Comments are by Councilmembers Llatetra Brown Esters and Susan Whitney and are not approved or sanctioned by the City of College Park.

City Manager report 

Kenny Young, City Manager, shared one announcement about the upcoming Community Public Safety Meeting to be held on Monday, April 11 at 7:30pm. The meeting will feature Det. Ryan Minnich, Detective, Financial Crimes Unit, Cyber Crime and Pawn. Det. Minnich will  speak on ways to protect yourself from Financial Crimes, and steps to take should you become a victim. Click here to join the meeting. 

Proclamations – Ramadan and Transgender Day of Visibility

Council entered into Special Session to make appointments to the Restorative Justice Commission:

The following individuals were appointed: Isabella Alcaniz, Zabrina Anzyl, Karin Brown, Carrington Carter, Robert Catlin, Jill Clements, Andrew Fellows, Maxine Gross, Violetta Sharps Jones, Rashard McCreary, James McShay, Nikki Pancho, Petrella Robinson, Ian Rowe, Courtnie Thurston, Robert Thurston, Marcques Washington, Jody Wildly, Wendi Williams and Patrick Wojahn.

Comment taken from audience:

Ms. Maxine Gross – shared her commitment to Restorative Justice for the Lakeland community. Thanked the council for their work, and indicated that when she viewed the list, she was not familiar with many of the people. She asked two questions. 

1. Are these individuals committed to restorative justice for the Lakeland community?
2. Will 51% or more of appointees be made up of Lakelanders (current or past Lakeland residents or descendants of current of past Lakeland residents) or individuals with documented support for their inclusion from one of Lakeland’s legacy organizations?

Ms. Gross added that we need to make sure the right individuals are at the table because this work is too critical. Mayor Wojahn shared the application process was open for a couple of months. All  applicants who currently or formerly lived in the Lakeland Community were appointed. The mayor expressed his confidence in the process and his ability to answer yes to both questions posed by Ms. Gross. He concluded by saying the city will consistently reach out to the Lakeland community throughout the process to ensure that those not on the commission have their voices heard. 

Denise Mitchells spoke to the legacy of Lakeland, the Lomax family, and her confidence, without hesitation, to the individuals chosen to serve on the commission. 

Presentation from University of Maryland Chief of Police David Mitchell on live monitoring of security Cameras 

Carlo Colella, Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer for the University of Maryland, introduced the presentation by indicating that university leadership asks the City to reinstate the live monitoring of 22 off-campus cameras. Mr. Colella spoke of the partnership between the City and the University of Maryland and the efforts to make the city a safe place to live, work and play. He mentioned a variety of efforts including the extension of the code of conduct beyond campus; exploration of Shot Spotter technology; economic development and increasing demand for office space in the city; College Park Academy; the new City Hall; and the Calvert Road School early childhood education center and preschool. 

He said reducing crime is a multifaceted issue, and live monitoring allows the opportunity to respond to things quickly. The University has approximately five hundred cameras in areas of the campus that are state supported (Please note:  Housing and parking facilities are not state supported). The University is proposing to charge an in-house rate for the live monitoring. $592 per camera, per month. Minus the current costs, which would amount to $504 per month per camera over what we are paying now to record video.

Chief Mitchell acknowledged the new City Hall and applauded the city for having cameras replaced and enhanced. He mentioned there are live-monitored cameras in the College Park Shopping Center that UMD does not charge for. He went on to discuss the increased number of calls for service, and the increasing phenomenon of mental health needs. Chief Mitchell mentioned work being done to connect students with mental health professionals. 

Mayor Wojahn provided background information from previous Council discussions on this same matter a few years ago. He referenced Council’s request for data that had yet to be provided. Chief Mitchell indicated that data was provided but emphasized the difficulty in providing comprehensive data when numerous cameras did not  work consistently. 

Mr. Young indicated that one of the first things he worked on when he started his position was working to update cameras that did not work and working with the University to update the servers.

Councilmember Kabir mentioned the need for data to support the request and privacy concerns among residents. 

Councilmember Esters expressed her understanding of the multifaceted nature of the work to keep the community safe and acknowledged the benefits of live-monitoring to enable proactive response. She indicated that it would be helpful to have the data to support this request but asked her colleagues not to focus only on the data. 

Councilmember Adams spoke to his support of using the existing infrastructure and asked about cameras near a sorority house on Yale, saying he was surprised they’re not included on the list of cameras already live-monitored by UMD, saying he believe the house is state-owned property. He figures fees the students pay would already cover the cost of live-monitoring for those cameras.

Councilmember Riggs spoke of his support of the effort and suggested Council revisit his past suggestion of implementing a special taxation district downtown that would subsidize the cost. 

Sidewalk Design for Hollywood Road Sidewalk 

Mr. Douglas Bobb of Mead and Hunt provided a presentation about the status of the project. Terry, Schum, Director of Planning, indicated the design is being funded through the state with federal funding. The state has reviewed the design and provided detailed feedback. 

Mr. Bobb Spoke of the various guidelines they have been required to follow, including city, state, and DPIE (Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement). He mentioned the virtual community meeting held on January 22, 2022, which was attended by five residents and two councilmembers. There was broad support for the project from participants. He went on to discuss issues at that intersection of Hollywood and Rhode Island due to drivers not handling the areas well. 

