March 24, 2025 Newsletter
Happy Sunday, Ward One
Yesterday, I got in a whole new batch of yard signs, just in time for them to match your spring flowers—like Linda’s does here. You can request one here, and we’ll get it out to you very soon.
It’s an exciting time of year as we begin spring. I kicked off the season by kicking my socks off and into a bonfire at the Annapolis Maritime Museum yesterday; pretty soon, we’ll be back out on the water. And with the arrival of spring comes Maryland Day and lots of great activities around Annapolis. Maryland Avenue shops are encouraging folks to stop by this weekend to celebrate.
Here are the top 3 things you need to know in Annapolis:
This week I made real progress in improving the condition of our sidewalks, with a hearing before the Finance Committee that illuminated where the issues lie and with support from city staff for breaking the brick sidewalk performance metric out from the general metric.
The council has a full agenda this week, including considering a raft of changes that come from the Classification and Compensation Study to change the classification grade of both rank-and-file staff and of management.
My friend, Keanuú Smith-Brown, will be launching his campaign for Ward Three Alderman on April 3. I hope you can join me there.
Updates from Harry
This was a busy and productive week! I want to highlight 4 meetings I had this week that made progress on some of my priorities: improving the condition of sidewalks, increasing transparency, and making our streets safer.
Monday morning Audit Committee: The purpose of the Audit Committee is to provide semi-independent oversight of the City's financial reporting processes and performance metrics. We reviewed the most recent data on which departments are meeting their performance metrics and where those metrics should be tweaked in our next budget. One area of agreement was that the sidewalk repair metric should be split into a “brick sidewalk repair” and a “general sidewalk repair” to ensure the brick sidewalks (which are much more expensive to replace) are getting enough attention.
Monday evening Housing & Human Welfare Committee: Like I said last weekend, we had BGE before the committee on Monday, and I asked many of the questions you all shared with me. Those included what metrics BGE’s parent company used to justify stock buybacks, how residents can get in touch with BGE, and what else residents can do to make their homes more energy efficient. While we didn’t get every question fully answered, I was happy to help provide some additional transparency for all of you who sent me questions. See the full video here.
Wednesday morning Finance Committee: In addition to our normal work at the Finance Committee, I scheduled this week to be a hearing about sidewalk repair. Council members have repeatedly said that improving the condition of sidewalks is a top priority in the budget, so I scheduled this hearing for us to learn more about exactly how they’re funded, the distinction between maintenance and repair, and what the city’s liability is for unsafe sidewalks. It was a really informative hour that I recommend everyone watch. One takeaway: it’s very important that you report unsafe sidewalks via the Report an Issue portal when you see them.
Wednesday evening President’s Hill traffic safety: I joined the president and members of the board of the President’s Hill Residents Association for a meeting with the city’s Chief Traffic Engineer on-site to discuss how to safely get kids from Presidents Hill across West Street to their school. Ultimately, I think we came up with a good solution (putting in a pedestrian signal) that will make it safer for kids to cross the street. As appreciative as I am of our DPW staff and Director for making the meeting happen and providing their expertise towards addressing this problem, I was shocked to learn that it’s going to take close to a year to actually get it done. We have got to get government moving at the speed people really experience problems!
These are just a handful of the conversations I’m having about real ways to make our city even better. Of course, there were also plenty of other conversations this week, from phone calls to front porches. But I think these are really moving forward some of what I hear from you are your priorities.
Just a note that I will be in the Virgin Islands March 27 to April 1 with limited access to communication. If you need assistance during that time, please contact the city ombudsman or—for matters that require the city council—the chair of the relevant committee.
This week and every week, I’m grateful for the honor of representing you and our whole community. Never hesitate to contact me at harry@harrymhuntley.com.
