At the business meeting last week held during MML's fall conference in Rocky Gap, a motion was made and it was unanimously voted by the membership to approve the League's 2010 recommended legislative priority "Municipal Budget Security". Citing the fact that revenue cuts have had a serious and devastating effect on the entire MML membership and there continues to be a great likelihood that additional budget cuts will be made using local government revenues to solve other fiscal problems, a motion was made that the Maryland Municipal League adopt Municipal Budget Security as its only priority for the 2010 General Assembly Session.

A member of the Legislative Committee leadership team will be on hand at all nine Chapter legislative dinners to provide an overview of MML's 2010 legislative priority issue for municipal officials and legislators in attendance. A member of MML staff will be in contact with Chapter leadership within the next two weeks to determine which Chapter members will also participate in the presentations so that legislators hear from the cities and towns represented in each Chapter with regard to their specific revenue needs and impacts from the most recent round of budget cuts.

The fall conference was well attended and by all accounts, it was a successful event. Workshops were well attended and there were ample opportunities for both formal and informal networking among municipal officials. Next year's conference will be held in Annapolis on October 21 - 23, 2010.

The Maryland Municipal League and the Critical Area Commission is offering a planning workshop on Wednesday, November 18 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The workshop will be held at Chesapeake College at Wye Mills and will include information on review and approval of critical area projects, critical area enforcement, local government projects and five key project review areas. The workshop is free and lunch will be provided. For additional information and to register for the workshop, please visit www.dnr.state.md.us/criticalarea/townworkshop/index.asp. or call Mary Owens at 410/260-3480 or e-mail Mary Owens at mowens@dnr.state.md.us.

The Maryland Municipal League, Maryland Association of Counties, and Chesapeake Bay Foundation are pleased to co-sponsor this program for professionals involved in water resources planning in Maryland on November 4, 2009. Local government planners, planning consultants, educators, certified planners, and others interested in how new Chesapeake Bay pollution loading limits and requirements under HB 1141 will impact planning are encouraged to attend. For more information see the following link www.mdmunicipal.org/documents/HB1141SummitHoldtheDate.pdf. Registration information will be coming soon.

The next joint MML/MACo planners meeting is scheduled on Friday, November 6 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon at MML headquarters, 1212 West Street, Annapolis, MD. The agenda will include a legislative forecast for the 2010 General Assembly session and an opportunity to network with fellow planners. Just added to the agenda is a presentation by the Maryland Department of Planning and Maryland Department of the Environment on newly adopted storm water management regulations. Representatives from both departments will be on hand to explain the regulations and respond to questions and concerns from planners with regard to implementation of the new regulations.

What are you doing for Municipal Government Works (MGW) Month? MGW month this year provides you with the perfect opportunity to conduct an open house demonstrating or explaining to residents how the latest round of cuts to state-shared revenues affects your budget and consequently the services or projects in your city or town. Have your department heads design graphs showing the impact on operations in their particular areas of responsibility. As the saying goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words!" Describe also how your city/town will endeavor to make ends meet. It's important for citizens to understand that municipal governments possess little in the way of revenue raising authority to make up for these cuts other than raising the municipal property tax.

MGW Month is also the perfect opportunity to recognize volunteers in your community. Perhaps now, more than ever before, volunteers may be needed to help your city or town provide many services.

The annual "If I Were Mayor, I Would…" Essay Contest materials will be mailed to cities and towns in late October. (The contest materials will be mailed to schools in December.) Contact your area schools now to try to schedule a time to visit fourth grade classrooms to talk about municipal government and the essay contest. A visit to a classroom in November will also satisfy two requirements for becoming a 2010 Banner City or Town.

The MGW Month booklet of ideas is posted on MML's website. We encourage you to use this resource to help you plan activities to promote municipal government awareness in your community during the month of November.

Remember, someone from your city/town must attend at least four chapter meetings to qualify next year as a Banner city or town. You can download a Participation Documentation Form from MML's website. Click on Programs and Activities in the left side menu column and then click on Banner City Program. You may also request to have a form mailed to you.

The Academy for Excellence in Local Governance is pleased to announce its first Graduate Level Course on Critical Leadership Skills for Difficult Times. The opening session will take place on December 16, 2009, 1:00 - 5:00 p.m. at the Local Government Insurance Trust Building in Hanover, Maryland.

Most of us are thrown into leadership roles without a chance to think about how we want to lead, what our greatest strengths as leaders are, and particularly how to be effective as leaders in tough times. Because the challenges you face are so great, this is the perfect time to invest some time and energy in sharpening your skills as a leader and creating a strategy for leading in uncertain and difficult times.

Through an engaging, interactive learning process that begins with participants working face-to-face and then extends to an online distance-learning process, we intend to open a critical conversation among local officials about leadership on the ground and in the world we inhabit today.

You must be an Academy graduate to be eligible to participate. The registration form will be available on the Institute for Governmental Service & Research (IGSR) website by the end of October. Graduates will also be sent information directly about this course. Class size will be limited to 25 participants and spaces will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. Preference will be given to currently serving local government officials.

