January 30, 2012 at 8:25 AM

Posted by Ellis Burruss

If a U.S. Constitutional Convention were in progress, I’m sure that all politically aware people would be watching its every move. However, there is a comparable activity going on right here in our county that is being largely ignored: the Charter Board.

The charter will be on the ballot in November. If you are against charter government for Frederick County, no problem: you just vote against it. However, if you like the idea because it will give us some more local autonomy, you should be looking at the charter as it’s being written.  Here are some of the questions being considered:

How big should the county council be: 3, 5, or 7 members, or some other number?

Should the council members be elected at-large, from election districts, or from residential districts.

If districts are used, how will they be determined?

Should there be a county executive? if so, should the position be elected or appointed? Should the executive be more powerful than the council? How is that determined?

These are just a few of the many, many questions that the Charter Board must decide upon before this summer. If you’d like to get involved, go to www.frederickcountymd.gov  then , under “government” click on “Charter Board.”

One of the first things you’ll come to the is the draft charter. It’s a dynamic document that changes after every meeting of the Board.
Many parts of the draft charter are interdependent so, while the draft is being discussed step-by-step, nothing is being set in stone, but debatable issues are left as placeholders. However, placeholders can become place keepers. Following are my comments on some of the issues:

Article 2
County Council
Section 201
The placeholder is that the council is to be composed of five members. I feel that a council of seven members could be more representative and would not be unwieldy. In addition, where there is a desirability of a super-majority for some votes as described in later sections of the charter, 5 of the seven could be more practical than 4 of 5.

204(b)
The placeholder describes electoral districts in which “A council member shall reside in each of the five Council Districts and be nominated and elected by the voters of the district in which a council member resides.”

I think that more consideration should be given to using residential districts. The section could read something like: “A council member shall reside in each of the five Council Districts and be nominated by the voters of the district in which a council member resides, and elected at-large by the voters of Frederick County. In addition, two council members would be nominated and elected at-large.”

The use of residential districts would guarantee fair geographic representation throughout the county. They also eliminate the potential of horse-trading due to a narrow local focus of council members because they would be elected at-large and, therefore, answerable to the entire county.


ARTICLE 3.
Legislative Process

308(a)

The placeholder in the draft charter to put legislation to a referendum is a requirement for 10 percent of the signatures of registered voters be collected. I think that this is not consistent with the preamble  “...in order to establish a more dynamic, efficient, and responsive form of county government,...” A requirement to collect the signatures of 10% of registered voters within 60 days effectively eliminates the possibility of bringing a law to referendum.
  Harford, Howard, and Montgomery counties set the requirement for referendum at 5% which still presents a very high hurdle to overcome. Personally, I would prefer an even lower threshold of 2-3% to have a truly “responsive” government.

Article 4
Executive

403
Using the Cecil County charter as a template, the placeholder is a county executive  elected  at-large.

There has not been sufficient discussion to justify the additional expense of an executive and executive-branch staff. The primary assumption appears to be the concept that an elected executive would have a “place at the table” in Annapolis. I believe the “place at the table” is largely mythical and that an appointed representative of the elected council would have a voice that would be heard equally well as the spokesperson of the county with a population of 233,000.

In its September or October meeting, the Charter Board briefly raised the question, “What is meant by a ‘strong’ executive?” However, I do not believe that  the issue was thoroughly discussed or answered and is still open.

Again, the preamble of the draft charter describes a government “which shall be empowered by us to exercise greater local authority to govern and be manifest in its scope to all,...”  (Manifest: “readily perceived by the senses and especially by the sense of sight. 2. : easily understood or recognized by the mind : obvious”) i.e., open government.   The most open government would be a council in which open debate is followed by open votes. Decisions reached within the secret confines of one person’s mind are not manifest.

Ellis Burruss