Montgomery council enacts a rent-algorithm ban, wider speed-camera authority and $5,000 street-takeover fines

By Staff Reporter

ROCKVILLE, Md. — The Montgomery County Council on Tuesday unanimously enacted a ban on landlords’ use of rent-setting algorithms, gave the county authority to move speed cameras onto its most crash-prone corridors and raised the maximum fine for taking part in an illegal street takeover from $1,000 to $5,000.

The three measures were among seven bills the council approved at its Oct. 20 session, Patch reported. The others expand consumer protections for older and vulnerable residents, raise survivor benefits for families of some public safety employees killed on duty, impose new governance rules on the nonprofit that runs the county’s public-access channels, and rewrite the duties of the Fire and Emergency Services Commission, according to the council’s agenda release. The Washington Inquisitor previewed the three main bills Tuesday morning.

Rent-setting algorithms

Bill 8-26, the Anti-Algorithmic Price Fixing Act, prohibits the use of algorithmic devices to set rents or rental terms in the county and bars landlords from coordinating prices, according to the council’s description. Councilmember Will Jawando was the lead sponsor; Councilmembers Shebra Evans and Kristin Mink co-sponsored it. The Planning, Housing, and Parks Committee had amended it to track a law the City of Rockville passed this year, according to a statement from Jawando’s office.

Jawando told colleagues that since he introduced the bill in March he had learned of 86 multifamily properties in the county that have been identified in price-fixing lawsuits, the Baltimore Banner reported. “These are thousands of families that are potentially impacted,” he said. The attorneys general of Maryland and the District have pending lawsuits against RealPage, the rent-pricing software company, the Banner reported.

“Rental costs must be market driven, not determined by hidden algorithms,” Evans said in a statement quoted by Patch.

Speed cameras on high-risk corridors

Expedited Bill 17-26, introduced at the request of County Executive Marc Elrich, authorizes speed cameras in certain school zones and on highways the county identifies as high-risk for crashes, using authority the General Assembly granted in 2025. It passed unanimously, WTOP reported.

Before the vote, Councilmember Evan Glass relayed residents’ concerns about surveillance and asked whether the county works with Flock, the license-plate camera company. Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Earl Stoddard said the county has no partnership with Flock and will not integrate private companies’ Flock systems into its own, according to WTOP. Glass said the bill lets the county move existing cameras to school zones and high-risk corridors where data supports it, and add cameras only if data shows the need.

The law does not by itself put cameras on any particular road; county officials still have to decide which locations qualify, WJLA reported.

Street takeovers

Bill 27-26, sponsored by Councilmember Andrew Friedson, bars coordinating, promoting or knowingly facilitating street takeovers and unlawful racing on public roads, lets police seize vehicles used in them, and raises fines to as much as $5,000, according to Friedson’s office and Patch.

“Residents deserve to feel safe on our roads and in their neighborhoods,” Friedson said in a statement.

Mink offered an amendment to protect First Amendment activity such as protests that take up road space. It drew support from five of the council’s 11 members and failed, the Banner reported. “We are not in normal times, and those rights are absolutely very publicly under attack right now,” Mink said. Lt. Patrick Kepp of the police department’s Traffic Operations Division opposed the amendment, telling the council that takeovers are “violent events” and “aren’t peaceful protests,” according to the Banner and WTOP. The bill then passed unanimously.

The other four bills

Expedited Bill 16-26, the Financial Exploitation Protection Act, led by Councilmember Kate Stewart and co-sponsored by every member, makes it a deceptive trade practice to use deception, intimidation or undue influence to obtain money, property or services from a vulnerable adult or anyone 68 or older, and lets the Office of Consumer Protection run a voluntary mediation program, according to the council’s release.

Expedited Bill 32-26 increases line-of-duty death benefits for the spouses, domestic partners and children of deputy sheriffs, correctional officers and some emergency communications staff, the council said.

Bill 33-26, sponsored by Stewart, requires Montgomery Community Media, the nonprofit that runs the county’s public-access channels and streams council meetings, to give the council and the county executive one board seat each and to adopt ethics and racial equity policies. More than 80% of the organization’s budget comes from the county, nearly $2.5 million in fiscal 2027, the Banner reported. The final version dropped a provision that would have subjected the group to the Maryland Public Information Act and added a requirement for bylaws protecting its editorial independence. The organization’s chief executive, Jasmine White, had called the bill “a dangerous precedent,” the Banner reported.

Bill 36-26, from Councilmember Dawn Luedtke, revises the duties of the Fire and Emergency Services Commission.

What comes next

Councilmember Glass also introduced Bill 51-26, which would ease the public-hearing requirement for new sidewalks and side paths. Elrich holds his weekly media briefing at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to the county’s news page. The Inquisitor will update this story as the county sets out where the speed cameras will go and how the rent-algorithm ban will be enforced.

The Inquisitor sent requests for comment to the offices of Councilmembers Will Jawando, Andrew Friedson and Kate Stewart, the Montgomery County Council’s legislative information office and the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington on Wednesday afternoon, after this story was first published. This story will be updated with any responses.

Photo: Gibbs Street in Rockville Town Center, the Montgomery County seat. G. Edward Johnson / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.