Making the Upcounty’s Voice Heard
Thank you to all who joined State Senator Katie Fry Hester, Delegate Chao Wu, Delegate Natalie Ziegler, Councilmember Marilyn Balcombe, and me for our community town hall on Tuesday in Damascus.
This was a valuable opportunity to engage with our District 9 and 9A representatives in Annapolis before the state’s legislative session begins in January and an important forum to highlight the issues important to Upcounty residents and communities.
Next week, I will introduce legislation to strengthen our County’s crisis response by creating Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) as a joint program of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD).
The CIT model pairs a clinician and police officer who co-locate, co-deploy, and co-respond to individuals who are experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis and pose a significant risk of danger to themselves or others. These teams work to de-escalate and get the individual in crisis the services they may need. It’s a model that is proven to reduce violence, reduce arrests, and improve access to mental and behavioral health, addiction, and rehabilitative services.
This bill adds another way to respond to those in crisis. Since crises can present in many ways, it’s imperative that we have a system that is flexible enough to meet folks where they are.
Please reach out to me with any questions, comments, or feedback: councilmember.luedtke@montgomerycountymd.gov. I’d love to hear from you!
Shortly after taking office, I introduced a bill to reform the way County Government collects healthcare information from job applicants because we saw firsthand the invasiveness and potential harm of the County’s system.
Along with Councilmember Gabe Albornoz, we’re now introducing legislation to extend this protection to all employees in Montgomery County. Given ongoing threats to bodily autonomy and the right to choose, it’s more important than ever that people aren’t forced to divulge sensitive information that doesn’t relate to an applicants’ ability to do the job they’re seeking. Your private health information should be just that: private.
We’ll introduce this legislation on Tuesday at the Council and believe it’s a commonsense approach to protect our residents.
The Council has spent a lot of time recently discussing the gaps in our juvenile justice system and how accountability across the board is needed for truly successful intervention. Click here to learn more in my recent piece for MoCo360.
 Top left: Councilmember Luedtke and staff volunteer at Food & Friends; Top Right: Councilmember Luedtke visits The Family Room in Laytonsville for Small Business Saturday; Bottom right: Councilmember Luedtke joins the Wolves Leadership Academy at Pine Crest Elementary School; Bottom right: Winter City Lights in Olney
Volunteer Opportunity
Thank you Food & Friends for delivering more than 200,000 medically-tailored meals to County residents this year. Last week, I joined staff and volunteers to see firsthand how they provide for our neighbors with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other illnesses. If you’d like to volunteer too, click here.
Support Small Businesses this Holiday Season
I celebrated Small Business Saturday with a visit to The Family Room in Laytonsville, a destination for all things Maryland with a selection of products from 30 Maryland vendors. This holiday season, consider supporting locally made products and businesses!
Young Leaders
I had the honor of attending the graduation ceremony for The Wolves Leadership Academy at Pine Crest Elementary. Over the past few months, under the mentorship of Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) officers, the students have learned about leadership, interpersonal relationships, and civic responsibility. Thank you to MCPD for this community program.
Local Holiday Celebration
Looking for winter wonderland fun for all ages? Check out Olney’s Winter City Lights! S’mores, axe throwing, a mile and a half hiking trail filled with lights, and a Christmas tree light show, and more.
Montgomery Village Recreation and Classes
I, along with Councilmember Sayles, hosted a community town hall in October to discuss a proposed rec center in the Gaithersburg/Montgomery Village area. While we continue to make progress on this initiative, I want to highlight Montgomery Village Foundation’s new winter classes, including meditation, aerobic dance, Parent-Child Move and Play Explorers, and much more! Browse the online guide here.
Members Needed for Advisory Commission on Policing
The County Council is seeking applicants for the Advisory Commission on Policing. The deadline to apply is December 8 at 5 p.m. To learn more and apply, click here.
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