Today was the first meeting of this new board of commissioners. Last night we participated in our Oath of Office ceremony, so we were all ready and legal to start off this meeting today. Welcome to new commissioners Mike Alderson and Scott Ostrow! We opened the meeting with the Invocation and Pledge, followed by the approval of the Consent Agenda. The Consent Agenda included a letter to the Department of Natural Resources approving the Deer Cooperator Permit Operation Plan for Naval Air Station Patuxent River and a list of Commissioner Appointments to various positions.
Our one Main Agenda item was acceptance of our FY2022 Audit Report. The auditors issued an unmodified opinion with no audit journal entries noted, no material weaknesses identified, and full cooperation received. It was a healthy and strong audit. The audit also showed that we ended FY2022 with an unassigned fund balance of $36.8 million. This afternoon we will hold our first Budget Work Session and one of my goals in building the county budget is to accurately forecast revenues and expenditures to avoid massive fund balances at the end of the fiscal year.
Moving into County Administrator time, our first item of business was review of upcoming meeting agendas—next Tuesday, December 13th, will be our last meeting for 2022. Second we approved the application for the Cooperative Reimbursement Agreement for the Circuit Court for Child Support Enforcement for $14,016 from the Maryland Department of Human Resources ($8,722 of Federal Funds and $5,294 of county matching funds). Third we approved the Intergovernmental Support Agreement with Naval Air Station Patuxent River—this agreement was extended to 5 years and allows for up to $2 million per year. It is a great partnership with the base allowing them to utilize our road contracts for repairs and maintenance and streamlining of process. Fourth we heard a presentation on the Draft Master Plan for Shannon Farm park. This will be a beautiful passive park that provides another access point for residents to the beach. Fifth we approved a Program Open Space grant award for $1,125,000—these funds will be used for the Leonard Hall Recreation Center, Dorsey Park Athletic Field Improvements, 5th District Parking Lot Lighting Project, and the ADA Transition Plan Project. Sixth we approved the Senior Rides Operating Grant Agreement for $11,900. Our final item of County Administrator business was to approve December 23rd and December 30th as holiday leave for county employees, keeping in line with our neighboring counties.
After that we discussed proposed legislation with our county attorney and voted to request the following pieces of legislation from our delegation:
- $56 million in bond authority for the next two fiscal years
- Extension of the Real Property Transfer Tax termination date until October 1, 2028
- Modification of the law to allow small-stakes games at our Senior Activity Centers.
- Text amendments for METCOM
We had requests from the NAACP and a citizen to change the way local officials are elected in St. Mary’s County. I am opposed to these changes—I believe, having served as a county commissioners, that these proposed changes would have a detrimental effect on your local governance. If Commissioners were elected only by the district they reside in instead of by the entire county as a whole, the role would turn into a competition to “bring home the bacon”. St. Mary’s County is a small enough area that each of the commissioners can represent the entire county and be voted on by the entire county. These proposals would remove citizens ability to vote for all five commissioners, and I am opposed to that, especially if it is dictated down from Annapolis. Any changes to our local government system should go through a referendum vote. We voted to return those proposals to the submitters along with information to reach out to their delegates directly.
During Commissioner Time I spoke about local tree lightings, the play Clue being performed by the NewTowne Players, and other upcoming business. I discussed our Fund Balance and the 70+ animals available for adoption at our Animal Shelter. We then entered into Closed Session to discuss Legal Advice, Personnel, and Boards and Commissions.
This afternoon we will reconvene for a Budget Work Session. This is the first of many budget work sessions—a lot of work will be done between now and the approval of our final budget in May. In today’s session we will discuss the budget calendar, the Capital Improvement Budget, Space needs, Excise Tax, project changes, Debt Capacity, and proposed new projects.
