Town Manager’s report: Chestertown initiatives for 2025

The following staff report from Town Manager Larry DiRe to the Mayor and Town Council, originally proposed for the (postponed) January 2, 2025 town council meeting, will now be submitted to the town council at their January 13, 2025 meeting. It defines past and current initiatives, and states that the town  will provide weekly updates through its website, here.

In an effort to provide more attention to these significant projects, the Spy will present a monthly interview with the town manager, plus updates for each initiative.

Town boards, committees and commissions are established in state legislation or are empaneled by the mayor and council to provide expertise and support for a variety of town services and functions. Some of them meet on a regular basis while others convene as needed. In any event, the work of these groups is in the public interest and all meetings are open to the public. As noted in the Collaboration section of the 2023 strategic planning questionnaire comments, several responses expressed interest in and concern over, the working of various groups existing in “silos” and not sharing common or pertinent information that may best serve the Chestertown community as a whole. Staff recognize that point of view and in the interest of meeting the need expressed will provide capsule updates of these meetings. These capsules do not constitute draft or adopted minutes but rather serve as recaps. The current capsule is as follows:

Planning Commission – Met on Wednesday December 18th for their regular monthly meeting and discussed the flowing agenda items: public safety and historic preservation sections of the comprehensive plan update; hotel use in the Institutional zoning district; residential subdivision concept plan review.

Tree Committee – Met on Friday January 3rd for their regular monthly meeting and considered the following agenda items: two tree applications; Shore River tree planting update; annual budget and tree maintenance plan; committee Facebook page; ordinance review.

Town Manager and Staff Proposed January – June Workplan

The town manager is proposing the following six-month work plan, which both meets certain organizational obligations and moves forward other projects and initiatives undertaken in the last eighteen-month period. Weekly updates are being planned for public information and website posting and future reports to the mayor and town council.

• Three-year capital projects Gantt Chart Last month staff provided the ongoing and pending capital projects list, as current, in a tabular form which included potential start\completion dates. The next step is to present these projects in a Gantt chart format which will show those projects that may be overlapping so staff can better financially manage them (the town is a cash flow business) and allocate staff time and resources to grant and contract management. Since the town’s ten-year recreation plan is also completed and was presented last monthseveral of those projects will need to move onto the master list, likewise for the Main Street downtown masterplan, this is especially so for the Bailey Park playground project (estimated $210,000) which will be paid for in full from the pending Equity Greenspace grant. The Gantt chart will be ready in early March 2025.
• Mayor and Town Council\Town Committees and Commissions joint work session ahead of the fiscal year 2026 budget sessions On March 2, 2024 the mayor and town council held a work session with town commission and committee members to discuss common goals, needs, and budget requests for consideration in the fiscal year 2025 budget preparation. Staff are proposing a similar work session in early 2026 for the same purpose.
• Large event planning and town staff preparation and performance The town benefits from an active annual event cycle running from Memorial Day weekend through Christmas time, with the farmers’ and artisans’ market being a year- round weekly constant all making for a full year of community Town staff – police, streets, administration – play an active role as partners with sponsoring organizations to ensure permitting, public safety, and sanitation are appropriate for the need. While many staff functions are routine, all require review and a mindset of continuous improvement. Moving forward the town staff will be blocking out the three-day period prior to the seven major events occurring in town (Tea Party, Saturday in the Park, Juneteenth, Legacy Day, JazzFest, Down rigging, and Dickens of a Christmas) meaning no other event permits will be approved for the immediate time period prior to these Friday\Saturday\Sunday major events. The Halloween Parade date may conflict with the Down Rigging event, but the parade is a well-established and organized event that can be accommodated. The block out period is meant to ensure that town staff have the uninterrupted time to work with the respective event organizers to ensure instructions (including communication flow and “chain of command”) are clear and work is executed timely and in a successful manner.
• Historic District Commission (HDC) guidelines adoption and four-year Maryland Historic Trust (MHT) evaluation At the October 7, 2024 meeting, the mayor and town council awarded Shore Strategies, LLC a contract for professional services to revise the town’s historic district design guidelines document (dating back to 2010). In the intervening time period, the HDC members have been interviewed and numerous more current and comprehensive design guidelines from out certified local governments (CLG) have been reviewed with relevant sections considered for inclusion in the revised town The contractor and town manager had a progress check-in video conference call on December 3rd and a December 11th follow-up video conference call with the Maryland Historic Trust’s CLG program manager to discuss progress to date and next steps. Chief among these next steps is a public review of the draft document (early February), presentation of the final draft and adoption all before March 31, 2025. Staff are anticipating either having but certainly preparing for the MHT’s four-year program evaluation in late winter or early spring. The staff report for agenda item 10D (pages 52 through 64) can be found at this link for that October 7th meeting. https://www.chestertown.gov/media/6451
• Personnel compensation plan, upkeep, and succession planning Last month staff provided the pay bands and classifications tables for town employees. That presentation also included some analysis of current compensation compared to both the most recent June 2012 internal compensation plan pay bands and external units of local government on The remaining sections of the 2024 revised compensation plan include the upkeep requirements, including a discussion of pay for performance as an accountability measure, and succession planning for certain staff positions, especially senior staff including the town manager position. The full document will be completed and presented to the mayor and council in early February. Town staff will also work with Upper Shore Community Development Partners on the area private sector compensation data for the purpose of both putting town employees’ compensation in context and identifying those pay bands likely to be attractive to current and potential staff.
• Communications and information technology platforms Making the town’s communication program more efficient, focused, and accountable has been a town manager priority since hiring in June 2023. The first step was moving that function back into the town manager’s office, followed up by the new dot gov website, focused use of social media platforms, and the on-going development of the soon to launch town newsletter. During the next six months staff will be working with Upper Shore Community Development Partners to maximize the town’s digital, and as importantly, various public and private non-digital platforms. Internally, staff work order, civic engagement, and community event promotion platforms will be used to maximize the efficient tracking of town work projects and digital community communication. All platforms should be fully functional by April 1, 2025.
• Right-sized government budget: revenue and spending With the coming and going of the December 31, 2024 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding allocation deadline it should rightly be expected that the pandemic and post- pandemic infusions of federal funding (first CARES Act then ARPA) to localities has come to an If , when, or how they should return is left to the speculation of those who have no weight of responsibility for use of public funds. Since the pandemic both the town’s government regulatory and funding reaches have expanded. With the clarity of perspective, reassessing the size, reach, cost, and financial sustainability of town government can and should be done. Doing so and the recommendation and actions that follow will not make everyone happy. The financial fact remains that there is not sufficient growth in town to supply the public treasury to make funding an ever-expanding government a practical or even desirable expectation. While a zero-based budgeting approach has its limitations, modified for “practical” application it also has value. As does priority- based budgeting. Mission drift is not an option. Watch this space.

On the horizon an integrated approach to the development, traffic and parking , recreational and economic development matters on the Scheeler Road and Haacke Drive corridor should be considered. It was surprising to hear the State Highway Administration District 2 representatives express uncertainty about the area itself and the issues there associated with crossing Morgnec Road when they presented to the mayor and town council on December 16, 2024.