Rice to lead sister cities mission to Ethiopia
Starting Wednesday, Montgomery County Council Member Craig Rice plans to lead a “sister cities” tour to Gondar, Ethiopia — a city of about 200,000 in the northern part of the country.
The trip is part of the county’s sister cities partnership that former County Executive Isiah Leggett established in 2012 to improve relations between Ethiopia and the county— which is home to more than 15,000 Ethiopians, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Rice will be joined by representatives from Montgomery College and faith leaders, among others.
They are scheduled to meet with Gondar Mayor Tekeba Tebabal, donate medical supplies to a local clinic and give computers and books to the University of Gondar.
County Council back in session
The Montgomery County Council, after a monthlong holiday break, will reconvene Tuesday for its first meeting since Dec. 11.
The council will consider legislation that would require an independent review of all police-involved deaths as well as discuss a report from the Office of Legislative Oversight on economic indicators in the county.
A council work session scheduled for Monday at Rockville Memorial Library has been postponed due to lingering effects from the weekend’s snowstorm.
Elrich to hold budget listening session Wednesday
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich scheduled the first of five listening sessions with county residents Wednesday, in preparation for the submission of his recommended operating budget for fiscal 2020 on March 15. The session will take place at 7 p.m. at the Silver Spring Civic Center.
Due to the weekend’s snowstorm, a budget session scheduled for Monday at the BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown has been postponed to Jan. 31.
Dan Schere can be reached at Daniel.schere@moco360.media