City Council Agenda
Call To Order
Mayor Buckley
Invocation
Alderwoman O’Neill
Pledge of Allegiance
Mayor Buckley
Roll Call
City Clerk Watkins-Eldridge
Approval of Agenda
Ceremonial Items
ID-30-25 Citation: Charting Careers
ID-42-25 Proclamation: Recognize Anne Arundel County Public Library ahead of National Library Week, April 6-12, 2025
ID-52-25 Citation: Miriam Stanicic
Reports by Committees
Comments by the General Public
Remember, you can come to any city council meeting to tell us about what’s important to you and your neighborhood!
Update from Mayor
Mayor Buckley
Consent Calendar
Appointments
AP-4-25 Appointment - Ms. Tara Wells - Education Commission
AP-5-25 Appointment - Mr. Peter Vail - Financial Advisory Commission
AP-6-25 Appointment - Mr. Joe Rubino - Financial Advisory Commission
Ordinances First Readers
O-3-25 Clarification of Parking and Impounding Violation Citations -
In addition to making this section of the code more readable, this does two things:
1.Removes the requirement for a parking ticket to be attached “to the vehicle in a conspicuous place;" and
2.The notice required before the citation hearing date is increased from five
days to ten days.
Nobody is telling me that they DON’T want tickets to be paper. If anything, folks say they want more of the tickets to be done with paper. The staff report says that this is only intended to apply to garages, but the legislation doesn’t say that. Part 1 of this seems to be making life easier for our parking contractor without clearly improving things for residents. So, I’m a “no” at this point.
O-4-25 City Citation Process and Appeals to the Building Board of Appeals -
I am not an expert on the Building Board of Appeals, but Alderman Savidge has become one over the past few months as he brought forward legislation we passed to address how it treats fence removal and Forest Conservation Act appeals. He is worried that this legislation could undo some of those recent changes and has asked for this to not be introduced so he can have more time to work with the administration and law office on it.
O-11-25 Arts in Public Public Places Commission Update and Revisions -
This moves the Arts in Public Places Commission in code to put its oversight under the Planning and Zoning Director instead of the Recreation and Parks Director; Planning and Zoning has much more experience with staffing boards and commissions. We’re hopeful this will help the AIPPC develop more clear processes and accomplish some of their outstanding work like choosing some art for Westgate Circle.
Resolutions First Readers
R-14-25 Submission of Grant Application to the Maryland Transit Administration -
This is passed annually to authorize the filing of a grant application with the Maryland Transit Administration for a total amount of $4,462,240.
R-15-25 Friendship City Relationship with Frankston, Australia -
The mayor of Frankston visited Annapolis a last month ago and followed up asking us to become “friendship cities”. A Friendship City is a less formal designation than 'Sister City' and does not entail any particular obligations apart from a mutual intent to share ideas and goodwill. Frankston is a coastal city of about 100,000 people
R-16-25 Director of Central Services--Matthew H. Flinner
This confirms the appointment of Matthew Flinner as our first Director of Central Services. Mr. Flinner is eminently qualified for this role, having previously served as Chief of Staff in Pennsylvania’s Department of General Services, managing over a thousand employees, and before that he was Director of Transformation for PA’s Department of Labor, adopting new technology, improving customer service, and reducing waste. If you can’t tell, I’m very excited to have him on board!
Resolutions Second Readers
R-38-24 Condemnation and Possession of Real Property at 245 West Street -
You’ve seen this before. I understand things are very close to having a purchase agreement signed. It’s still to be determined if the council will delay this two more weeks or vote on it Monday.
R-53-24 FY 2025 Changes to Executive Pay Ranges -
This will update the pay scale for our department directors and other leaders. It puts all department directors and chiefs (ie police, fire, and emergency management) in the same pay range, which I'm skeptical of. I voted against this in committee and have really mixed feelings about it. Paying competitive wages to get the best leaders is smart, but by putting all the directors in one salary band, the upper end is way too high for some and lower end is laughably low for others. The council giving up the control of setting different types of directors' pay at different rates based on what it would cost to replace them is something I don't really want to give up.
R-54-24 FY 2025 Changes in the Position Classifications and Pay Plan -
This follows recommendations from our Classification and Compensation Study to update the grades of some positions. It increases some and decreases others to be more aligned with the job duties.
