Two Carroll commissioners have called on Gov. Martin O?Malley to block the referendum that would allow voters to override a decision to create a county police force.
“We believe that requiring a binding referendum is an inappropriate interference in the authority reserved for local officials,” Commissioners Julia Gouge and Dean Minnich wrote in a Feb. 5 letter to O?Malley.
“We further question the legality as well as the policy impacts that would arise from nullification of a local ordinance by a delegation opposed tothat ordinance, assuming we were to decide to create a local police department.”
The county?s General Assembly delegation voted 4-2 last week to introduce a measure to let voters choose the county?s primary police agency.
Commissioner Michael Zimmer did not join the other commissioners in making the request because, he said, a commission form of government demands that local officials work with the state delegation, allowing state lawmakers some authority within the county.
“On one level, I would prefer to think that county-level issues are best left to the county-elected officials who the people elected to wrestle with difficult questions,” Zimmer wrote in a letter to Sen. Larry Haines, R-District 5, the chairman of Carroll?s delegation.
“On the other hand, the commissioner form of government is unique in its blend of authority between the board of commissioners and the General Assembly.”
Sen. Allan Kittleman, R-District 9, a former Howard County councilman, said he was torn on whether to vote for the referendum.
But a flood of e-mails and phone calls to his office convinced him that he was not overstepping his boundaries by voting for it.
Commissioners did not hold a public hearing before they voted unanimously in October to move away from the sheriff?s office and Resident Trooper Program, in whichstate troopers patrol the county, and form a county department with an appointed chief.
The bill needs to be passed by the General Assembly to make a November referendum official, and no date has been set for the bill?s introduction. O?Malley?s office was not available for comment.
