prepare a solid case which they're going to present to the state's attorney's office and we're very fortunate in this jurisdiction that our state's attorney's office works incredibly closely with the police department and in terms of cases getting prosecuted, dangerous, violent repeat offenders, cases getting prosecuted, they've been very successful with that and we'll continue to work closely with them.

AF

You know one of the things during our initial presentation that the county executive was discussing were some of the clearance rates in baltimore county and again. This is something that I don't take for granted. This is because of the hard work of our investigators, but you know their clearance rate for homicide cases is over 80 percent, which is frankly, which is exceptional compared to the national average.

AF

So while there is still a lot of work to do to be done, and we will continue to work with partners both in the state's attorney's office as well as regional law enforcement partners, um you know partners across the state, our federal partners, uh we, we have had a lot of really good progress, and you know a lot of that's because of the work that we do with the community in conjunction with them. Thank you, sir.

AE

Thank you all very much and thank you, mr county executive.

X

H

Thank you all. Next, we have miss kim beard from timonium kim. You can go ahead with your testimony.

AG

Thank you good evening. My name is parent of one current and one future towson high school student and past pta president ridgeley middle school. Thank you county executive for committing funding for new delaney and towson high schools on behalf of current and future delaney, lyons and towson generals. Thank you for supporting baltimore county public schools, fy 23 county capital budget, including lines 11 through 14.. Thank you very much.

D

H

Thank you. Next, we have mr mark gingerich from timonium. You can go ahead with your testimony.

H

Mr mark gingerich.

H

Next, we will move on to miss mary amos from tomomi patimonium.

H

Miss mary amos: you can go ahead with your testimony.

H

Next, we will have on the list, mr michael schoenfeld, from upperco.

H

Mr schoenfeld, mr michael schoenfeld,.

H

My apologies to some, it does look like we were experiencing some technical difficulties and delays trying to unmute. So I will start with mr schoenfeld. Are you able to unmute.

AH

I'm on sorry, wonderful.

H

AH

um So first of all, I want to my priorities: are on funding the open space. I want to start off by thanking the county executive and mr koch for the increased funding that we have for land preservation.

AH

One of the most amazing things about baltimore county is the close proximity. We have to rural open rural space and some exciting urban centers as well, and we, I think, preservation's critical for everyone in the county, both in terms of the environmental protection, water and air quality.

AH

Access to green space leads to public health and, as has been mentioned a number of times, the ag economy is critical to our traditions and supporting our people, especially as we've seen in times like covet in terms of budget priorities, I would ask that we continue funding for acquiring conservation easements. uh These are long-term um uh transactions. They often take many years.

AH

I know we've closed an initial purchase which is wonderful, but.

AH

Over in budgets,.

AH

Baltimore has five land trusts that help administer the conservation easements uh that are in place and, as mr koch mentioned, there's a tremendous coherent block of preserved, open and often agricultural land in the county and having a support from the county for the land. Trust that our partners in administering the conservation easements is really critical.

AH

Third, is promoting agri-tourism. I think the again, as I mentioned, the combination that the county has of both urban and open rural space is really wonderful and I'm a cyclist. I think it's some of the best cycling area in the country really, and I think that can be promoted and then. Finally, um on that note, just continuing to fund the complete streets and adding cycling infrastructure throughout the county is, I think, adds to quality of life, the health of the citizens and, I think, has been shown to drive economic activity and growth as well.

AH

Thanks very much thank.

E

You I'm going to do a quick, a quick uh around the world and then open it up to the relevant department heads if they want to just chime in briefly, so totally agree on the agrotourism.

E

uh We are as part of our art, as I mentioned planning, to invest some dollars to really sort of promote with the great ecosystem we have. uh We were excited to announce that we're going to be part of the maryland cycling classic uh this year. Director howie is actually a avid bike, cyclist himself, um so that was a big big deal for him.

