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Why going from the Maryland General Assembly to the Baltimore County Council is a promotion
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Patuxent Publishing’s political editor Bryan Sears reported that first-term Delegate Todd Schuler (D-8th Dist.) will not run for re-election. He will instead run for the County Council seat that will be vacated by Councilman Joe Bartenfelder when he runs for County Executive in 2010.
On its face, it may not seem like a promotion. As a State Delegate, you are able to determine laws for the entire State of Maryland. The Baltimore County Council can only pass laws and policy for Baltimore County.
Yet, the proof that going from the General Assembly to the Baltimore County Council is a promotion lies in the numbers. As a State Delegate, you are one of 141 individuals from around the State. A Baltimore County Councilman is one out of 7.
State delegates propose and vote on laws that generally affect the entire State. There are some notable exceptions where the Maryland General Assembly must pass enabling legislation for a local jurisdiction to act, such as with local tax and liquor laws. On the speed camera issue, Montgomery County asked for and received permission to install speed cameras, years before the General Assembly enacted the legislation for the entire State. On other issues, it is virtually impossible for a jurisdiction to exempt itself.
For example, the Baltimore County House of Delegates delegation took a vote on whether the County should be exempt from the speed camera legislation. The vote failed, but had it passed it is highly unlikely that the leadership in the House of Delegates or the Senate would have allowed Baltimore County to exempt itself from speed cameras.
Contrast a Delegate to being a Baltimore County Councilman. The Council deals with all the zoning issues, the County budget, and local ordinances. The practice in Baltimore County is that in order to do something like approve or change zoning in a Councilman’s district, you have to get the Councilman’s approval.
In other words, the Councilman effectively has veto power over what happens in his district. So, for many issues, reaching a majority—four votes—on the seven-member Council does not require a lot of arm-twisting because of “councilmanic courtesy”.
So, if you are a person looking for a zoning change and your Councilman says no to your request, even though it is in the area’s best interest, there are few ways around that veto. One of the only ways is to appeal to the County Executive, but the County Executive will need to see a benefit to getting involved to convince the Councilman to change his mind.
Another example of the power of the county councils has been provided with the issue of slots in Anne Arundel County. The slots legislation left it to the counties and Baltimore City to change zoning laws to allow for slot machine gambling. Anne Arundel County still has not given the green light for slots to be placed in Anne Arundel County, although the General Assembly and Governor intended for slots to be up and running by now.
Remember also that Councilman Bartenfelder was a State Delegate before his current position on the Council. Now, Bartenfelder is running for County Executive.
So, it is no surprise that Delegate Schuler wants to be on the County Council. It will be up to the people in his district to determine whether his performance as Delegate warrants a promotion.
Dilip Paliath has a general law practice in Towson. For more information, see www.paliath.com.
