Montgomery County Council Committee Meetings on Oct. 19 and 20, 2023

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Committees will discuss Office of Inspector General reports about the performance audit of solid waste activities and the carryout bag tax; review the Strategic Plan to End Childhood Hunger and the Fiscal Year 2024 Montgomery County Public Schools Operating Budget; updates on school meal programs and academic performance data; Executive Director Recruitment Committee will meet on Friday, Oct. 20

The Audit Committee will meet on Thursday, Oct. 19 at 9:30 a.m. to discuss the Office of Inspector General (OIG) Report 23-10, Performance Audit of Solid Waste Activities and OIG Report 23-15, Carryout Bag Tax.

The members of the Audit Committee include Government Operations and Fiscal Policy (GO) Chair Kate Stewart, Council Vice President Andrew Friedson, Councilmember Sidney Katz and Council President Evan Glass.

The joint Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education and Culture (EC) Committee will meet at 9:30 a.m. to discuss the Strategic Plan to End Childhood Hunger and receive an update on Montgomery County Public Schools’ (MCPS) School Meal Programs.

The members of the HHS Committee include Chair Gabe Albornoz and Councilmembers Dawn Luedtke and Laurie-Anne Sayles.

The members of the EC Committee include Chair Will Jawando and Councilmembers Albornoz and Kristin Mink.

The EC Committee will meet at 1:30 p.m. to receive an update on MCPS Evidence of Learning and Student Progress data and review the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 MCPS Operating Budget.

The ad-hoc Executive Director Recruitment Committee will meet in a proposed closed session on Friday, Oct. 20 at 1 p.m . to evaluate the role and responsibilities of the Council’s executive director position and make decisions about the recruitment process.

The members of the ad-hoc Executive Director Recruitment Committee include Council President Glass, Chair Vice President Friedson and Councilmembers Albornoz, Stewart, Marilyn Balcombe and Mink.

More detail on each agenda item is provided below.

Office of Inspector General Report 23-10, Performance Audit of Solid Waste Activities

Review: The Audit Committee will review OIG Report 23-10, Performance Audit of Solid Waste Activities. The OIG initiated this audit of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) as part of the office’s mandate to conduct reviews of the internal accounting process and control used by each Executive Branch department and principal office.

The audit focused on DEP’s Recycling and Resource Management activities, which account for approximately 80 percent of DEP’s budget. The goals of the audit were to examine how DEP monitors residential collection service contract terms, examine the effect of assumptions used to administer the Solid Waste Collection fund and assess control over the issuance of collector and hauler licenses.

Office of Inspector General Report 23-15, Carryout Bag Tax

Review: The Audit Committee will review OIG Report 23-15, Carryout Bag Tax. The OIG initiated this review to identify all retailers who are required to collect the carryout bag tax and ensure that those retailers identified have remitted taxes to determine if the County is receiving carryout bag tax payments from all required retailers.

Strategic Plan to End Childhood Hunger

Review: The joint HHS and EC Committee will discuss implementation of the strategies outlined in the 2023 Strategic Plan to End Childhood Hunger in Montgomery County with representatives from the Office of Food Systems Resilience (OFSR) and the Montgomery County Food Council.

The Montgomery County Strategic Plan to End Childhood Hunger was spearheaded by Councilmember Albornoz, chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services in 2022 to combat rising rates of childhood food insecurity in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The strategic plan harnessed the expertise of community members and organizations to identify food access barriers and strategies to reduce food insecurity across all childhood age groups. The Montgomery County Food Council has served as the project manager for the initiative.

Montgomery County Public Schools School Meal Programs

Update: The joint HHS and EC Committee will receive an update on MCPS School Meal Programs. The MCPS Division of Food and Nutrition Service provides school meals and à-la-carte food options. In the 2022-2023 school year, MCPS provided more than 16 million meals and more than 3 million hot packs.

The update is expected to include discussion on how to maximize access to meals for students and families in need, while maintaining a school meals program that is fiscally sustainable within the reimbursement structures and fiscal constraints at the federal, state and local levels.

During the 2021-2022 school year, the federal government provided reimbursements to expand free school meals to all students. The federal government phased out universal free meals after this school year, while still extending certain flexibilities and higher reimbursement rates.

Montgomery County Public Schools Evidence of Learning and Student Progress Data

Update: The EC Committee will receive an update on academic performance data from MCPS. The MCPS Evidence of Learning Framework uses multiple measures to assess student learning. These include report card grades, district assessments aligned to the curriculum and standardized test scores. Evidence of Learning framework data is shared publicly twice a year within the end of year and transition reports.

FY24 Montgomery County Public Schools Operating Budget and Staffing

Review: The EC Committee will review the Board of Education’s FY24 Operating Budget for MCPS and receive a status update on current year budget implementation. On May 25, 2023, the Council appropriated more than $3.1 billion for the MCPS FY24 Operating Budget. This amount represented more than $1.9 billion in local County tax supported funds, a local contribution of nearly $198 million above the state required minimum Maintenance of Effort (MOE) level and an 8.4 percent increase from the approved total FY23 MCPS Operating Budget.

On June 6, 2023, the Board of Education adopted the final FY24 Operating Budget for MCPS. The Council’s appropriation was $51 million below the Board of Education’s request for FY24 and as a result the Board of Education amended its requested budget to meet the appropriation level of funding.

Executive Director Recruitment Committee

Proposed Closed Session: The ad hoc Executive Director Recruitment Committee intends to meet in closed session to discuss the appointment, employment, assignment, promotion, discipline, demotion, compensation, removal, resignation or performance evaluation of appointees, employees or officials over whom it has jurisdiction, under Maryland Code, General Provisions Article §3-305(b)(1)(i); and to discuss, before a contract is awarded, a matter directly related to a negotiating strategy or the contents of a bid or proposal under Maryland Code, General Provisions Article §3-305(b)(14). The topics will be the appointment of an employee over whom the Council has jurisdiction and the consideration of bid proposals for professional services before a contract is made.

The purpose of this ad hoc Council committee is to evaluate the role and responsibilities of the Council’s executive director position and make decisions about the recruitment process. The work of this temporary committee coincides with Council Executive Director Marlene Michaelson’s decision to leave her post in February 2024.

Release ID: 23-340
Media Contact: 240-777-7926, 240-777-7884

For updates and link to press release, see here: http://www2.montgomerycountymd.gov/mcgportalapps/Press_Detail.aspx?Item_ID=44169