Council Term Limits, Districts Among Issues

Tax Cap Overrides Also Are on Ballot

Bonnie Barker helps her mother, Harriette Schweitzer, fill out forms to register to vote at the Montgomery County Board of Elections. (Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)

Montgomery County residents will not vote for County Council members this year, but they will decide three ballot questions that could greatly alter who is on the council and how it operates.

Voters must decide whether to amend the county charter to impose term limits on the council and the county executive, scrap at-large council districts and eliminate the council's ability to override a property tax cap.

If all three measures are approved, the combination of all single-member districts and term limits will be the most sweeping overhaul of county government since the position of county executive was created in 1970.

Council members Marilyn Praisner (D-Eastern County), elected in 1990, and Michael L. Subin (D-At Large), elected in 1986, will not be able to run for reelection in two years if term limits are approved. County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) would also be barred from seeking another term in 2006. The measure, called Question B, would limit council members and the county executive to three four year-terms.

Question C seeks to replace the at-large council seats with nine single-member districts, each of which would represent about 110,000 residents. Currently, four council members run at large, and five are elected from districts.

If approved by voters, the change means council President Steven A. Silverman (D) and members Nancy Floreen (D), George L. Leventhal (D) and Subin, all elected at large, will have to not run in 2006 or campaign for reelection in new, smaller districts against opponents who may have closer ties to the community.

Question A asks voters whether they want to remove the council's ability to override a property tax cap. Approved by voters in 1990, the cap restricts yearly increases in the amount of revenue the county can collect from property taxes to roughly the rate of inflation.

Seven of nine council members now can override those limits. Faced with declining state aid and a sputtering economy, the council voted to override the cap for the past three consecutive years.

Its decision angered Robin Ficker, an anti-tax activist considered by many elected officials to be a gadfly. He gathered enough petitions to put property tax and term limits issues on the ballot. The Montgomery County Republican Central Committee supports Question A, saying it is necessary to rein in government spending. But the GOP took no position on Ficker's term-limits measure.

The Montgomery County Civic Federation, which led the unsuccessful effort two years ago to defeat Duncan's "End Gridlock" slate in the council races, is the force behind getting Question C on the ballot.

The civic federation says an all-district council would limit developers' influence in county elections by eliminating expensive countywide campaigns.

In addition to the civic federation, which is a coalition of community organizations, Measure C is supported by the Sierra Club, Audubon Naturalist Society, Common Cause Maryland, the Libertarian and Green parties of Montgomery County and the Maryland Taxpayers League.

Neal Potter, who served six terms on the County Council and one term as county executive (1990-94), and council member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg) have also endorsed the proposal.

Although the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee has taken no position on Question C, the Men's Republican Club is urging its members to vote for it.