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Section II: The Legislative Addendum
LEGISLATIVE ADDENDUM: PROPOSED COALITION AMENDMENTS FOR BILL 37-26
Submitted by: Montgomery Emergency Housing Justice (MEHJ)
Date of Submission: October 2, 2026
Target Session: Joint PS/GO Committee Work session — October 19, 2026
Written Record Closing: October 12, 2026
To the Chairs and Members of the Joint Public Safety and Government Operations Committees:
To resolve the documented civil rights, equity, and accessibility concerns raised during the September 22, 2026 public hearing regarding Bill 37-26 (Disruptive Behavior – Public Facilities – Amendments), the Montgomery Emergency Housing Justice coalition formally requests the codification of the following three non-negotiable structural amendments into the final legislative text:
AMENDMENT 1: FREE SPEECH & NEURODIVERGENT PROTECTIONS
- Code Target: Insertion within the core definitions of "Disruptive Behavior" and enforcement criteria.
- Proposed Statutory Language:
"No action taken under this Section may penalize, restrict, or classify as 'disruptive conduct' any behavior resulting from a documented physical, mental health, cognitive, intellectual, developmental, or neurodevelopmental disability; nor shall it restrict an individual’s right to engage in peaceful self-advocacy or voice good-faith safety grievances regarding public facilities or municipal operational tiers."
AMENDMENT 2: ABSOLUTE EMERGENCY SHELTER EXEMPTION
- Code Target: Exclusionary provisions and jurisdictional limits.
- Proposed Statutory Language:
"Notwithstanding any provision of this Bill to the contrary, the authority to issue or enforce a Disruptive Behavior Order (DBO) or multi-facility exclusion ban shall strictly not apply to, nor be executed within, the premises of any county-funded, county-operated, or county-contracted emergency shelter, daytime drop-in center, or residential transitional housing tier."
AMENDMENT 3: MULTI-AGENCY OVERSIGHT PANEL & MANDATORY PUBLIC TRACKING
- Code Target: Enforcement protocols and annual reporting modifications.
- Proposed Statutory Language:
"The authority of front-line facility personnel or a single department head to unilaterally enforce multi-facility exclusions is hereby rescinded. All proposed long-term exclusions must be reviewed and authorized by an Independent Public Oversight Panel. The Department of General Services and the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) must maintain a real-time, anonymized, publicly accessible digital registry tracking the location, demographic data, and specific behavioral justification for every exclusion order issued."
Framework Protection Notice:
This document is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Permanency written by Eneshal Galloway, Silver Spring, MD.
Stop the Systemic Displacement of Vulnerable Residents: Amend Bill 37-26 Now!