E

Director lafferty and his team over in planning, if you guys want to chime in there's, been a lot of partnership on the preservation side and then director johnson and her teams continue to to push and work with us to really maximize both our state pos acquisition efforts, as well as some local dollars. We put forward both in in last year's this current budget and hopefully in a future budget. So if I don't know if directors, uh ally, uh lafferty or johnson wanted to chime in on any of that, but just appreciate your comments.

E

G

Well I'll start, mr county executive, michael, it's good to hear from you and see you again.

G

I know that you've been a strong advocate for not only preservation but bicycling, and when I was in annapolis, you were generous enough with your time to come down, testify on some very important bills, but uh land preservation is a key to the county, executive's uh vision for the future of the county. As you know, we have recently brought more properties more farms into the programs, and we continue to work with owners who are interested in eastmans as well as providing us access in fee. So we welcome your participation.

G

We hope to really develop a green network plan that ties together so many of these valuable assets in the county and if you have any further ideas for us, please feel free to reach out to me good good, to hear from you again.

X

And michael, this is leonard howie um I'll. Just echo. The county executive's comments about the cycling classic and your observations on how beautiful the uh the roads are, uh the the fact that uh the cycling event is gonna, be the only north american stop on the professional tour is really a testament to uh the the scenic beauty, but also just just how how great an environment uh baltimore county is.

X

So we do look forward to this event, but really we look forward to um all the potential that will flow from it and and the increased emphasis on cycling and the added infrastructure that we all desire. So thank you.

O

And I'll just add that um the county executive um really appreciates acquiring land in perpetuity for our future generation generations to be able to use so much so that he has um supported and cut the red tape, while, following all the rules um to enable us to add 196.4 acres of park land, which is a total of 13 acquisitions. Since 2019, it was a herculean task, but he supported everyone and really wanted to make that happen.

O

And so the great thing about program open space is that it allows those properties that we purchase using program open space funding such as the ag center and other properties throughout the entire county to be utilized in perpetuity for farmland. So it cannot be developed, and so generations will have it to access and use and recreate um for for years and years to come.

C

Mr county executive- uh I don't know if you know it or not, but baltimore county is the number two county in the nation as far as preservation goes with lancaster county being number one. So that's quite a tribute to this county and to you and your dedication uh to ag press. So thank you very much.

H

Thank you. Thank you all mister. We will go back to mr mark gingerich. You can go ahead with your testimony. Mr gingerich.

AI

Hey thank you. Welcome, um I'm on the board of the oregon ridge, nature center council and I'd first like to start by just thanking the administration for initiating the oregon ridge, master plan process and the opportunity that brings us to bring more resources into oregon ridge to improve the park.

AI

Similar to a remark you heard earlier, I would like to express opposition to the idea of bringing a for-profit amusement to the actual forested areas of the park.

AI

I think that clearly clashes with the mission of the nature center in terms of nature, education and environmental stewardship, and I would just really like just to urge that all new uses of the park really are seen through that lens of their impact on our role in environmental education and land preservation, because it really is a truly extraordinary piece of preserved land that we really want to be able to make the most use of to help the community in terms of appreciation of nature and stewardship of the environment. So thank you.

H

AG

Q

AG

H

Next, we have miss laurie taylor mitchell, miss mitchell. You can go ahead with your testimony.

AJ

Thank you good evening, I'm dr lori taylor, mitchell and I'm president of the student support network, a non-profit group assisting students in poverty in baltimore, county public schools. I'm asking for your support this evening for full funding for three important food programs to assist baltimore county residents living in poverty.

AJ

The first summer snap for children would help over 50 000 children living in extreme poverty in baltimore county with food during school breaks. The second increasing the minimum snap benefit for recipients under the age of 62 would provide over 7 000 residents with at least one day, one dollar a day in food assistance.

AJ

Third, full funding for maryland meals for achievement would provide free breakfast to over 19 000 students in schools that qualify but are currently not participating, including, for example, cockeysville middle school. About 6.7 million dollars would fully fund these three food programs.

