Leonardtown, MD — The Commissioners of St. Mary’s County have taken the next step in a process that could lead to a change in the county’s historic commissioner form of government. The commissioners June 9 unanimously agreed to hold public hearings at each firehouse on the proposal to put a referendum on next year’s ballot to change to a Code Home Rule form of government.
Maryland has three forms of county government – commissioner, Code Home Rule, and charter. Some of the larger counties operate under charter, with a county executive and county council. Others like Charles have Code Home Rule, in which the commissioners sit regularly as a legislative body to enact laws.
Under Code Home Rule most of the local laws which now have to be introduced in and passed by the Maryland General Assembly would to handled locally, with local hearings by the county commissioners acting as a legislative body.
Before the unanimous vote to proceed with the process, County Attorney George Sparling gave the commissioners a briefing on what Code Home Rule means and what has to be done to achieve it. The imparting of that information to as many people as possible is the reason for scheduling the public hearings.
Sparling said the Maryland Constitution provides that “a code county may enact, amend, or repel a public local law of that county.” Public local law “means a law applicable to the incorporation, organization, or government of a code county and contained in the county’s code of public local laws.”
A “public local law” does not include laws, whether or not statewide in application, in the code of public general laws (the Annotated Code of Maryland).
Sparling said even under Code Home Rule, the legislature would continue to hold authority over bills that covered an entire class of counties, such as for the three Southern Maryland counties.
With code government, Sparling said, the commissioners could hold up to 45 legislative days a year. Any commissioner could introduce a bill, although four commissioners could kill any bill before a public hearing. Three commissioners’ approval would be needed for a bill to pass.
Although the process only requires two public hearing prior to the commissioners voting to move the change in government to the voters, Commissioner John O’Connor [R – 3rd] strongly advocated for more. In the end the commissioners settled on having one at each of the firehouses.
Commissioner Todd Morgan [R – 4th] asked about the idea of setting up a committee to study the issue. Sparling said there had been a committee when the county voters rejected charter government in the 1970s and when a previous commissioner board also rejected it.
O’Connor said, “I really don’t like talking about the two [charter and code] in the same conversation.” Sparling agreed: “Charter really is a different animal.”
O’Connor said he didn’t feel it was necessary to create a committee but instead an outreach campaign involving Facebook and a spate e-mail account would be a better idea. And he said the record would remain open after each firehouse public hearing. There are seven in the county..
Morgan said all he wanted was to make sure that the public was properly informed. “This is a major change in the way we do government here,” he said.
After the final public hearing the commissioners have 60 days to decide whether to adopt Code Home Rule, with four votes required to proceed. That decision is forwarded to the county board of elections, which is responsible for placing the question on the November 8, 2016 ballot.
The idea seems to have strong support among the commissioners. Tom Jarboe [R – 1st] noted the hassle for county citizens to trek to Annapolis, often in the dead of winter, and find a place to park, to testify on a bill, only to be met with the attitude “they really don’t want to listen.”
Sparling noted during the discussion that the processes of enacting laws in Annapolis or Leonardtown were really the same. The difference he said, “It’s a little quicker and it’s local.”
Contact Dick Myers at dick.myers@thebaynet.com