Montgomery County Council Committee Meetings on June 15, 2023
For Immediate Release: Wednesday, June 14, 2023
Committees will receive briefings from the Office of the Inspector General and the Office of Internal Audit; review legislation to amend the development impact tax rate and legislation intended to provide anti-rent gouging protections and rent stabilization to tenants in the County
The Audit Committee will meet on Thursday, June 15 at 9:30 a.m. to receive an overview briefing from Montgomery County’s Inspector General Megan Davey Limarzi and review the Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) Report 23-06, Abuse of Purchase Cards by Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Department of Transportation Employees. The committee will also receive a briefing on the Office of Internal Audit (OIA) and review OIA Report 22-5, Internal Control Review: Procure-to-Pay – Vendor Administration, and the office’s internal audit FY24 work plan.
The members of the Audit Committee include Chair Kate Stewart, Council Vice President Andrew Friedson, Councilmember Sidney Katz and Council President Evan Glass.
The Government Operations and Fiscal Policy (GO) Committee will meet at 11:05 a.m. to review Expedited Bill 25-23, Taxation – Development Impact Taxes for Transportation and Public School Improvements – Amendments, and a resolution to amend development impact tax rate for transportation and school improvements.
The members of the GO Committee include Chair Stewart, Council Vice President Friedson and Councilmember Katz.
The Planning, Housing and Parks (PHP) will meet at 1:30 p.m. to review Bill 15-23, Landlord-Tenant Relations – Anti Rent Gouging Protections, and Bill 16-23, Landlord-Tenant Relations – Rent Stabilization (The HOME Act).
The members of the PHP Committee include Chair Friedson and Councilmembers Natali Fani-González and Will Jawando.
More detail on each agenda item is provided below.
Briefing and review: The Audit Committee will receive an overview briefing from Inspector General Limarzi. The briefing will include details on how the OIG provides oversight to promote the effectiveness and efficiency of programs and operations of County government and independent County agencies.
The briefing will be followed by a discussion on OIG Report 23-06, Abuse of Purchase Cards by MCPS Department of Transportation Employees. The OIG initiated this investigation after consulting with the Montgomery County Police detective investigating alleged misconduct by the former director and assistant director for MCPS Department of Transportation. The goals of the investigation were to determine whether evidence existed that MCPS Department of Transportation employees misused purchase cards to procure items for personal use and to evaluate MCPS Department of Transportation employee compliance with purchase card policies and procedures.
Briefing and review: The Audit Committee will receive a briefing from OIA Manager William Broglie on how the OIA provides independent strategic risk-based auditing services. The Internal Audit Manager will also present Report 22-5, Internal Control Review: Procure-to-Pay – Vendor Administration. In addition, Mr. Broglie will present OIA’s FY24 work plan, which will focus on an assessment of the County’s enterprise resource planning system, Information Technology (IT) department-level audits and audits of non-IT enterprise-wide operations and programs.
Review: The GO Committee will review Expedited Bill 25-23, which would modify the calculations for impact tax rate adjustments by requiring a cumulative increase or decrease in the construction cost index rather than an annual average every two years. In addition, the bill would set a cap on the development impact tax rate for school and transportation improvements and allow certain carryover increases of the biennial tax rate adjustments. The committee will also review a companion resolution to amend the development impact tax rate for transportation and public school improvements.
The sponsors of Expedited Bill 25-23 are Council Vice President Friedson, Council President Glass and Councilmember Stewart. Councilmember Fani-González is a cosponsor.
Bill 15-23, Landlord-Tenant Relations – Ant-Rent Gouging Protections
Review: The PHP Committee will review Bill 15-23, Landlord-Tenant Relations – Anti-Rent Gouging Protections. The legislation would establish protections against rent increases above a threshold for certain rental units, set the base rental amount for certain rental units and generally amend County law concerning rents and landlord-tenant relations. The purpose of the legislation would be to prevent rent gouging in the County. The legislation would require the Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) to publish a “rent increase allowance” that would consist of eight percent of existing rent, plus the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria area, which is published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Annual rent increases would be limited to the “rent increase allowance,” with exceptions for certain rental units.
The lead sponsors of Bill 15-23 are Councilmember Fani-González, Council Vice President Friedson and Councilmembers Gabe Albornoz, Marilyn Balcombe, Katz and Dawn Luedtke.
Bill 16-23, Landlord-Tenant Relations – Rent Stabilization (The HOME Act)
Review: The PHP Committee will review Bill 16-23, Landlord-Tenant Relations – Rent Stabilization, also known as the HOME Act, which would establish an annual maximum rent increase for rental housing in Montgomery County, provide exemptions for certain buildings from rent stabilization requirements and generally amend County law concerning rent increase, landlord-tenant relations and taxation. Under Bill 16-23, the maximum allowance for a rent increase would be up to three percent or the rental component of the CPI percentage, whichever is lower. The increase could only occur once in a 12-month period and the landlord must provide at least a 90-day notice before increasing the rent. The lead sponsors of Bill 16-23 are Councilmembers Jawando and Kristin Mink.
The Committee meeting schedule may change from time to time. The current Council and Committee agendas, Council staff reports and additional information on items scheduled for Council review can be viewed at: http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/COUNCIL/ondemand/index.html .
Council and committee meetings are streamed live on the Council’s web page via YouTube and on Facebook Live and can be watched on County Cable Montgomery on Xfinity/RCN 6 HD 996/1056, Fios 30, and on the CCM live stream .
Release ID: 23-212
Media Contact: 240-777-7805, 240-777-7884