Housing, Mental Health, and Election Reform on June 16 Council Agenda
The next Rockville Mayor and Council meeting on Monday, June 16, 2025, will tackle several important topics that could shape life in the city—from how affordable housing is preserved, to how the police handle mental health calls, to how future city elections are run. Residents and businesses alike may want to tune in or weigh in on these wide-ranging proposals.
Affordable Housing Preservation
What’s on the Agenda
The Council will hear a presentation on strategies to preserve affordable housing in Rockville, especially older apartment buildings that may otherwise be lost to redevelopment or rising rents. The report recommends creating a database to track at-risk properties, reviving a rehabilitation loan program, and building a coalition of local partners to protect long-term affordability. However, the report does not fully address the challenges faced by property owners and developers, such as rising construction costs, regulatory burdens, and limited access to financing—all of which make it increasingly difficult to preserve or create affordable units.
Why It Matters
Housing affordability is a growing concern in Rockville. These strategies could help longtime residents stay in their homes, keep neighborhoods stable, and ensure a mix of incomes across the city.
Mental Health Specialist for Rockville Police
What’s on the Agenda
The Council will vote to renew an agreement with Montgomery County to embed a licensed mental health professional in the Rockville Police Department for $160,000 per year. This specialist assists officers on mental health calls and helps connect residents to support services. The role also includes training officers on crisis response.
Why It Matters
While mental health calls only represent 3% of police activity (742 out of 26,047 calls in 2024), they require a set of skills that few police officers are trained to handle. This program is a way to improve public safety responses, reduce emergency room visits, and support residents in crisis more effectively.
City Election Reform
What’s on the Agenda
As part of an ongoing review, the Council will hold a worksession on proposed changes to Rockville’s election system. The discussion will focus on four main areas: rewriting the election code, updating campaign finance rules, rethinking the structure and independence of the Board of Supervisors of Elections, and improving public education and enforcement. Potentially off-the-table issues are ranked-choice voting and public funding of campaigns. A Charter Review Commission presented recommendations in late 2022, voters responded to advisory referendum questions in the 2023 election, and the Mayor and Council is revisiting everything again (except increasing the size of Council) in 2025. Seems there’s little traction on this issue and I wonder if they’ll consider what voters and Charter Review Commission said previously (they’re not mentioned in the staff report).
Why It Matters
Rockville’s election rules haven’t kept up with modern expectations. These updates could make local elections fairer, more transparent, and easier to understand for voters, candidates, and campaign volunteers alike.
The meeting will be broadcast live on Rockville 11 and streamed on the city’s website.
Residents can send comments to the Mayor and Council by email or speak during Community Forum, which begins at 6:50 p.m. You can sign up to speak online at rockvillemd.gov before 10 a.m. the day of the meeting.
Mayor and Council to Consider Changes to Mayor and Council
At its Monday, December 12, 2022 meeting, the Rockville Mayor and Council will discuss the FY22 financial report and the FY24 budget priorities. On the Consent Calendar (items approved without discussion) are a dozen items, including easements, services, grant agreement, and the tenth amendment to the interim management agreement with Morguard for Rockville Town Square, among others. The Mayor and Council will also receive reports on priorities with the District 17 Delegation and recommendations from the 2020-22 Charter Review Commission.
The Charter Review Commission has developed recommendations for a wide variety of issues related to the City Charter (its constitution), including expanding the size of the City Council, term limits for councilmembers, alternative voting systems, translation of election materials, the scope and size of the Board of Supervisors of Elections, and increasing voter turnout. After forty meetings and interruptions due to the pandemic, the Commission is recommending that,
“the City maintain the status-quo on several topics (e.g., staggered Council terms and alternative methods of advertising elections), the Commission is also recommending bolder changes to City policy and operations in order to enhance accountability and transparency, increase voter turnout, and advance racial equity and social justice. Notably, the Commission is recommending such reforms as an increase in the size of the Council, implementation of term limits on the Mayor and Council, creation of representative districts, exploring changing the time of the election, and allowing residents who are not United States citizens and those at least 16 years of age to vote in municipal elections.”
More details in the 465-page agenda packet are available at https://www.rockvillemd.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12122022-6765.
Heard on the street: things are heating up in the West End neighborhood regarding design guidelines proposed by the West End Citizens Association. I suspect this is related to the 2040 Comprehensive Plan. A website opposed to WECA’s action can be found at PreserveTheWestEnd.com.
Max for Rockville 