Voters Asked to Make Council Full Time
Two County Ballot Questions Aim to Clarify Board Issues

By Aruna Jain
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 2, 2006

Montgomery County voters will decide Tuesday whether the duties of County Council members should be considered full or part time.

Along with four statewide ballot questions, voters are being asked to consider a charter amendment that would make the position full time. A second ballot question deals with specific guidelines for when the council must pass along legislation to the county executive and when the executive must act on it.

A council-appointed commission that is studying council salaries came up with the idea of changing the amendment so the jobs are full time, said council attorney Michael Faden. Most council members do not have other employment and describe handling county government business as a full-time job.

"And it is a very demanding job," said County Council member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg-Rockville). He added that he has averaged 60 hours a week since being elected in 1998. "We have a $4 billion in budgets that we decide on. . . . The county is larger than several states."

If the amendment passes, it won't affect the salaries of County Council members who are elected Tuesday because members are prohibited from raising their own salaries.

"The bottom line is the current salary level for the County Council is not commensurate with the job responsibilities or the job required to do it well," Andrews said.

Under the county charter, council members are permitted to hold other jobs, unlike the county executive, who is specified as a full-time employee.

Council members who take office Dec. 4 will make nearly $85,000 a year. The council president will make 10 percent more, just above $93,000.

The second county ballot question is a proposal to clarify when the County Council must send enacted legislation to the county executive and when the executive must act on it.

"It doesn't change any substance," Faden said. "There was ambiguity on when the days started and ended, so the county attorney and the council's legal staff got together to clarify the timeline."

In Frederick County, the lone local ballot question is on the sale of alcoholic beverages in the "dry" Tuscarora district.

Voters will decide whether to permit issuing licenses for the sale of beer, wine and liquor for businesses in the district. Current law prohibits issuing any alcoholic beverage licenses.

If residents vote for permitting licenses, the law will take effect 30 days after the official counting of votes.