By Adam Pagnucco.
A potential hurdle to the passage of reduced term limits for the Montgomery County executive may have been removed. This increases the odds that County Executive Marc Elrich will face a clean shot at his removal from office.
First, some background. The Committee for Better Government, a ballot question committee led by former GOP county executive nominee Reardon “Sully” Sullivan, has been gathering signatures for a charter amendment on term limits since March 2023. A charter amendment passed by voters in 2016 established limits of three consecutive terms for the county executive and county council. Under current law, an individual is permitted to serve three consecutive terms in either office, leave that office, and then potentially return for up to three more consecutive terms at a later date. Sullivan’s group would reduce the limit to two consecutive terms for the county executive but leave the three term limit for council members unchanged. If passed, Sullivan’s amendment would toss Elrich out of office, a prospect that he clearly dislikes since he would like to run for a third term.
Sully and his signature boxes.
Sullivan’s group is close to meeting the signature threshold for placement on the ballot. The county council is empowered to determine the language for the amendment appearing on the ballot (and a draft is now available online) but it has no power to outright block Sullivan’s amendment if he gets enough signatures. However, the council may place a competing amendment on the ballot. A 2002 Maryland Attorney General opinion advises that if two conflicting charter amendments are passed at the same time, both would fail. But that theory has not yet been tested in court.
The county has a charter review commission that regularly issues recommendations to the county council on charter amendments. The current commission has recommended that the council place a competing term limits amendment on the ballot providing for three lifetime terms for county executives. That would allow Elrich to run again. Some believe that this proposal conflicts with Sullivan’s amendment providing for two consecutive terms, and so if both were to pass, both would fail. Sullivan’s group is worried about this and has issued a video warning against it.
On Tuesday, a draft of Sullivan’s amendment along with its ballot language was placed before the council and is scheduled for a hearing on July 16. However, a draft of the charter review commission’s amendment was not placed before the council on the same day. That does not mean that it won’t appear – the council has more time to do that if it wishes. But why has one proposal appeared and not the other?
Multiple sources have told me that staff has concluded that the two proposals are not actually in conflict. Here’s why that may be. Suppose these two amendments were passed simultaneously:
1. The executive is limited to two consecutive terms.
2. The executive is limited to three lifetime terms.
The presence of both requirements in the charter can be reconciled in this scenario: an individual serves two consecutive terms as executive, leaves office, and then returns for one term. If staff is right, passage of the charter review commission’s proposal does not block passage of Sullivan’s amendment.
This revelation has reduced interest in the charter review commission’s proposal. First, what good would passing it do? And second, for those who oppose term limits (which includes the entire county council), the combined passage of the two proposals would be worse than passage of Sullivan’s amendment alone. Under the latter by itself, an individual could serve for two terms as executive, leave office, and then return to serve two more terms. That would be impossible under a lifetime limit of three terms.
There is still a bit of time for mischief left. A common trait of at least some mischief is that it can be executed quickly and stealthily. But given the above as well as the council’s mix of disdain and antipathy to Elrich’s tenure in office, the chances of Sullivan getting a clean shot at Elrich have risen in recent days.