Baltimore County Council advances bill to add two more members

A petition effort seeks to expand the Baltimore County Council to 11 members. Baltimore County Flickr photo.

With no votes to spare, the Baltimore County Council advanced a proposed charter amendment Monday that will let voters decide whether to increase the size of the council from seven to nine members.

As a proposed amendment to the county charter, the proposal needed a supermajority of five votes to pass. Council Chairman Izzy Patoka, along with Councilmen Todd Crandell, Mike Ertel, Wade Kach and David Marks voted for the measure. Councilman Pat Young was the sole no vote, and Councilman Julian Jones, who had previously expressed reservations about the measure, was not present.

“Tonight was a historic moment,” said Patoka, who sponsored the measure . “It will create opportunity for the county council to better reflect the demographics of Baltimore County.”

The current council is all male, with six white members and one African American.

Young, a Democrat who represents southwestern Baltimore County, argued that the council should be expanded to 11 members instead of nine, saying that would increase the likelihood of getting a more diverse council.

“Over time, there is a resounding theme,” Young said. “We have been historically, with painfully few exceptions, a very white and very male council.”

But Crandell, a Republican who represents the southeastern part of the county, called Young’s proposal little more than a Democratic power grab.

“We have to cut through the crap here. This is about politics. This is about the Democratic Party doing what they do in Maryland, trying to grab more power on the Baltimore County Council,” said Crandell of the 11-member council proposal.

Ertel, whose district includes parts of Towson, Parkville, Rosedale and Middle River, said expanding the size of the council is long overdue.

“We’ve had seven council districts since 1956.  Our needs are greater than ever, our infrastructure has a lot of challenges, and we believe that expanding the council would give a little breathing room in the sense of council members being able to serve their districts a little better,” Ertel said.

Meanwhile, organizers of a voter-backed drive are pushing for a separate initiative that would add four members to the council. The Vote4More campaign has until July 19 to submit at least 10,000 valid voters’ signatures to the county board of elections to get their proposal on the November ballot.

In a statement Monday, County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. applauded the council’s decision “to answer our call to empower voters and allow them to make their voices heard on expanding the county council to provide a more responsive and equitable government.”

The council’s proposed charter amendment also calls for reclassifying the job of a council member from a part-time to a full-time position. The Personnel and Salary Board Commission is expected to review council salaries next year to decide whether to increase the current salary of $69,000 or keep it the same. The council will be able to approve or reduce the commission’s recommendation, but cannot increase it.

In other action, the council overrode Olszewski’s veto of a measure that would limit residential development in areas where public schools are already overcrowded. Supporters of that bill say the measure is needed to curtail huge development projects in parts of the county where schools are over-capacity.

Even though they voted to override the veto, council members also agreed to enact a companion bill that would create a committee to closely review large, development projects.

Following the vote, Olszewski issued a statement calling the measure “deeply flawed.”

“The introduction of a Band-Aid bill to address concerns that we, and countless others, have raised a curious and convoluted approach to addressing the flaws associated with the original legislation,” his statement said.

“Nonetheless, we encourage the council to use this ‘do-over’ as a renewed opportunity to engage with BCPS (Baltimore County Public Schools) leadership and housing advocates to responsibly address school overcrowding while also meeting our moral and legal obligations to expand access to attainable housing,” Olszewski’s statement said.

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