At its January 24 regular meeting, the Greenbelt City Council received the consultant’s implementation plan for a program to gather resident input regarding how to spend the money the city received under the federal American Rescue Plan. In addition, council heard a description of this year’s Black History Month observations; adopted revised standing rules, including a change of time for council meetings to 7:30 p.m.; and supported state legislation that would allow the municipalities to install stop-sign cameras and other traffic control device monitoring systems.
Rescue Plan
There was a brief discussion of the Community Engagement Plan Implementation document developed by Raftelis, the city’s consulting group, after which council approved allocating $5,000 of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to implement “Bang the Table,” a web portal by which the city can share information and gather comments from residents regarding possible uses of the $22.88 million the city will receive from ARPA over two years. Bang the Table incorporates a variety of tools including surveys, forums, idea boards and collecting comments on information posted on the site, along with quick polls, frequently asked questions and more. Council asked for examples of how other municipalities are using this tool.
The implementation plan calls for conducting three community engagement events at which
attendees will receive information on ARPA funding, identify the city’s focus areas and specific projects. The events will be designed to allow participants to actively participate and engage in the process.
There will then be four virtual focus group sessions, focused on key stakeholder categories. These sessions will broaden the range of insights and viewpoints that have emerged over the previous steps.
The implementation plan allows for either the contractor or city staff to conduct the community engagement sessions and focus sessions. To attract diverse and representative participation, these engagement sessions are expected to be held in neighborhood recreation or community centers so that transportation and location issues are minimized.
After the previous steps are complete, Raftelis will prepare a summary of the input received including issues raised and priorities. The implementation plan is to include an appendix including all ideas raised by residents to ensure that ideas are not lost. Council will then hold a worksession to review the summary and allocation opportunities after which a final engagement summary will be provided to the city.
The community engagement sessions and focus groups are expected to occur from late February through early April with the summary available by the end of April.
The cost to the city of having Raftelis conduct this community engagement work is $48,500, plus the $5,000 for Bang the Table.
Black History Month
Lois Rosado, chair of the city’s Black History Month committee, described the program for this year. Most events will still be virtual aside from the Negro League exhibit at the Springhill Lake Recreation Center on Saturday and Sunday, February 5 and 6. The programs offered include health screenings from Luminus Health and Kaiser Permanente, and a panel on starting up a business. Rosado said the committee included finance because residents need finance in order to have health and wellness.
The Black History Month brochure is available on the city’s home page (greenbeltmd.gov – scroll down to the News section at the bottom of the page) and the News Review will include information on programs as they occur.
Standing Rules
Council unanimously approved changes to the standing rules governing council meetings. The main changes to the present rules are that 1) meetings will now start at 7:30 p.m. instead of 8 p.m., 2) councilmembers wishing to add items to the agenda will be required to furnish the city manager with a proposal in writing for council to enact or take action on along with all relevant background and supporting documents in time for inclusion in the printed agenda and 3) at virtual meetings all councilmembers must be visible for the majority of each meeting barring technical constraints or physical illness.
State Legislation
Council unanimously voted to support two pieces of state legislation.
Senate Bill 14/House Bill 100 would establish the sustainable Maryland Program Fund as a special non-lapsing fund to support Maryland communities in their efforts to achieve environmental, economic and social sustainability, and require the Governor to provide an annual appropriation of $750,000 to the fund starting in Fiscal Year 2024. Greenbelt has received funding through this program in the past and has been Sustainable Maryland Certified since 2014.
House Bill 151, sponsored by Delegate Anne Healey, whose district includes Greenbelt, would allow municipalities to install stop-sign cameras and other traffic monitoring devices on their streets. Failing to obey a traffic control device may subject a driver to a citation and civil penalty not to exceed $40.
Forest Preserve
An ordinance implementing council’s designation of Greenbriar Park as part of the Forest Preserve was unanimously approved. One concern is the prohibition of trail maintenance in the Forest Preserve, except as provided in the management and maintenance guidelines. Councilmember Judith Davis noted that there are currently a number of trees down obstructing the circular trail in the park. She noted that the Forest Preserve Advisory Board would have to consider whether these trees may be removed.