Some county councilmembers want rules in place to protect privacy before county-operated drones are put to use.
A pair of councilmembers will also introduce two bills to increase homeowner associations’ control over rental properties when the Council meets in its regular session on Tuesday.
The drone resolution, to be introduced with the backing of at least six members, comes out of a Public Safety Committee meeting a few weeks ago in which MCFRS and the county’s Office of Innovation explained they already own a total of four unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), known by many as drones.
The small, inexpensive pieces of equipment (each one cost MCFRS less than $1,000) can be flown 40 feet off the ground with attached cameras to show firefighters crumbling walls, movement of water in river rescues or where people are in search and rescue operations.
The department has been training with the devices. The cameras on each UAS, which are less than two feet in diameter and operated by joystick or remote, can broadcast live footage back to the department’s mobile command unit.
In May, MCFRS spokesperson Pete Piringer said the department was developing specific guidelines for how, when and where the devices can be used.
The Council resolution will ask the county government to come up with protocols for their deployment — before the devices are put in use. The Council would then review the rules because the drones raise “serious privacy and other policy issues.”
Also on tap for Tuesday, Councilmember George Leventhal and Nancy Floreen will introduce two bills relating to homeowner and condominium associations. One would require property owners in an HOA to be no more than 30 days past due with their association fees if they want to get a rental license from the county.
“This would aid the growing number of associations that are already financially distressed due in part to negligent property owners who rent their units, but fail to pay their dues,” read a County Council press release.
The county’s Department of Housing and Community Affairs recently began including a checkbox on rental license applications asking if the owner is paid up on HOA dues and fees. Lying on the application is already subject to prosecution. The bill would make a violation subject to a fine on top of that.
“Homeowners’ and condominium associations make up more than one-third of all homes in Montgomery County so their continued success is vital to the future of our County,” Leventhal said in the press release. “These bills represent two small ways we can help protect the fiscal and operational integrity of our County’s common ownership communities and ensure that they remain great places to live for years to come.”
The second bill would require members of a HOA board of directors to complete an education course on their responsibilities within 90 days of their election or appointment to the board. The bill is modeled on one enacted last year in Florida as part of a larger attempt at HOA reform.
The county’s Commission on Common Ownership Communities would be charged with creating the curriculum that HOA board members could use to satisfy the new requirement.
