Hey folks! Alderman Brooks here. I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and your new year is off to a good start. The City Council is hitting the ground running to start 2026. I am VERY excited to share that my first bill of this new term will be introduced on Monday with the O-1-26 title. 

O-1-26 will allow childcare homes (think a daycare in someone’s residence) and group childcare centers (a larger public establishment) to apply for property tax credits with the City of Annapolis. High childcare costs and long wait times are hurting working families in Annapolis. A leading factor in these rising costs and especially wait times is that there just are not enough providers in the city. To help address this concern, the state passed enabling legislation during the 2025 session to allow Anne Arundel County and Annapolis to provide these tax credits to childcare providers. The intended goal is that by providing these tax credits for childcare facilities we can encourage more to open, potentially hire more staff, or prevent facilities from closing in a notoriously low margin industry. By increasing providers and staff we can lower wait times and potentially bring costs down for parents.

I’m very proud of this legislation. I ran explicitly on introducing it and see it as one of many we can take to make life less hard for working parents.

Other than that there are some resolutions being introduced that continue to set up how the incoming administration and council will operate, and some public comment periods, including for the short term rental moratorium. Something to call to attention is that we need to reconsider two resolutions that passed during our prior meeting. R-47-25, which provides committee assignments for this council, and R-48-25 which appoints members to the city’s Audit Committee. We need to reconsider these due to typos in what was passed so the changes that need to be made will be technical in nature.

PUBLIC HEARINGS

• O-40-25 - Establishing a 12-Moratorium on New Short-Term Rental Licenses --  Halts the issuance of STR permits for new applicants. The moratorium does not apply to those who are renewing licenses, owner-occupied STRs, and applications that have already been submitted at the time the Council adopts the ordinance. The STR moratorium will not apply to specific events, as specified in the City Code, such as Navy graduations, boat shows, and special events designated by the City Council through resolution. 
• O-41-25 - FY 2026 Changes in Exempt Service Job Classification – Creates the Deputy Chief of Staff position in the Mayor’s office.

FIRST READERS

Ordinances

• O-1-26 - Property Tax -- Family Child Care Homes, Large Family Child Care Homes, and Child Care Centers -- Authorizes up to $10,000 in property tax credits for child care providers that own their own property and for businesses that own their land and decide to use part of their facilities exclusively for child care. The state must approve them to offer childcare. (As covered earlier this provides tax credits up to $10,000 for licensed childcare facilities in Annapolis. The goal is to help decrease wait times and lower costs, making life a little bit easier for our working families.)

Resolutions

• R-1-26 - FY 2027 Annual Statement of Performance Standards -- This is City Council approval for annual performance statements filed by City agencies and departments. (Sets standards for performance reviews for city agencies and departments. We can’t evaluate if we don’t have a formal standard.)

• R-2-26 - Establishing the Order of Succession for Mayor -- The order of succession would be the longest-serving council member to the newest. (In the event that the Mayor is on travel or unable to perform their duties due to temporary disability this establishes a succession order. The order is based on council seniority.)

• R-3-26 - Water Service Agreement with North Point Property LLC -- Authorizes City water service to 1053 Chesapeake Harbour Road. (Connects city water to this property)

SECOND READERS - For the purpose of fixing typographical errors in the resolutions

• R-47-25 - Standing Committee Appointments for the [next] Council Term (As stated we need to correct typos in this previously passed resolution. As a reminder, this creates our new committee assignments. My assignments are 1) Economic Matters 2) Rules and City Government 3) Transportation. I am voting in favor)

R-48-25 - Audit Committee Appointments for the [next] Council Term (As stated we need to correct typos in this previously passed resolution. As a reminder, this confirms the Mayor’s appointments to our Audit Committee. I am voting in favor.)