* WARNING: THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL, INTRODUCTORY COPY OF THE BILL.
THE OFFICIAL COPY CONSIDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL IS THE FIRST READER COPY.
INTRODUCTORY*
CITY OF BALTIMORE
COUNCIL BILL R
(Resolution)
Introduced by: Councilmember Henry
A RESOLUTION ENTITLED
A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning
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Request for State Legislation - Elections to Fill Vacant City Council Seats
FOR the purpose of respectfully calling on the Honorable Chairs and Members of the Baltimore City Senate and House Delegations to the 2011 Session of the Maryland General Assembly to sponsor and secure the adoption of legislation giving Baltimore City the same right to fill Council vacancies through special elections enjoyed by charter counties throughout the State.
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Recitals
A pair of vacancies on the Baltimore City Council in the last year have recently highlighted the process used to fill empty seats on the Council. Currently, vacancies are filled through a vote of the remaining Councilmembers. This system predates the change from 3 member districts to single member districts approved by City voters in 2002.
Prior to the 2002 change it was the Council's custom to allow the remaining members of a district's delegation to nominate a new Councilperson to fill any vacancy that arose from their district. This system ensured that residents and representatives from the district played the lead role in determining who would represent that district on the City Council.
However, with the change to single member districts the same rules produce a different result. Now 13 of the 14 people eligible to vote for a person to fill a Council vacancy - the Councilmembers from the other single member districts - are required by law to be legal residents of a district other than the one with a vacant seat. And no institutional mechanism exists to ensure that district residents have any decisive voice, or even representation, in the process of deciding who to nominate as a new Councilmember.
In the mid 90s, before the change to single member districts, Baltimore enacted a law that would have rendered these concerns moot by providing for a special election to fill most Council vacancies. Unfortunately, in 1998 the Maryland Attorney General issued an opinion that barred the application of this law by stating that, although State law did allow most counties to fill vacancies on their local governing councils through elections, Maryland law as written did not allow Baltimore City to fill City Council vacancies through special elections. After this opinion was issued the effort to allow the election of replacement Council members died out, perhaps partially because at that time it was understood that district residents still had a voice in selecting a new Councilmember through their remaining representatives on the City Council.
Today, it has become apparent that the change to single member districts made the current method of filling Council districts more problematic. In order to ensure that Council vacancies are filled as democratically as possible, and that district residents are given a formal say in who represents them, the idea of using special elections to select replacement representatives, as can be done in other Maryland Jurisdictions, should be revived.
Baltimore residents should not be denied the same right to elect their own their own local representatives that charter county residents enjoy. Accordingly, the General Assembly should correct the oversight in State law that bars Baltimore City from being allowed to hold special elections to fill City Council vacancies by enacting the necessary legislation to give Baltimore the ability to more democratically select replacement Councilmembers.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, That this Council respectfully calls on the Honorable Chairs and Members of the Baltimore City Senate and House Delegations to the 2011 Session of the Maryland General Assembly to sponsor and secure the adoption of legislation giving Baltimore City the same right to fill Council vacancies through special elections enjoyed by charter counties throughout the State.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the Honorable Chair and Members of the Baltimore City Senate and Housing Delegations to the 2011 Maryland General Assembly, the Mayor, the Mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Relations, and the Mayor's Legislative Liaison to the City Council.
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