AJ

Some statistics sobering at least 30 percent of our high school students and 28 percent of middle school students in baltimore county suffer from food insecurity. A consistent lack of access to nutritious food students experiencing food insecurity are at a higher risk of drug use, making a suicide plan fighting at school and carrying weapons to school.

AJ

59 000 students over half of all students in bcps now qualify for free meals in school and live in severe poverty. Baltimore county can do better to ensure that all students have enough to eat through full funding of programs for our most vulnerable children and food issues are related to security in schools. The statistics make that clear.

AJ

Thank you very much.

C

Thank you very much. Lori.

E

Thanks lori and I appreciate all of your efforts to meet the needs of our kids out there.

AJ

E

AJ

H

You next we have mr michael madsen, mr madsen, you can go ahead with your 90. Second testimony.

AK

Thank you uh good evening. My name is mike madsen I'd like to thank the county executive and the councilman for holding this event, I'd like to speak to the reckon parks, budgeting facilities, which had a couple slides, shouted out and support, boosting their funding levels and expanding our parks, improving our existing facilities.

AK

My specific item for tonight is to raise an issue of gender equity and the allocation of ball diamonds in the county. I'd like to speak on behalf of girls softball. I helped run the central county areas largest girls, softball wreck program in the county. We draw girls from whitehall to sparrows point woodlawn out to middle river. However, there is no standalone girls fast pitch softball field anywhere in the county.

AK

There are parks with stand-alone ball diamonds at eastern northwest and reisterstown, but only one of those is a skinned or dirt diamond, which is the surface that girl softball needs to be played on, while the other 11 are all grass infields and all 12 are sized for baseball or slow pitch.

AK

What accounts for that imbalance, adult slow pitch should be played on skinned diamonds, while youth baseball can be, and also means that all the varying youth distances can be played on a given field. If the goal is multi-purpose, there should be more skinned. Diamonds. Property management has confirmed. It is easier to maintain skinned diamonds.

AK

It is truly unfortunate. The girls summer and fall softball league hosted down at eastern has to play multiple games on grassed in fields with pitching mounds, due to a shortage of fields that are appropriate to the sport, while a no harm solution that has been in discussions at that facility is available, please fund and fix this closer to home. We are proposing turning the girls softball field at orchard hills park into a stand-alone girls, softball field, which would be the first and only one in the county.

AK

The layout of the park dictates that the diamond is not suited to baseball or adult slow pitch, but it is perfect for girls softball. We have community and business support and funding to make it a reality without any cost of the county. Free is an easy budget line item right and it also provides a benefit to the county of adding a new highlight to its inventory of recreation facilities at our community parks. I urge you to support that project, help even out the gender inequities we've seen in ball.

AK

Diamonds, give the girls of our community a field they can be excited to play. Thank you for listening and as a parent of a current and two future delaney students. I close by commending the recent news regarding moving forward on a new building. I hope my fifth and eighth graders will yet be able to walk through the new doors. Thank you.

H

Thank you very much. Next, we have mr paul schwab of lutherville, mr schwab. You can go ahead with your testimony.

AL

Thank you, I'm on the baltimore county, public library's, board of trustees and at first I want to thank the county executive and the councilman their continuing support for the libraries throughout the county, I'm lucky to live in the third district. We have great branches, cockeysville circulates a tremendous amount of materials. They have a sunny youth area in the front.

AL

They have computers, adequate computers, where people of all ages can use the computers for education for business, for information gathering and, of course, hereford is an art center has recently fairly recently renovated a community meeting rooms improved parking lot. I strongly believe that libraries are a tremendous investment, they're open 52 weeks a year.

AL

They serve people of all ages with education, business matters they offer programs both in person as well as you know online, and what my ask is is that the county executive fully support the the operating budget that the library will be submitted and significantly increase the capital funding available for for library, renovations, improvements and reconstructions.

AL

um You know that would be a great use of funds and I think it's uh long overdue and I thanks again for your support.

C

H

You thank you very much. Next, we have polly roberts from cockeysville polly. You can go ahead with your question with your testimony.

H

Polly roberts from cockeysville, you can go ahead with your testimony.

