Council committee moves $30,000 to rental-assistance program; snow-removal transfer paused after Open Meetings Act concern

A committee of the Annapolis City Council recommended transferring $30,000 from an existing account into the city’s rental assistance program, while lawmakers paused consideration of a separate transfer meant to fund snow-removal work after a city attorney warned that a remote participant could not be seen or heard by the public.

Committee members approved the rental-assistance recommendation on a voice vote. Community services staff described the action as a reallocation of funds that had been set aside for a different purpose within the Office of Community Services and said the $30,000 “appears on both on both revenue and expenditure” so it can be made available to the rental assistance program.

The rental-assistance transfer was described as a single $30,000 adjustment; committee members noted an earlier transfer of $11,000 made roughly six weeks prior. Staff also said the application portal for new requests has not been reopened, but the office continues to help emergency cases while procedures for the program are finalized.

A separate fund-transfer request from Public Works — to move money from engineering and construction services into contractual services and supplies accounts to cover recent snow-removal costs — was the next item on the agenda. Alderman Roman Finlayson made the motion to recommend the Public Works transfer; a colleague seconded it and the committee began to consider the item. At that point City Attorney Mike Lyle told the chair that a remote participant could not be seen or heard by the public and said the committee “may have an issue with the Open Meetings Act.” He recommended pausing consideration until the technical difficulties were resolved. The committee then recessed for 10 minutes.

Because the meeting recessed while the Public Works transfer was under consideration, committee members did not complete a formal vote on that item during the recorded session. The committee will need to resume consideration after the technical issue is fixed.

Votes at a glance: The committee approved a motion to accept the minutes from its previous meeting by voice vote (mover/second not specified). It voted to give a favorable recommendation to FT 7-25, the $30,000 transfer to the rental assistance program (mover/second not specified). Consideration of FT 8-25, the Public Works snow-removal transfer, was paused after the city attorney raised a potential Open Meetings Act problem and the committee recessed.