St. Mary’s County may be looking for a charm this third time around.
Come Tuesday, the county five commissioners are expected to vote on whether to change the county’s form of government to a charter, the third time the issue’s come up in 35 years, or another form.
“Why mess up things that are working well?” said Commissioner Lawrence Jarboe, implying his vote.
Fifteen volunteers have been studying the issue as a task force since March, after commissioners determined growth in the county might require a change.
“There is increased demand for safety and welfare, infrastructure, schools, roads, snow removal, land use planning,” said Patrick Murphy, chairman of the task force and former county attorney. “To wait ’til something happens and we cannot react to it is a violation of public trust.”
Right now, St. Mary’s and seven other counties are governed by commissioners, the form of government that all Maryland counties began with. Nine counties have changed to the charter form and six have changed to the code form.
The county task force looked at two other forms of government allowed in Maryland: charter home rule and code home rule, and recommended the charter form.
In the commissioner form of government, legislative authority resides with the General Assembly, meaning the county has to get the House of Delegates and Senate to agree on changes in the law.
But in the home-rule forms of government, the county controls all or part of its own legislation and voters have the right to put any legislation on the ballot.
Changing the government requires four of the five commissioners’ approval. If the charter form is chosen, commissioners appoint charter writers and then put the document before voters, which couldn’t occur before 2012, according to the task force. If the commissioners vote for a code form, which does not require writing a charter, voters could see it on the ballot in 2010.
At a public forum held at St. Mary’s College of Maryland on Sept. 26, Murphy described the commissioner form of government as “an incredibly inefficient way to plan for the future.”
Nine task force members, including Murphy, recommended a charter form of government with an elected executive. It would separate the powers of government much like the federal government. A council would write the laws, while an elected executive would administrate day-to-day operations.
“It’s easier to deal with one person who speaks for the county,” said former Montgomery County Executive Douglas Duncan, who also spoke at the forum. “And you can’t spread the blame as much. Whatever happens, you’re responsible.”
The charter form would cost more because you are adding a branch of government, Duncan added. “But it’s money well spent.”
Three task force members recommended moving to the code form of government, in which the commissioners would gain limited legislative powers.
“Our commissioner form of government has brought St. Mary’s County through the significant growth period of the 1990s that were associated with the impacts of Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission decisions,” they said.
According to the Census Bureau, St. Mary’s County grew 13.5 percent in the 1990s, but from