H

Next, we will go ahead and have mr ralph brown from cockeysville, mr brown, you can go ahead with your testimony.

AM

Can you hear me.

H

Yes, mr brown, we can.

AM

Okay, thank you. um I'm dr ralph brown and I'm president of the oregon ridge, council um and, as some of you uh might be aware, baltimore has a storied past when it comes to public parks.

AM

uh Druid hill a park was the third public park in this country when it opened in 1860 and the public park movement had two very strong beliefs. One was that spending time in nature was good for both physical and mental health. Can you imagine they realized that back in the 1860s and their second very strong belief was that parks were to be true examples of democracy, free and accessible to all people.

AM

Our council still supports these ideas, so I was thrilled when I saw the three principles of the baltimore county master plan to third twenty thirty, and I will quote from them now the three principles the first was equity being inclusive in our decision making.

AM

The second was sustainability, safeguarding the county's ecology and climate, and the third was vibrant communities ensuring that all residents have access to high quality recreational opportunities.

AM

So all I'm asking is that you all live up to your own words, be defenders of oregon ridge and not the spoilers.

AM

I guarantee you that your kids, your grandkids, your great grandkids, will all praise you for doing this.

AM

I would just like to add one thing for some reason, there are three other people who I know wanted to speak about the possibility or probability of go, ape, amusement park being placed at oregon ridge and for some reason none of those three could get through. So would you please try them again: it's debbie backrack, jim curtis and polly roberts.

AM

H

Understood, thank you so much mr brown miss next on the list. We have miss renee hamidi from the valley planning council.

AN

Thank you so much amanda, you pronounced my name perfectly and I really appreciate it. um I am from valley's planning council.

AN

I had some perfectly well written beautiful remarks made, but everybody before me stole my thunder, so I will just say I echo exactly what dr brown just said about oregon ridge, it's a gem and it should be kept that way. I also echo what justin harrison of the farm bureau and pharmacy brewing said about agriculture. It is a a huge industry in baltimore county. Not everybody knows about that. I do think that the ag center should be focused on ag.

AN

It should be a resource for farmers and for ag education. I'm very encouraged to hear that you're, considering creating an agricultural advisory board. Other counties have that. I also hope ad gets a voice as part of the department of economic development and I'd also like to see uh mark the maryland agricultural resource council, which is in transition. I'd really like to see it have more of a voice in the activities that take place at the ag center. Thank you so much.

H

Thank you very much. Next, we have mr rob deferred of moncton. Mr moncton, you can go ahead with your 90. Second testimony.

AO

Can you hear me all right? Yes,.

H

AO

Great, thank you. My name is rob de ford. I operate 40 vineyards in baltimore county. I'm a lifelong.

N

AO

As was my father, and I also serve as chair of the baltimore county land trust alliance, which coordinates the preservation activities in baltimore county, and I will just add my voice to supporting funding increased funding for land preservation already addressed in this meeting. There are two other specific requests relating to land preservation that I'd like to add.

AO

The first is that we increase the cost sharing for the executive director of the baltimore county land trust alliance. The county is already assisting in this regard and uh the land trusts are all volunteer and we need a professional coordinator and that funding has some of that. Funding has come from baltimore county and I really urge the county to increase that funding so that we can hire a professional executive director and- and the second request is for a permanent office for the baltimore county land trust efforts at the ag center. This is critical.

AO

Land preservation and agriculture are closely related and we need to have a presence at the ag center. I would also like to add my support for having the ag center be agricultural and focus on agricultural education for the public. At that site, it's unique: it has done a tremendous job and I hope it will continue and be allowed to continue in that regard, and one other thing unrelated to everything else, I've said is: I think that the garbage situation in baltimore county is getting out of hand along our roadsides.

AO

I hope that we can clean it up. It's a matter of local pride. It reflects poorly on us right now and I'd like to see us clean up our act thanks very much.

E

Thank you thanks.

AO

Rob appreciate all you do for us out there my pleasure. Thank you.

