Montgomery County Council and Committee Meetings on Jan. 27, 2025
For Immediate Release: Friday, January 24, 2025
Council will receive a briefing on the state budget and review local and bi-county bills; Committees will receive updates from Visit Montgomery, WorkSource Montgomery and the Department of Permitting Services; review a zoning text amendment to implement the recommendations of the Great Seneca Plan, regulations to amend the civilian assistant chief of police position and the Uplifting Victims and Immigrant Safety Act
The Economic Development (ECON) Committee will meet on Monday, Jan. 27 at 9:30 a.m. to receive briefings about the work and accomplishments in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 from representatives of Visit Montgomery, WorkSource Montgomery and the Department of Permitting Services (DPS).
The members of the ECON Committee include Chair Natali Fani-González and Councilmembers Marilyn Balcombe, Evan Glass and Laurie-Anne Sayles.
The Council will meet at 12:30 p.m. to receive an update on the state budget and continue the review bi-county and local bills with Director Melanie Wenger and representatives from the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.
The Planning, Housing and Parks (PHP) Committee will meet at 1:45 p.m. to review Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 24-03, Overlay Zones – Great Seneca Life Sciences (GSLS) Overlay.
The members of the PHP Committee include Chair Andrew Friedson, Council Vice President Will Jawando and Councilmember Fani-González.
The Public Safety (PS) Committee will meet at 1:45 p.m. to review Executive Regulation 17-24, Position Description for Assistant Chief of Police (Civilian) and Expedited Bill 26-24, Police – U Visa Law Enforcement Certification Policy (The “Uplifting Victims and Immigrant Safety” Act).
The members of the PS Committee include Chair Sidney Katz and Councilmembers Dawn Luedtke and Kristin Mink.
More detail on each agenda item is provided below.
Briefing: The ECON Committee will receive a briefing about the work and accomplishments of Visit Montgomery. The Conference and Visitors Bureau, known as Visit Montgomery, promotes the county as a destination for meetings, conferences, student group travel, group tours, leisure travel and amateur sports events.
This briefing is part of a series of meetings to discuss the progress of departments and agencies under the committee’s jurisdiction over the past fiscal year. In FY25, Visit Montgomery received $2.26 million in funding. The organization is funded by the County’s hotel/motel tax revenues, unless the County approves supplemental funding from the General Fund or another source. Bill 36-12 , which was enacted in 2013, dedicates at least seven percent of the revenue from the tax to Visit Montgomery.
Briefing: The ECON Committee will receive a briefing about the work and accomplishments of WorkSource Montgomery, which is the County’s fiscal agent responsible for local administration of the Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act (WIOA) and coordination of the public workforce development system in Montgomery County. In FY25, the Council approved a budget of more than $2.2 million for WorkSource Montgomery, which included $199,000 for programming at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.
Briefing: The ECON Committee will receive a briefing about the work and accomplishments of DPS, which is Montgomery County’s agency for reviewing and approving permits for building and construction activity and providing compliance and enforcement efforts. As an enterprise fund, DPS pays for the services it provides through the revenue it collects in the form of fees and charges related to the development process and does not receive general fund tax revenues. For FY25, the Council approved a budget with revenues of more than $50 million and expenditures of more than $45 million.
Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 24-03, Overlay Zones – Great Seneca Life Sciences (GSLS) Overlay
Review: The PHP Committee will review ZTA 24-03, Great Seneca Life Sciences (GSLS) Overlay Zone, which would establish the GSLS Overlay Zone to help implement the zoning and land use recommendations of the Great Seneca Plan. ZTA 24-03 includes modifications to standardize land uses across the overlay, incentivizes housing production and establishes a new methodology for providing public benefits in optional method of development projects.
The lead sponsor is the Council president at the request of the Planning Board.
Executive Regulation 17-24, Position Description for Assistant Chief of Police (Civilian)
Review: The PS Committee will review Executive Regulation 17-24, Position Description for Assistant Chief of Police (Civilian), which would change the description of the civilian assistant chief position. The amendment would clarify that the position has management authority to direct and supervise sworn officers in duties that do not solely rely on the officer exercising their authority as a sworn law enforcement officer. In addition, the change would indicate that at no time may this employee direct a sworn officer to use their official authority as a law enforcement officer. The change is needed due to unforeseen operational inefficiencies created by Executive Regulation 1-23, which limited the execution of the assistant chief’s duties further than anticipated.
Review: The PS Committee will review Expedited Bill 26-24, Police – U Visa Law Enforcement Certification Policy (The “Uplifting Victims and Immigrant Safety” Act), which would require any policy directive regarding U visa certification by a law enforcement officer to be consistent and no more restrictive than allowed under federal immigration law. The purpose of the Bill 26-24 is to help strengthen the County’s commitment to protecting victims of crime or those helping law enforcement to solve crimes by amending local policy to remove any barrier that would limit an immigrant’s opportunity to qualify for a U visa application. The lead sponsors of Expedited Bill 26-24 are Councilmembers Glass, Fani-González and Luedtke. Councilmembers Gabe Albornoz, Council President Stewart and Councilmembers Katz and Balcombe are cosponsors of Bill 26-24.
The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 2000 and provided a type of nonimmigrant visa, knows as a U visa, for victims of certain crimes who have suffered substantial mental or physical abuse and are willing to assist law enforcement in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity. The purpose of the federal legislation is to strengthen the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking of noncitizens and other crimes, while also protecting victims of crimes who become humanitarian or material witnesses.
The Committee meeting schedule may change from time to time. View the current Council and Committee agendas, Council staff reports and additional information on items scheduled for Council review on the Council website .
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: 25-018
Media Contact: Sonya Healy 240-777-7926, Benjamin Sky Brandt 240-777-7884
For updates and link to press release, see here: http://www2.montgomerycountymd.gov/mcgportalapps/Press_Detail.aspx?Item_ID=46476