MML President Craig Moe this year named a seven-member committee to review the League's bylaws and make recommendations for potential amendments to the document. The committee consists of Somerset Mayor Jeffrey Slavin, Chair; MML Past President Robert Dipietro; Bowie Mayor Pro Tem Dennis Brady; Cecilton Mayor John Bunnell; Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney Katz; Baltimore City Councilman James Kraft; and MML Past President Barrie Tilghman. The committee has met twice thus far and is scheduled to meet again early in November.

Among the recommendations suggested thus far by the group are: (1) to change the title of the MML First Vice President to President-Elect, (2) to provide for automatic succession of the President-Elect to the Presidency and for election of a new President-Elect annually, (3) to eliminate from the bylaws references to the long-moribund Insurance and Benefits Committee and (4) to provide broader authority for the MML President to create committees and appoint their members.

The Hometown Emergency Preparedness Ad Hoc Committee (HEPAC) held its third meeting on Saturday, October 17. Chaired by Aberdeen Mayor Michael Bennett, the committee includes among its goals:

• Promoting citizen emergency response teams (CERT) in our communities
• Developing training and programs to help municipalities minimize their hazards exposure
• Creating a resource manual for cities and towns listing equipment and personnel available in the event a disaster or emergency situation occurs
• Generally promoting emergency preparedness around the state

At its most recent meeting, the committee began drafting a HEPAC mission statement and discussed how to best promote CERT and other Citizen Corp programs within Maryland's cities and towns. The next HEPAC meeting will be held on Saturday, November 21 at the City of Laurel's Emergency Operations Center.

The preliminary schedule for the 2009-2010 Chapter legislative dinners is listed below. MML Chapters will meet with their General Assembly delegations to discuss League and local legislative priorities:

• Prince George's County Municipal Association
  Thursday, November 5
  New Carrollton
• Allegany/Garrett Chapter
  Wednesday, November 18
  Barton
• Washington County Chapter
  Monday, November 23
  Clear Spring
• Carroll County Chapter
  Thursday, December 3
  Sykesville
• Southern Maryland Chapter
  Wednesday, December 9
  Indian Head
• Montgomery Chapter
  Thursday, December 10
  Gaithersburg
• Frederick County Chapter
  Friday, December 11
  Thurmont
• Cecil-Harford Chapter
  Thursday, January 7
  Rising Sun
• Eastern Shore Association of Municipalities
  Tuesday, January 19
  Kent Island

For actual locations, please contact your Chapter directly. As the League receives more information regarding times and locations, it will be added to the schedule, which will be on the MML website.

The Maryland Municipal League's second annual legislative reception is scheduled for the first day of the 2010 General Assembly session, which is Wednesday, January 13, 2010. The MML Legislative Committee will meet during the afternoon of January 13 followed by the legislative reception, which is tentatively scheduled for 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. at the Maryland Inn in downtown Annapolis. Members of the General Assembly will be sworn in at 12:00 noon and MML encourages all municipal officials to make plans to meet with their legislators during the afternoon of January 13 to personally escort them to the reception. Please also reach out to your legislators now to ensure that the League legislative reception is on their calendar. MML will be mailing formal invitations to all legislators within the next few weeks.

The Governor's Office on Service and Volunteerism (GOSV) seeks applicants with program-specific expertise to review 2010 AmeriCorps grant applications. The AmeriCorps grants will fund human and environmental services across Maryland and engage nearly 1,000 AmeriCorps participants. Grant reviewers will learn about Maryland's diverse network of AmeriCorps service and help the GOSV determine how best to maximize this important resource next year.

The GOSV will provide detailed instructions and training on AmeriCorps program and grant requirements and work with reviewers throughout the process. Reviewers must attend an orientation on November 30, read and score up to four grants between December 8 - 18, and attend a grant review consensus meeting on December 18. The application deadline is Monday, November 16, 2009. For more information, please contact Barbara Reynolds, Director, Governor's Office on Service & Volunteerism, 410/767-4803, or e-mail BReynolds@gosv.state.md.us.

Main Street Maryland will be presenting a two-day training introducing attendees to the nationally successful Main Street Four Point Approach to economic development of commercial districts. This training, presented by experienced staff from the National Main Street Center, will provide information on using the strategy to create a local, grassroots initiative to form a dynamic, comprehensive revitalization program appropriate to traditional commercial districts. Main Street Basic Training is for municipal officials and anyone else interested in learning about commercial district revitalization.

Training will take place on Thursday, November 5 and Friday, November 6 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Maryland Department of Housing & Community Development's Division of Neighborhood Revitalization, 10 North Calvert Street, Suite 444, in Baltimore. For more information, including how to register, visit www.NeighborhoodRevitalization.org and click on "Trainings," or contact DHCD's Tim Murphy at 410/209-5818 or murphyt@mdhousing.org.