Most of the June 18 meeting of the Greenbelt City Council involved budget housekeeping, but also included a proclamation by Mayor Emmett Jordan. The proclamation designated June as 13th Amendment Awareness Month in Greenbelt. This designation commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Texas declared that slavery had ended. It was on this date, which has become known as Juneteenth, that the last enslaved people in the country were notified that they had been free for two years.
Budget odds and ends handled at the meeting by council included giving final approval to supplemental appropriations to various accounts to replace estimated costs with the actual work done and actual costs. Then, council introduced for first reading an ordinance authorizing buying from listed vendors where no single transaction is expected to exceed the city’s bid threshold but that could exceed the threshold on an annual basis.
Council received a request to provide funds to allow the chair of the Youth Advisory Committee and his chaperone to attend the National League of Cities conference in Los Angeles this November.
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