H

Next we have mr scott french of towson, mr french, you can go ahead with your 90 second testimony.

AB

Great thank you um councilman all chef. I mean county executive, oshkosh and councilman catch. um You know thanks for doing this, it's been very informative um at the end, I'd love to hear more from you about the chevrolet property. That was new news to me, um but my testimonies about something different. um I've listened and been happy for the investment in education thousand delaney.

AB

However, there's completely there's one completely forgotten: majority minority school in district, three um hereford and delaney are in district, three and even towson were discussed tonight, but the very edge of councilman catch's district is loch raven high school. um It seems it's forgotten many times, because it's on the edge of councilman catches district, most of the people that go there, come from councilman mark's district loch raven's, barely surviving.

AB

Despite your assertion, uh county executive, johnny olazewski. um This school is not overcrowded, there's barely 800 students, there, good teachers have left or leaving. We can't field basic sports teams like jv soccer girls, softball, there's lack in arts programs, music programs, stem programs, advanced classes for students that go there like at towson and delaney and hereford.

AB

um You know it's a statement, but we are truly the redheaded stepchild of baltimore county schools, I'm a graduate of loch raven, a parent of three kids that have either gone through there going through there and it's a shame how it has been a forgotten school.

AB

Almost every involved parent um that I that has been involved, including the past pta president of current delaney pta members, past sports, boosters presidents have pulled their kids from mock raven or not sent their incoming kids to loch raven and enrolled them in the law and public policy magnetic towson or the off the books magnet for robotics and engineering at delaney.

AB

It's a shame when I was at loch raven. We had 1200 students now barely 800 and despite being one of the largest high school properties, and I think, probably one of the most beautiful high school properties that the county owns from what I've been told. There's no turf field in any foreseeable future, because there's zero rec council support their loch. Raven wreck barely exists um like towson perry, hall, delaney, hereford all have viable wreck programs that have raised funds for turf fields.

AB

um Why can't local even be used to easily solve the towson and delaney overcrowding? Why do those schools have magnet programs? Towson high school is a magnet program that draws over 300, kids and loch raven, can't even survive and and is not overcrowded um when they are over. You know and when they are overcrowded and literally hurt a school such as loch raven. There are, there are easy solutions, but they aren't politically viable such as moving these magnet programs redistricting.

AB

You know, I'm sure you will say this is a bcps issue. However, we provide the funding as taxpayers and our kids who attend there and are doing the right thing by attending their home. School are suffering at loch, raven and- and I don't think you have any idea how bad it is there and it's a real shame.

H

Thank you, mr french.

E

French, I'm I'm gonna. Have um dr lynch follow up we're happy to facilitate a conversation I mean it is very much uh school system ultimately does make the decisions, and- and you know fortunately or unfortunately, I think it's unfortunate- we are given very limited uh operational control and input over over the school systems, decisions about things like magnet schools and placements and staffing.

E

um So I'm happy to you know you're you're right in terms of as we said in this budget conversation, half of our budget does go to bcps and it's over two billion dollars, so it's not insignificant um they. They are always willing to talk to us, and so uh we we're happy to work with you to make sure that those concerns are raised and hopefully um acted upon over with the school system. So dr lynch will be in touch scott.

C

It's wade, um I I think part of the solution is annapolis and, to be perfectly honest, we need to change some of the laws so that the county can have very limited involvement in the baltimore county school system. We're really not allowed to do anything.

C

To be perfectly honest with you, and you know, we can't even ask for an audit of a particular department in the school system I mean there's, it is totally independent.

C

The school board has total control, and I I support that concept, but the fact that baltimore county government appropriates the majority of their budget and yet we have no say and any decisions can be frustrating very frustrating, and I thank you for your advocacy and uh hopefully the county executive will be able to intercede to get some uh dialogue going regarding uh loch raven high school. Thank you very.

AB

Much I just wanted you to be aware, because it is way worse than people know about, and it shouldn't be that way when we have a great facility and property there.

H

Thank you very.

