The state?s highest court could reach a decision in the Carroll County district map case as soon as the first week in June.
“I?m very happy that this is on an accelerated track, but it?s not over yet,” said Dana Dembrow, a Gamber lawyer who first filed a lawsuit against the county Board of Elections after it announced that the upcoming commissioner election would be held at large.
The Court of Appeals announced Monday that it would hear oral arguments June 1 in Annapolis from Dembrow, who reached an agreement with Carroll Circuit Judge Michael Galloway and the Board of Elections on which map would delineate the five voting districts in the November election, and the two men who appealed the judge?s decision.
James Harris, a retired landscape contractor from Westminster, and Joseph Getty, a former Carroll County delegate from Manchester and a policy director for Gov. Robert Ehrlich, filed separate appeals last month to Galloway?s April 19 order.
Harris said he appealed the decision because he believed that a different map ? one supported by the county?s state delegation ? should have been selected by the judge instead of the one supported by the commissioners, mayors and redistricting committee.
Getty said he disagreed with the process by which the judge, Dembrow and the Board of Elections reached an agreement, saying the public was not asked for feedback.
“The public should have been notified and had an opportunity to participate,” Getty said.
He said that if he gets his way, the Court of Appeals will rule in favor of the delegation?s map.
Dembrow said he filed his lawsuit because he wanted to uphold the results of a 2004 referendum in which voters said they wanted to increase the size of the Board of Commissioners from three to five members and elect them in districts.
