The panel that recommends changes to Montgomery County’s constitution is exploring whether residents should directly elect the County Council president, a move that could potentially shake up power in Maryland’s most populous jurisdiction.
The review, pushed by County Executive Ike Leggett and other influential leaders in the Washington suburb, is in its early stages. Officials are weighing whether the officeholder would serve a four-year term.
Under current law, the council president is chosen by members of the legislative body and serves a one-year term. If the president became an elected position, it’s clout would instantly increase, creating a direct counterbalance to Leggett, according to county officials.
Still, Leggett said he supported such an arrangement, which is used in both neighboring D.C. and Fairfax County.
“I’ve believed for a long time that the council president should be voted directly in by the people,” he said. “Most in my position would say, ‘I don’t want a new rival.’ But I think it’s good government. Because people don’t know who to hold responsible — they rotate so often — there’s a lack of accountability.”
However, the current head of the legislative branch, Council President Roger Berliner, D-Bethesda/Potomac, questioned the need for changing the system.
“I’m not persuaded in this moment of the need for a change,” he said, adding that he worried about a potential clash between the county executive and a more powerful council president. “At the end of the day, they’d have to be on the same page, or they’d neutralize each other.”
The council would have to approve recommendations by the Charter Review Commission for any measure to land on November’s ballot. The commission is also studying whether to amend county statutes to allow for a council member to be removed for a “serious violation of the ethics law.”
Yet, some critics said the proposed changes didn’t go far enough to fix what they view as chronic shortcomings among the suburb’s lawmakers.
“I don’t think it really matters very much,” said Robin Ficker, a community activist who successfully pushed through a series of voter referendums, including a limit on property tax increases. “I think term limits would be a better solution to the council’s problems. We have a one-party council with a four-year gap between elections, which means they can act like oligarchs the first two years without regard to the electorate.”
