Today’s meeting started with the Invocation and Pledge followed by the approval of the Consent Agenda. The Consent Agenda included a letter to Attorney General Brian Frosh detailing resources available in St. Mary’s County for rental tenants at risk of eviction—this is in response to a letter he sent to us. We then presented proclamations for National Mentoring Month and School Choice Week.
We presented a Commendation to Christine Wray in honor of her retirement as President of MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital.
Next we adjourned as the Board of Commissioners and reconvened as the Board of Health for an update from Dr. Brewster on the status of Omicron in St. Mary’s County. We are still considered in a high rate of transmission, but the numbers are turning down and COVID related hospitalizations across the state are trending lower, so that’s good news.
Reconvening as the Board of Commissioners, we reviewed Legislation in Annapolis with our County Attorney’s office. We will maintain awareness of a wide variety of bills that could impact St. Mary’s County and as the General Assembly session moves forward, we will send letters of support or opposition to various bills. One example is a bill put forth by Senator Arthur Ellis of Charles County that would remove Charles County from The College of Southern Maryland and create its own community college. This would be a huge disservice to our residents, the college and all of Southern Maryland were it to pass. We approved sending a letter of support for HB 44/SB 295 dealing with the fees for Emergency Service Transports. We approved a letter of opposition to Senator Ellis’ bill SB 136 that would remove Charles County from The College of Southern Maryland.
Moving into County Administrator time, our first item was review of the draft agendas for upcoming meetings. Second we approved the FY2022 SOR II Medication Assisted Treatment Agreement between the Health Department and the Sheriff’s Office for $296,068. This important grant provides medication assisted treatment, substance abuse counseling and reentry connection to additional counseling and medication management upon release. Third we had a discussion on the Visit St. Mary’s MD Annual Report—I asked them to include the airport as part of their marketing push. Fourth we approved recommending the Mattapany Rural Legacy Area as the county’s top priority for Rural Legacy Area funding from the state. Our final item of business was a review of the American Rescue Grant funding, including new requests from the Rescue Squads and an update to the METCOM funding.
After Commissioner Time we entered into Closed Session to discuss Litigation and Personnel. We reentered Open Session to approve two motions. First, to support the state plan for the opioid litigation distribution—this is after many weeks of negotiation to change Attorney General Frosh’s original plan that would not provide the funds directly to the counties. Second, we approved a requested step increase for the accreditation manager for the Sheriff’s Office.