E

Much thanks scott and before we go on mandy. I did want to just give director johnson a chance to talk about the new uh planned reckon parks, headquarters and potential community park at chevrolet, because I know scott had mentioned that at the top of his comments.

O

Thank you, mr county executive. Yes, we acquired that space um at the top of the hill. It's approximately 12 acres um for our recreation and parks headquarters and the surrounding areas the county executive mentioned will be a park. um There have been some communications where I think some people were under the impression we were going to build fields there, but that is not the plan at this current time.

O

The plan is for it to be a park with open space for people to walk their their dogs for children to play on the playground, but that's what we're looking to do to bring another amenity to communities um for them to be able to use and access, as well as a space for all of our staff to be housed.

O

C

You very much thank you very much. Thank you.

H

Next, we have miss sylvia golembeck from lutherville, miss golembeck. You can go ahead with your 90-second testimony.

V

Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. I have a question for councilman catch councilman. Could you describe your own personal vision for the urban portion of district 3 so below the urban rural demarcation line, specifically, how is the urban area of district 3 currently different from what you'd like it to be? If you have an example of a town, you know that you'd model it after which one is it, and how would you assign budget priorities to make your vision a reality?

V

C

Sure, first of all below the hurdle, uh I support uh that area. Remaining suburban um lutherville, timonium, cockeysville, et cetera, and I've been very supportive of that concept. I think that when these communities were built, in fact, I know when they were built, the county had no requirement of open space. So whenever we can, we try to find open space for the county to purchase because open space is part of keeping a suburban area alive and and a great place to live now.

C

The hunt valley uh area- I call it the hud valley industrial park, where you know across the street from the hunt valley town center, is where the light rail uh goes. uh The light rail, unfortunately, uh has never been that successful. The farebox return is below 15.

C

That means 85 of the cost of transporting people.

C

The taxpayers pay it.

C

I have okayed some developments along the light rail in across the street from the hunt valley, town center, and uh you know I know the county has an emphasis on uh mass transit using it to take the load off our roads.

C

So uh I have uh allowed that, uh given zoning in the last zoning go around to to some of the landowners to build some transit oriented uh apartments condominiums whatever- and the important thing to me, though, is to make sure that these apartments condominiums uh will be rented or purchased that there's a market for them.

C

In fact, had a a study done to determine how many units could our area support so again, to sum it up, keeping the area below the hurdle in lutherville, timonium, cockeysville, et cetera and hunt valley where I live, uh suburban and then having some of the transit oriented developments.

C

Across the street, from the hunt valley, town center uh in in that area, and of course the number one thing is that we work very closely with precinct seven and the other police precincts that are in our district to make sure that our district remains safe, a safe place to live, which is of course, the most important thing. Whenever there is a crime in the area, you know our police department strategizes and does the thing the right things so that we can continue to live in a safe uh community.

C

You know you you see on the television when there is an issue, you see the police all together, talking about it, how they're going to resolve it and uh you think that's fiction. Well, it is not fiction in the in baltimore county, our police strategize, and they go after issues so that we can be protected from crime in the future. So that is my vision for district 3.

H

Thank you so much councilman catch. We appreciate that mr county executive. I will go ahead and go on to our next speaker here, and that is mr steve shaw of timonium. Mr sean.

AP

Good evening to county executive, cesky, councilman catch, and so many dedicated county leaders, I'm a resident of timonium since 2007, a coach with cocky's rec council for the last 15 years, and I'm in my 30th year of teaching science at delaney high school, I'm a big fan of the community.

AP

I want to thank you both for your role in securing funds for a new delaney high school. It's money well spent with this crucial decision. I'd like to address the athletic fields at delaney. The conditions are poor. As you know, we don't have a turf field at all. Our students don't have access to that with the appending loss of those fields to construction, eventually we're in need of a solution for our student athletes. I think that I have a very attainable solution to the problem.

AP

Currently, the county is planning to install one competition turf field at county home park in cockeysville, and we're grateful for that investment. I'm told it's to be finished in the fall and no ground has been broken. Yet I'm proposing that the county spend a little more to move some of the current light poles regrade and build a larger retaining wall so that a second competition field can go in at the site.