R-8-25 Mayor, Alderperson, and City Manager Compensation-
This resolution does not by itself change anyone’s pay. It acknowledges the findings of the charter-required Salary Review Commission and allows us to hold a public hearing. There will be an ordinance brought forward after this that would actually make changes to compensation. I have been clear that I do not support raising the city council's salaries beyond a cost of living adjustment. This is what I told the Commission, and it continues to be my position. I physically cannot work any harder for you, no matter how much more I'm paid. I would much rather any funds that could go towards raising the council's pay be spent on additional staff that would allow me to be more responsive to your concerns and to conduct more vigorous oversight and follow-through of legislation. I think also that taking this from a 30+ hour a week job down to a 15-20 hour a week job (via staff support) would expand the pool of people willing to run for the council and ultimately lead to us all having better representation. The city manager salary recommendation is in line with the Classification and Compensation study that examined the pay for that position across other jurisdictions. The recommendation for the mayor also seems fairly modest to me relative what a person competent enough to be mayor could command working fulltime in the private sector. I will be voting for this because what it does is acknowledge the results of the commission and set a cap on how much these salaries could be raised by. But when we have an ordinance that will actual change salaries, I will not vote for it if it includes an increase for the council beyond keeping pace with inflation.
R-9-25 Annapolis City Council Support for Maryland House Bill 226/Senate Bill 569
HB226 gives Anne Arundel County more flexibility in how it meets its required number of instructional hours. Essentially, this will let the school system have kids in school for the same amount of time but do fewer half days, which can be disruptive to kids learning and parents working. This is a good bill, and the School Board ahs asked us to show our support.
Ordinances Second Readers
O-23-24 Parking and Towing Regulations -
The purpose of this bill is to make it easier to tow derelict trucks and motorhomes. Currently the city can only use towing contractors with an office within one mile of the city, and if no company who satisfies that requirement is willing to tow a truck, then it cannot be towed. This will clean that up. It got pulled from the agenda four weeks ago because we realized it actually wasn’t limited to just these large vehicles, which was the intention, but that’s now been fixed.
O-34-24 FY 2025 Changes in Exempt Service Job Classifications -
This follows recommendations from our Classification and Compensation Study to put all department directors into a single pay band. I don't think this is a good idea, because everyone agrees that these positions won't actually be paid the same.
Adjournment
Other news you can use
Construction began last week on the project to replace water and sewer pipes in Murray Hill with the replacement of the sewer main, manholes, and sewer services on Southgate between Colonial Avenue and West Street. Updates on this project will be posted on the Public Works page of the City's website.
This Thursday, there will be a “March for Life” shutting down streets from St. Mary's Church to Lawyers Mall between 6pm and 7:30pm. They’ll go down Green Street, up Main Street, and then to Lawyers Mall.
My friend, Keanuú Smith-Brown, will be announcing his candidacy for Ward 3 alderman at Art Farm Studios on April 3 at 6 pm. Keanuú is just the kind of empathic, energetic leader we need on the council. You can RSVP and see more information here.
Everyone who hasn’t yet should complete this quick survey to report what material your water line is made of. The city and federal government want to know if you’re drinking out of lead or copper.
Tickets are still available for The Annapolis Cup, St. John’s annual croquet match with the Naval Academy on April 5. I’ll be there! Will you?
Level will be introducing an exclusive Easter Brunch this year from noon to 3pm. Featuring: Margarita Flight with Bloody Mary, Mimosa & Peach Bellini; Pork Belly Tacos with Apple Salsa, Cilantro Yogurt & Corn Tortilla; and more.
You can report all sorts of Public Works needs at the Report an Issue portal. I especially encourage you to do this when you see places in the ward that you see need sidewalk repairs.
Please send me any events or other information you’d like advertised to your neighbors.
Have a great week, everyone!
Harry
Source: https://mailchi.mp/dcb7bf901694/your-32425-city-council-agenda?e=f83cd5ce61
