By Adam Pagnucco.
Part One reviewed how I obtained documents on the efforts of Elrich’s taxpayer-paid staff to save him from term limits and listed the cast of characters. Parts Two and Three related discussions of the work of the charter review commission on term limits between its chair, Jim Michaels, and two of Elrich’s taxpayer-paid special assistants, Dale Tibbitts and Debbie Spielberg. Now let’s continue reviewing the records.
In July, the county council was due to approve ballot language for Reardon Sullivan’s term limits amendment, if it was certified by the Board of Elections, and also other potential charter amendments. Elrich’s staff remained focused on the issue.
On July 10, Spielberg sent an email to Elrich’s spokesman, Scott Peterson, complaining about Fox 5’s coverage of term limits.
On July 13, long-time Democratic activist Sam Statland emailed Spielberg the following about a hearing held by the county council on the term limits charter amendment.
Debbie,
Attached is a combination of your talking points and my instructions on how to testify.
Please look this over.
It should go out today
We should send this to all of Marc’s supporters ASAP.
Sam
These are the talking points referenced in Statland’s email.
*****
Talking points against the 2 term limit that will be on the ballot in November:
1. Term limits already exist – 3 terms for County Executive and three terms for Councilmembers
2. Montgomery County has a strong Council system with less authority for the Executive – it makes sense to at least keep them the same.
3. The term limits passed in 2016 – it has not even been 12 years (3 terms) since it passed
4. Generally in other jurisdictions that have 2 term limits for the Executive, very few of the Executive’s appointments have to be confirmed by the Council, allowing them to assemble their cabinet relatively quickly. For example, in Howard County, only the Chief Administrative Officer has to be confirmed by the County Council. In Montgomery County, the County Executive must have virtually all of his appointments (about 40) go through the Council – this takes considerable time to go through the entire process, and the Council will not review more than about 3 in a session (and there is usually preparatory information, individual meetings, and then a public interview in one week and a vote in a subsequent session).
5. Term limits takes away choice from voters. We have term limits – they are called elections.
6. This proposal is targeted at getting Marc Elrich out of office – the spokesperson is Reardon Sullivan who was defeated 75% to 24% in 2022 in the general election. Their early materials were all about why Marc Elrich needed to be removed from office. They are sore losers: they should win at the ballot box rather than to change the County’s charter to defeat one person. Here’s what shows up when searching for the organization:
Please note that they have scrubbed their actual website to remove the reference to Marc Elrich, but the search engine still shows the earlier version when it was about defeating one person. The charter should not be a way to circumvent an election.
7. The Charter Review Commission, which is composed of Democrats, Republicans and Independents unanimously opposed the two term limit. No more than six of the eleven members may be from the same political party. The County Council nominates six members and the Chair, while the County Executive nominates five members and the Vice Chair.
You can read the testimony from the Chair of the Charter Review Commission, Jim Michaels, about this proposal beginning on page 6 (pdf page 8) of his testimony to the County Council:
https://montgomerycountymd.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=169&clip_id=17432&meta_id=181175
Background: (taken from the Charter Review Commission report)
Montgomery County elected its first County Executive in 1970. Since then, there have been 7 executives. Only 2 of the previous executives served three terms: 2 executives served two terms, and 2 served just one term. The current County Executive is in his second term. Of the 24 counties in Maryland, there are 15 counties with no term limits, and 3 counties that have a limit of three consecutive 4-year terms (including Montgomery County). There are only 5 counties that limit their County Executive to two consecutive terms. One county applies a two–term limit to its Board of Commissioners and the President of its Board.
*****
The document trail concludes with an email from Chief Administrative Officer Rich Madaleno to Spielberg summarizing Madaleno’s testimony to the council about term limits.
Ultimately, Sullivan’s charter amendment was certified by the Board of Elections and the council approved ballot language for its placement on the ballot. The council did not place an alternative proposed by the charter review commission on the ballot. Montgomery County voters will now decide whether to change term limits for county executive from three to two in November. If they do, County Executive Marc Elrich will be ineligible to run for reelection in 2026.
The above document trail shows that three high-ranking county employees – Special Assistants Dale Tibbitts and Debbie Spielberg and Chief Administrative Officer Rich Madaleno – used the county’s email system to discuss term limits with some of that discussion occurring on county time. Is that ethical or legal? We will examine that question in Part Five.