Today’s meeting is one of the most important of the year—it’s the meeting where we approve our next budget! But first we started off with the Invocation and Pledge followed by the approval of the Consent Agenda. The Consent Agenda included a letter to Dr. Murphy, the President of The College of Southern Maryland, requesting they revisit and revise their COVID policies to make the college more accessible to community members.
After that we held a Public Hearing on amending the zoning of 26470 Three Notch Road, Mechanicsville from Rural Preservation to Rural Commerce. We had one speakers.
Next we presented Proclamations for Safe Boating Week and National Historic Preservation Month. We then had a presentation for the 2022 Historic Preservation Awards that were selected by the Historic Preservation Commission. The recipients were Kent Randell, Sam Baldwin, Shawn Knott for John Richard Knott, and All Saints Church. Congratulations and thank you to all of these recipients for their incredible work and dedication to our community. We also had a presentation from the Local Government Insurance Trust (LGIT) for a $2,500 grant to St. Mary’s County for employee on-line driver training. The county has budgeted for the remaining $3,495 to fully cover the training program.
Moving into County Administrator Time, our first item was review of upcoming meeting agendas—there will be no Commissioner meeting next week. Second we approved a grant for $3,928.86 for the Circuit Court for courthouse security—no match required. Third we approved budget amendments increasing Recordation Tax Revenue by $1,500,000 and realigning funds to cover various department shortfalls for $1,051,402. The majority of these shortfalls are directly due to increased utility and fuel costs and increasing price of goods—these price increases are accounted for in the new budget that we will approve later in the meeting. Fourth we approved a lease agreement extension to DMTU, LLC for five additional years out to 2040 for four hangar buildings at the airport—DMTU will be making substantial repairs/upgrades to the facilities and the extension of the lease gives them time to amortize the cost of the upgrades. Fifth we approved a state grant award for $1,856,000 for the Adult Detention and Rehabilitation Center (the jail) upgrades—this is the final increment of four increments of funding from the state to bring the total state funding for this project up to $13,628,000. Sixth we heard a presentation from our Departments of Economic Development and Land Use and Growth Management on streamlining the development review process. The major change that will be coming out of this streamlining will be the elimination of the requirement for a TEC meeting—reviews will still take place, but the submission process for projects can begin at any time and timelines will be tracked and monitored. Seventh we approved a railroad right-of-way easement agreement with Nissan of Lexington Park for construction of underground utilities for water/sewer connections to METCOM—this easement was previously granted but the lines need to be in a different location than originally planned. Eighth we approved adding an Alternate Member to the Economic Development Commission. Ninth we approved a partnership between Recreation and Parks and the Sheriff’s Office to provide for sworn officers to be able to access the Leonardtown Wellness and Aquatics Facility in order to help comply with the newly mandated annual fitness testing requirements—this partnership will give the officers access to the Fitness Room during normal hours and after hours and will offset the cost of the facility by $15,000 annually. Our final item of County Administrator business was approval of an amendment to the Gymnastics Center Lease for an additional two months through July 31, 2022 for a cost of $12,691.10—this is paid for by the Recreation and Parks Enterprise Fund.
Returning to our Main Agenda items, we approved the County Budget—this is a series of six motions:
- Approval of Fees and Charges included in the Public Hearing
- Approval of the Revenue Ordinance for FY2023 which sets the tax rates
- Approval of the Appropriation Ordinance for FY2023
- Approval of the FY2023 Budget
- Approve the Annual Budget Certification Statement for FY2023 for the Maryland Department of Education
- Approve to submit the executed FY2023 Nonrecurring Cost Request Form to the Department of Education
The budget and all of these motions was passed unanimously by the commissioners. This is a strong budget that provides for the needs of our county and still lowers Income Tax rates. Sincere thanks to everyone involved in this very long process and to everyone who provided feedback and thoughts during the process. We then approved the FY2023 Capital Improvement Budget and FY2024-2028 Capital Improvement Plan for the Metropolitan Commission.
During Commissioner Time I spoke about the American Legion Post 255 in Ridge and their support of baseball and offered condolences to the Kessler family on the passing of Leonard Kessler. He was a wonderful man who did a lot for this community and left an incredible legacy. If you have the time, go back and watch Commissioner Morgan’s time—he does an excellent summary of his past 12 years and what is involved in the budget.
After Commissioner Time we entered into Closed Session to discuss Personnel. This afternoon we will be at the St. Mary’s County Regional Airport for an Open House in the Terminal—all are welcome to attend!