Councilmember Kennedy spoke of her appreciation for the design and how much it pains her to see mothers with children walking in the street to the playground. She expressed her interest in this project being constructed as soon as possible. 

Dr. Kabir shared his appreciation for the presentation to the community. He shared that this street has been used as a cut-through from Rhode Island to Baltimore Ave. He appreciates the traffic calming aspect of the project. 

Review and approval of additional recommended uses of remaining ARPA And Lost Revenue Recovery Funds

Gary Field, Finance Director, provided an overview of Lost Revenue Recovery funds versus APRA. The budget ordinance needs to be reported by April 26th. City Manager Young asked the Council to be cautious about the use of funds for items that will need to be sustained as we do not normally have this amount of revenue during the budget process. He indicated that speed camera revenues can be used for live-camera monitoring. 

Councilmember Adams discussed concern about things we seemed to have made a commitment to that could wait. 

Mr. Fields shared that we could place some funds in the General fund under contingency.

Councilmember Kennedy asked Mr. Fields to highlight items that would become operating expenses versus one-time funding. 

Councilmember Adams expressed concern about spending funds in FY23 instead of FY24

Councilmember Whitney asked for information about the remaining balance for APRA grants given to individuals. Mr. Fields said it was $480,000, and it was noted that we might be able to give additional aid to families that have already received grants.

Gary Fields talked about setting aside contingency funds for anticipated expenses. 

There was a discussion/confusion about whether or not we were talking about multi-year budget versus Capital budget. Mr. Fields suggested that he could provide a CIP-like budget to view spending commitment overtime. 

Three-Year Contract with VeoRide for Mobility Share Services

Suellen Ferguson, City Attorney, provided an overview of discussion regarding VeoRide. She explained that new requirements for parking were determined by VeoRide; the company felt in order to fulfill their commitment, riders would need to be required to put their vehicles in designated VeoRide parking spaces across all three entities. If not parked in designated areas, riders will continue to incur costs. VeoRide understands that they are still responsible for picking up vehicles parked in undesignated spaces within two hours. 

Ms. Schum shared that, where possible, all entities worked together to come to agreement. She indicated there are fifty parking hubs and over fifty bike racks in the city. From our State grant we will add more bike racks and parking hubs. She informed Mayor and Council that she needs input from them to determine where parking hubs and bike racks should be within the various neighborhoods The City is working to obtain a service that connects VeoRide with other micro-mobility. 

Terry Schum explained that the scooter is by far the most popular vehicle of those provided by VeoRide. She informed Mayor and Council there will be a total 150 scooters and 50 e-bikes in the city, both Class 1 and 2. 

Councilmember Riggs expressed his appreciation for the work that had been done, and suggested a parking hub next to a bus stop on Edmonston Road 

Councilmember Mackie asked how students will be educated about the changes in requirements. Ms. Sevaliah, SGA Liaison, indicated that most students know about the changes because of the restrictions on campus. She is concerned that there will not be enough parking spaces within the City to make it convenient. 

Ms. Schum shared that the City intends to put bike rack in hubs that do not currently have them. She went on the indicate a micro-mobility study was done in the City to look about parking destinations and connections to other transportation systems. For instance, she said, we would want to establish hubs near where you have a concentration of group homes where a lot of students live.

The mayor said he wished we’d allow parking wherever it’s safe, saying, “We dedicate a lot of real estate in this city to cars. I think as long as ebikes aren’t parked in a place that isn’t safe, they should allow to leave it where they want.”

Ms. Schum closed by saying we’ll be constantly reevaluating our approach, saying if ridership goes down, we’ll have to reassess. She said more parking was paramount.

Follow up discussion of Mayor and Council Rules and Regulations 

Discussion to distinguish between townhalls and issue-specific meetings. Suellen indicated the distinction is between talking to residents and answering questions versus a discussion on a topic that has come forward to council. Civic Associations can ask for Councilmembers to come and speak. 

Council discussed whether the procedure for requesting future agenda items is working. The point was made that councilmembers need to follow the procedure completely and thoughtfully, not view it as a process of simply checking boxes. 

Legislative Update

Bill Gardiner, Assistant City Manager, mentioned a County bill introduced by Councilmembers Glaros, Ivey and Dernoga that would prohibit food establishments from providing accessory disposable food cutlery unless requested by a customer. It was noted that the CBE had sent a letter urging Council to send a letter in support of the bill. The council voted to add sending a letter of support to the Consent Agenda for the April 12^th meeting.

Mr. Gardiner also referenced the increased funding in the State budget for Community Preservation Trust to $7.9 million.

Councilmember Mitchell asked about SB405 – Income Tax – Retirement Income Subtraction Modifications and Senior Credit (Retirement Tax Elimination Act of 2022). Mr. Gardiner did not have details but said he would inquire. 

Meeting Adjourned

Click here to see the meeting agenda for April 5, 2022

Click here to view the Mayor and Council Regular Meeting held on April 5, 2022

Click here to see the Mayor and Council Work session scheduled for April 12, 2022