AP

So why two competition fields well, many of delaney's fallen spring teams are suffering on sub-par fields, they're going to be looking for homes during construction and will be a bit packed of trying to split the time of one turf field.

AP

Two of these fields would be a great investment in the rec council, the community and delaney and cockeysville middle school athletics. So why is county home the perfect place to do this? Well, plans are already underway to turf the field, so you already have that going. It could be ready most definitely before delaney high school construction puts us behind the eight ball.

AP

There's no need to uh no new land is needed to purchase which, as I'm sure everyone is, is on top of better than I uh that's a huge piece. The county county already owns it. There already lights that are there. You don't need to ask permission to put in lights at a place at delaney. High school, which has been a sticking point, the location is exactly where you need it. It's right in the middle of the community.

AP

It's not detached from the place of need everything points that this would be a fantastic place to expand and take care of your issues that you have with the delaney athletic field. Thank you.

L

AP

Mr shaw, I just wanted to share that. I had shared this with mr bob smith and reckon parks, and he was very willing to listen and talk for an hour with me. Ultimately, after a few weeks, he did report back that the money would not be appropriated to add to the project, but with yesterday's clarity in the direction of delaney high school, I I ask that you would reconsider that county home project as a place where you can get a solution now to a problem. That's that's already been and will get even worse. Thank you.

AP

H

E

You very much- and I just want to read her- we are committed to making sure that we have solutions as we move forward with the construction to, if not that we certainly want to make sure we are providing an opportunity for our student athletes, students scholars to continue to play. We are committed to that.

AP

C

H

You very much next up. We have mr tom albright calling in regarding the maryland state fair. Mr.

H

Albright, mr tom, there you are.

AQ

Can you hear me now.

H

Yes, sir, go ahead with your 90-second.

AQ

Testimony tom albright, farmer, in northern baltimore county farm with my two sons, we're in a direct marketing business education, agricultural education, is extremely important. Educating a consumer is extremely important to to use the product that we produce in a fashion that can be we we take raw food turn it into food that people can consume.

AQ

People need to be able to learn how to consume the maryland state project that they have want to do for the exhibition hall they're talking about a kitchen other aspects of that. This is extremely important. You know to the consumers of baltimore county. uh The pandemic showed us a lot of people, don't know how to use raw product and cook any longer they're used to going in and buying stuff at the store pertaining to preservation in baltimore county.

AQ

Both of you know, johnny and wade both know that my family is very committed to agricultural preservation. We've committed to that, but we need to preserve the farmer as well, and we need to provide economic uh incentives, programs uh buying product from the farmer, supporting the programs, the farmers in the county and moving that product throughout the county. We utilize a lot of fashions.

AQ

Do this um teaching children how to cook student support network could certainly use more product going through there from local farmers there's just so much that can be utilized from baltimore county farmers going directly to baltimore county consumers.

AQ

I thank johnny and wade for both being very supportive agriculture, community and the past and support of the mark as well, and the ag center up there and that they can all work hand in hand and that's what we need to do just get together and make it all happen.

H

Thank you, sir.

AQ

E

Thanks tom, I appreciate your your comments, your input and all you've done to be a partner throughout this pandemic as well. So thank you for everything.

AQ

H

Thank you, mr county executive. Next we have miss yara sheikh delaney high school ptsa. President.

AR

um That's that's what I get for having a name that begins with a y I got to, but I got to listen to all of this fantastic testimony and I want to start um in my role as ptsa president at delaney high school, in thanking the county executive for working with the community since 2018 to try and find solutions towards, uh and funding for, a replacement, school and also, I know, delegate guyton and uh kathleen kazi were integral, as was councilman koch.

AR

It was you know without without the firm support of the third, the 11th and the 42nd. I I know the community thanks, you county executive. It's been a long time coming um and I think I think you would have heard for it today. So your timing was absolutely fantastic. um It saved us all some time tonight. Thank you.

