Council Committees Meet

The Montgomery County Council’s Health and Human Services (HHS) Committee at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 31, will hold a worksession on Bill 33-12 that would ban smoking on property owned or leased by Montgomery County. The ban would include all County properties except public rights of way. Councilmember Nancy Floreen is the chief sponsor of the bill.

The HHS Committee, which is chaired by George Leventhal and includes Councilmembers Nancy Navarro and Craig Rice, will meet in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. The meeting will be televised live by County Cable Montgomery (CCM—Cable Channel 6 on Comcast and RCN, Channel 30 on Verizon). The broadcast will be available via streaming through the County Web site at www.montgomerycountymd.gov.

Councilmembers Leventhal, Navarro, Rice, Phil Andrews, Marc Elrich and Hans Riemer are co-sponsors of Bill 33-12. A public hearing on the bill was held on Jan. 22.

At 9:30 a.m., the HHS Committee will meet jointly with the Education Committee, which is chaired by Valerie Ervin and includes Councilmembers Andrews and Rice, for a worksession on proposed Bill 38-12 that would require the County’s Office of Management and Budget to submit child care facilities impact statements with certain capital projects in the Capital Improvements Program. The bill could lead to the inclusion of child care facilities in new County projects.

The demand for good child care facilities exceeds supply in the County. The purpose of the bill is to assure that the County takes advantage of all opportunities to include child care facilities in County capital projects. Councilmember Riemer is the lead sponsor of the legislation.

At 2 p.m., the Education Committee will discuss a supplemental appropriation of $364,000 to allow the installation by June 30 of Access Control security systems in the remaining 26 elementary schools that do not already have them. The funding would be shifted from the Fiscal Year 2014 Capital Improvements Program to FY13.

The project was accelerated after Council President Navarro and Committee Chair Ervin wrote to the Board of Education on Jan. 7 urging the Board to consider such a plan following the December tragic school shooting in Newtown, Ct.

The Education Committee also will receive an update on the County’s school breakfast program.

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