November 24, 2024 Newsletter
Happy Sunday, Ward One!
Happy Thanksgiving! It’s almost the most wonderful time of the year. As we enter the season of thankfulness and joy, please remember to keep your neighbors in mind. Invite someone who might be lonely to Thanksgiving dinner, buy a little present for an acquaintance you want to get to know better, and always shovel your walk if Christmas turns out to be white. Be sure to read all the way to the bottom for lots of events to show your holiday spirit.
This week and every week, I’m grateful for the honor of representing you and our whole community. Never hesitate to contact me at aldhuntley@annapolis.gov.
Updates from Harry
Announcing the coffee shop tour! Regular readers know that every Wednesday at 8 am for the past two months I’ve been hosting listening sessions at Acton’s Cove Park. The last of those for now will be this Wednesday 11/27. With the weather getting colder, holiday disruptions, and some travel for my day job, I’d like to try something new for December, January, and February: the coffee shop tour.
Following this schedule, you can come meet me at each of our local-ish coffee shops around the ward. I will try to put up some signage ahead of time so more folks know to join. Here are the dates and locations:
12/4-Canceled
12/11-Bitty and Beau’s
12/18-Rise Up in Market House
12/25-Canceled (Christmas)
1/1-Canceled (New Year’s)
1/8-Brown Mustache in Old Fox Books
1/15-Canceled
1/22-The Red Bean
1/29-Cafe Olé (Due to size constraints, we’ll take a walk with our coffee. Bundle up well and meet by 8:05.)
2/5-Canceled
2/12-49 West
2/19-Poindexter in the Graduate
2/26-Curate
I hope to see you at one or many of these. The listening sessions have been a vital way for me to hear about community concerns and share more details of what I’m working on.
City council agenda
Call To Order
Mayor Buckley
Invocation
Alderwoman Finlayson
Pledge of Allegiance
Mayor Buckley
Roll Call
City Clerk Watkins-Eldridge
Approval of Agenda
Citations
ID-175-24 Retirement of Denise Adaris Hector - Citation - Denise Hector Retirement
Petitions, Reports & Communications
Update from Mayor
Mayor Buckley
Reports by Committees
Comments by the General Public
A person speaking before the City Council with a petition, report, or communication shall be limited to not more than three minutes. Remember, you can come to any city council meeting to tell us about what’s important to you and your neighborhood!
Consent Calendar
AP-18-24 Appointment - Mr. Aaron McCrady - Annapolis Conservancy Board
AP-22-24 Appointment - Mr. Robert W. Madden - Transportation Board
AP-44-24 Re-Appointment - Mr. Robert Hruby - Building Board of Appeals
AP-45-24 Re-Appointment - Mr. John Jay Schwarz - Building Board of Appeals
AP-54-24 Appointment - Mr. Liam Mercer - Board of Supervisors of Elections
Public Hearings
O-28-24 Police Department -- Property and Contraband Disposal.
Adds a requirement for the police chief to follow Maryland state law when disposing of forfeited vehicles.
O-29-24 Fence Permit Requirements Related to Buildings and Construction Standards in Title 17
Prohibits the removal of fences over 400 feet long without a permit from the Planning and Zoning Department. Alderman Savidge has described to me the issue in his ward that led to this bill, and I can see the benefits of it. But I am skeptical about tacking on one more permit requirement to projects that in many cases would already require many other permits. Please share your thoughts on this bill.
O-31-24 Mobile Food Service Vendors' Signage
This adds some commonsense guardrails on the types of signs food trucks can have, such as not obstructing traffic.
O-32-24 Fire Sprinkler System Requirement Clarification
City staff tell me that this is a cleanup bill to bring our requirements for sprinklers on Main Street in line with the original intentions of a bill passed a few years ago. I am still skeptical that it may cause unintended consequences. Please share your thoughts, especially if this would directly affect you.
Legislative Action - First Readers
O-35-24 Fair Cannabis Employment Practices
Many of you have described to me issues in the city–such as the need for traffic calming–that have funds allocated in the budget but that lack staff to actually implement the solutions. City government has too many open positions. While this is caused by a variety of reasons, I have been thinking about anything we can do to address the root problem here. This legislation will bring Annapolis in line with Governor Moore’s recent executive order by ending most pre-employment cannabis testing for potential city employees. Staff will still be prohibited from using cannabis (and other drugs) on the job but will now be evaluated for that in a more accurate way. Nothing in the legislation supercedes state or federal law.
R-55-24 Budget Process Timeline for Fiscal Year 2026
This resolution, which I largely authored, sets our timeline for developing the budget over the next 6 months. You might not think it would be complicated to develop, but it took some significant effort for everyone to get on the same page.
R-56-24 2025 Salary Review Commission Members Updated
Adds an additional member to the Salary Review Commission, ensuring more ward diversity. This commission is charter-mandated and already established; it will recommend salary changes (if necessary) for the mayor and city council.
Ordinance Second Readers
O-26-23 Forest Conservation Plan Appeals
Ensures developers cannot cut down forests while waiting on their plans to minimize tree cutting to be appealed. I was not comfortable with this bill as originally introduced, because it had some additional hurdles I didn’t think were reasonable. But the current version is much more narrowly tailored. I have discussed with the sponsor adding a timeframe requirement for Building Board of Appeals consideration.
O-20-24 Elections - Surplus Funds and Reporting Deadlines
This legislation updates election reporting deadlines and allows candidates to donate surplus funds to registered nonprofits, not just political parties.
Resolution Second Readers
R-43-24 Fees Schedule Updated for Title 4 - Elections
This adds fees to penalize candidates not filing their campaign finance disclosures on time.
Adjournment
Other news you can use
Small Business Saturday is the day after Black Friday. Take this opportunity to shop small and local for all the best Christmas gifts right here in Ward One. Old Fox Books will be celebrating 8 years in business on this Small Business Saturday.
The Chocolate Binge Festival is December 1st from 11 am to 4 pm on the first block of West Street, and admission is just $5 if you buy your tickets ahead of time
The Grand Illumination will occur December 1st, 3pm to 6pm, at Market Space Come out for an afternoon and evening of free entertainment, including Santa and the Christmas Tree Lighting. All of Market Space will be exclusively open to pedestrians for this event. Cars driving down Cornhill and Fleet Streets will be restricted to residents living on those streets during the event.
Tuesday December 3rd 7-8:30 PM Historic Annapolis is hosting a virtual lecture on “The Fighting Irish: Ireland and the American Revolution”. Sign up here.
5-6:30 pm on December 5th is City Hall’s annual holiday open house. Come by for refreshments before heading out to Main Street for…
Midnight Madness will be the first two Thursdays of December from 4 pm until midnight and the third Thursday of December from 4 pm until 11 pm. That’s December 4th, 11th, and 18th. Read all about it here, and if you see me, say “Hi!”
Please send me any events or other information you’d like advertised to your neighbors.
Have a great week, everyone!
Harry
Source: https://us17.campaign-archive.com/?u=92cd145597ae97327ab17fc38&id=1b9e7e09f1
