By Adam Pagnucco.
The Committee for Better Government, which is organizing on behalf of a charter amendment limiting the county executive to two terms, has issued a video warning of a competing amendment designed to thwart its efforts. As I have previously explained, while voters may place charter amendments on the ballot by gathering at least 10,000 valid voter signatures, the county council may also place amendments on the ballot. A Maryland Attorney General opinion from 2002 holds that if two conflicting charter amendments pass, they will nullify each other, but this has not been tested in court.
There are many political dimensions in play here, with the council’s calculations of its own self interest primary among them. Several council members would love to see the current county executive, Marc Elrich, ejected from office to claim his position for themselves. But the council members are no fans of term limits and are not crazy about reducing the current limit of three terms to two – even if it only affects the executive.
The term limits group is aware of these issues and has produced the video below from the council’s discussion of this issue on Tuesday. How about you, dear voters? Do you favor two terms for the executive? And regardless of that, do you favor having the council introduce a competing charter amendment that would muddy the issue?