Committee reviews $22.8 million leases NDA as MCPS bus depot relocation advances

The Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee on [date not specified] reviewed the county executive’s recommended $22,800,000 allocation for the leases non‑departmental account (NDA), a $5.7 million (33%) increase over FY26. Chair Stewart led the session and council staff(identified in the record as Sally) walked the committee through the items in the leases NDA.

Sally said the largest single driver in the recommendation is support for multiple lease costs tied to agency relocations and chargebacks. "The county executive is recommending a budget of $22,800,000," Sally told the committee, and table 1 in the staff packet summarizes each change.

Staff described item 2.1 as supporting the relocation of a Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) bus depot from the Crabs/Scribe Branch campus to a site on Gooty Drive, together with consolidation of an adjacent Old Dover parking lot. The staff presentation said the lease for the relocated facility has a 30‑year base term with a 10‑year extension option and that rent is recorded for 11 months this year because of an abatement in the lease.

Greg Hassan, Department of General Services, told the committee the project is a "partial solution" after years of searching for a full like‑for‑like replacement. He said the plan includes renovating the building at the new site, maintaining some parking at the Scribe Branch campus, and that a mandatory referral community meeting is scheduled next week. "We are relocating the depot operation," Hassan said, adding that repairs and renovations will be required and that some ancillary parking will remain at the existing site.

Other NDA adjustments include the restoration of rent payments at 1401 Rockville Pike after an FY26 lease abatement, and an increase in tenant maintenance chargebacks that staff described as rising from about $4.74 to $5.17 per square foot in the FY27 projection. Staff cautioned these are projections built from FY25 actuals plus escalation assumptions and said new asset management software is expected to improve future predictive maintenance budgeting.

The committee also reviewed item 2.4, an expansion of storage space for automated traffic enforcement equipment, and item 2.5, funding to support the temporary relocation of administrative staff (and some police transitions) for the Fourth District Police Station to leased space at the Wheaton Headquarters Building. DGS staff warned that initial operating cost entries are for building operations only and that a supplemental April amendment would include larger one‑time costs to outfit police space (lockers, furniture, other build‑out costs).

Committee members asked for clarifications about which depot was involved in the relocation, the basis for the maintenance chargeback calculation, and whether prior years had returned unspent lease funds to the general fund. DGS staff said there were years when the NDA came in under budget but more years when it came in over, noting the challenge of making projections from multi‑year old actuals.

Chair Stewart and committee members concurred with staff that none of the leases NDA items appeared to require placement on the reconciliation list as written, and the committee agreed to recommend the leases NDA to the full council for approval with the staff explanations recorded in the packet.

The committee moved on after roughly an hour of NDA reviews; no formal vote was recorded in the transcript of this session.