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Greenbelt council reviews stakeholder schedule, prioritizes engagement and upcoming items
Summary
Council used a work-session block to revisit its stakeholder schedule, prioritize meetings with neighborhood groups and county or state partners (Beltway Plaza, Greenway Center, school officials), and preview an agenda including all-resident voting legislation and other policy items.
Greenbelt
At a council work session, Greenbelt's elected officials spent the second half of the meeting reassessing which community stakeholders they should meet with annually and how to structure engagement going forward, with an emphasis on in-person outreach and clarifying objectives for future work sessions.
Mayor Emmett Jordan framed the conversation around a stakeholder calendar and the purpose of work sessions: "We hold these work sessions Mondays and Wednesdays several times a month to exchange information with community stakeholders, gather information from staff, advisory boards, residents," he said, emphasizing that work sessions are information-focused and do not produce formal votes.
Council members debated whether some stakeholders should be scheduled for full work sessions, short presentations at council meetings, or on-site visits. The list under review included neighborhood associations (Center City HOAs, Greenbelt East), GHI, Greenbelt Station HOA, Verde Apartments, Motiva, Beltway Plaza and the school board representative. Several councilmembers recommended meeting organizations where they gather residents, using community walks and events to increase attendance.
Council and staff previewed near-term agenda items. Staff listed an upcoming work session to discuss an all-resident voting initiative (legislation drafted and circulated by the board of elections), with the possibility of putting the bill on the council agenda for first reading in August if no major changes arise. Staff also described presentations planned on license-plate-reader locations and data aggregation, a police body-camera and taser contract renewal, a stop-sign ordinance and online bill-pay options with fee considerations.
Several members urged proactive outreach to external agencies where questions remain unanswered in past sessions. "I think we should meet with, the BEP," Mayor Jordan said, referring to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing; council also discussed follow-ups with the State Highway Administration about recent surveying on Kenilworth Avenue.
Council agreed to a few scheduling decisions: a Charter Review Committee proposal will be discussed at the first September meeting rather than the heavy August agenda, and staff should continue prioritizing a meeting with Beltway Plaza and a Greenway Center conversation about vacancies and development. Council encouraged staff to collect and prepare specific questions in advance of external briefings where state or federal agencies have previously declined to answer.
To boost public engagement, councilmembers planned to use National Night Out and Labor Day festival events to solicit resident priorities and to record notes for follow-up work sessions. No formal votes were taken; the conversation produced direction for staff scheduling and outreach.
