Dear Ward 3 residents,

The Takoma Park City Council had two public meetings last week -- including one to hear recommendations from the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force. I strongly encourage you to take a look at their report, the additional resources on the task force webpage, and the recording of the meeting.

I want to give a big thank-you to the task force members for their hard work, and I'm committed to taking the next steps in the coming months to begin to adopt needed changes. The Council will be on recess in August, and I expect we will delve more deeply into these changes alongside the new City Manager starting this fall.

The City Council has two more meetings in July before the August recess. This Wednesday's meeting agenda is below. Among other items, we will be discussing the continuation of the Laurel Avenue Streetery, which the Council needs to renew by the end of September in order to continue. I have heard very positive input from residents on this and support continuing the street closure for this purpose. If you have recommendations or thoughts on this, please let me know.

Sincerely,

• Second Reading Ordinance Awarding a Contract for Consulting Services for Redistricting
• First Reading Ordinance Approving FY 2022 Budget Amendment No. 1 and First Reading Ordinance approving FY 2022 Stormwater Budget Amendment No. 1
• First Reading Ordinance Amending the Takoma Park Code, Title 7, Purchasing and Taxation, Chapter 7.04 General Provisions, Chapter 7.08 Source Selection and Contract Formation, Chapter 7.16 Real and Personal Property, and Chapter 7.32 Admissions and Amusement Tax
• Consent Agenda:
  • Resolution Regarding Subdivision of 7402 Garland Avenue Property
  • Resolution Approving FY22 Wage Adjustment for Staff Represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 400 and Resolution Approving FY22 Wage Adjustment for Non-Union-Represented Staff

• Contract for Sports Officiating Services
• Discussion of Committees (Code Amendments)
  • Comprehensive List of Possible Code Changes
• Discussion of Continuation of Laurel Avenue Streetery 
• Update on Appointments to the 2021-2022 Youth Council

• There were no new cases of COVID-19 reported in Takoma Park in the last week, leaving the city's total at 1,728 since the start of the pandemic.
• In all of June 2021, 3 total new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Takoma Park. Even if some June cases are reported later, June will likely have the fewest new cases of any month since the start of the pandemic, followed by the 17 cases reported in March 2020.
• Between July 1 and July 8, 161 new residents received at-least a first-dose of a vaccination and 179 new residents became fully-vaccinated, bringing the city's total residents with at least a first dose to 14,225 (80.5% of all residents) and the total fully vaccinated residents to 12,452 (70.5%).