AR

I also want to reiterate the importance of education in a variety of ways and the support of the timonium fairgrounds project for the agricultural center. I had actually worked with the albrights during the student support network emergency food distribution. I coordinated their efforts and the emphasis that the county had on using local produce to both bolster uh economies that were under pressure during the pandemic and also the importance of using local products.

AR

As for the environmental factors and supporting our local economy are wonderful and if we can teach our students through the ag center and also the uh timonium fairgrounds fruit and vegetable uh center, you know that much better for all of us. So thank you very much. It was a fascinating evening and I appreciate more than words can express councilman koch and county executive oshevsky. Your plans for delaney high school.

E

Yara thanks for hanging in there. I know it's been a long night, um but I also want to I know: uh councilman cash feels the same way. We just appreciate your advocacy and leadership in the community as well. So thank you.

C

Thank thank you so much yara. I can't tell you enough how I appreciate how much I appreciate all you've done for the students of delaney and of the entire county. Thank you. Thank.

H

You thank you very much and we have one more attendee that is scheduled to testify miss deborah back back rack. You can go ahead and unmute yourself.

H

You know she was having some audio issues, but we were able to, I believe, get her back on and we are not seeing her here. So I will go ahead and turn this over then to our county executive uh to wrap us up for the evening. Mr county executive.

C

And I'd like to say something too, I was going.

E

To say why don't you go ahead? Why don't you go ahead and go first, councilman.

C

Okay, thank you, johnny. uh I want to recognize my staff uh ryan freed joanne, kozak and roger yeager. I know my constituents interact with them and I hear nothing but compliments because they they do an excellent job so, and I think I gave the phone number before it's 443 887 and I appreciate this meeting so much when I was first elected to the council. The council has opened meeting after the county executive proposes his budget, and you all know that the county executive is the only one that can initiate spending in the budget.

C

So we with a meeting after the introduction of the budget, we didn't get to hear the the uh priorities of the district. So I put in legislation requiring two meetings like this and when johnny became county executive he has one in each councilmanic district and I appreciate that so much because I know it's a real help to him when he crafts the budget uh regarding our schools. I just just want to say that uh after covet, they have a very difficult job. No doubt about that and uh let's you know I want uh we.

C

We we are helping regarding uh capital issues and uh I would hope that uh we begin to see and I think we will some improvements in academic performance. Others. No doubt our children fell behind during coven. Many of them did and, let's uh you know, whatever support they need so that we can improve the economic pro academic performance of our students is so important to me, and I know important to the county executive and all of the citizens of baltimore county.

C

I thank you so much for your input very helpful and uh don't hesitate to contact me and my staff, should you have any questions or need help. Thank you.

E

Thanks wade and I'll just echo, I want to just thank everybody for your time and your presence tonight. These really truly do become meetings that help shape and inform what our budget document looks. Like that's been the case for the past three years. It will be the case for the last budget of this term. So thank you.

E

Please know that your your advocacy and your attendance matters and um we are trying our very best to be responsive I'll, just add um to wade's point um when the council would have their hearings in the two years prior to um starting our um district-based session. Building on what the councilman did to ex extend the number of hearings there were, there would be like one or two people who would actually show up to the council hearing, because the budget was baked.

E

All that the council could do would be to reduce the spending and so most folks, weren't looking to have things removed. Most people want to have investments and that's what we you know want to make sure we provide those opportunities. This has been one of the most rewarding things. I've done um so just thank you.

E

For being part of it and for having enough interest to be engaged in your government in this way, I want to thank um all the members of my team, the department leaders, uh office, community engagement, communications teams, who've helped set up these uh town halls and uh we look forward to the rest of the series with all of you, and uh hopefully I I think my it's feeling, I'm feeling optimistic- that our numbers are heading in the right direction and we'll start being able to get back to see folks in person again real soon, but hope everybody has a great uh rest of the week.

E

Take care of yourself and your loved ones and uh we'll see you soon thanks. Everybody have a great night.