St. Mary's To Keep Style of Governing
Commissioners Kill Idea to Let Voters Weigh In

By Megan Greenwell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 2, 2008

The St. Mary's County commissioners have decided unanimously to kill a proposal that would have allowed voters to decide whether to change the county's form of government.

The 5 to 0 vote Tuesday formally ended more than a year of studying which government structure best suits the county, a process that was introduced in late 2006 by Commissioner Daniel H. Raley (D-Great Mills). In the end, the commissioners chose to stick with the commissioner form of government, citing lack of enthusiasm among county residents in changing the system this year.

"The simple fact is, there wasn't enough public interest for the commissioners to really push this forward," said Michael Cain, director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at St. Mary's College of Maryland and an authority on Southern Maryland politics.

In voting to keep the current form of government, the commissioners overruled a conclusion reached by the Form of Government Task Force, whose members they appointed last year. Twelve of the task force's 15 members recommended that the county make some change to its form of government.

Counties in Maryland typically choose among the commissioner, code home rule or charter forms of government. The commissioner form, which is used by Calvert and six other counties in addition to St. Mary's, requires the state legislature to approve many local laws.

Code home rule, which was adopted by Charles County in 2002, also uses elected commissioners as the county's primary governors but gives them more authority over local laws. Charter government is roughly equivalent to state and federal governments, with more defined divisions between executive and legislative functions, making an elected county executive the county's chief operating officer. That system is used in nine Maryland counties, including Montgomery, Prince George's and Anne Arundel.

At Tuesday's meeting, the commissioners acknowledged the recommendation of the task force to move to a new system, but said the low turnout of county residents at public hearings indicated that a change was not needed. Raley estimated that about 12 people had come to four town hall meetings combined.

"I do think charter government is the best choice, but I do understand their decision not to go forward," said Kathleen O'Brien, a member of the task force who was among the majority that recommended a switch. "They put it out there for the citizenry to come forward, and there just wasn't a lot of interest."

The commissioners had already ruled out a move to charter government in the fall, voting, 4 to 0, to stop the process of exploring such a change. But the commissioners verbally supported the idea of allowing the task force to continue to study a switch to code home rule.

Cain said that as the county grows, a move toward charter government will become a more pressing issue. An elected county executive would be able to oversee all the governmental departments more efficiently than five commissioners, he said, and it would be easier to hold someone accountable for success or failure.

"It's not that the old form of government doesn't function well; it's just that a new form would function better and be able to do more."

O'Brien agreed, but added that changes in government usually result from a crisis within the county. In the absence of a time-sensitive problem, she said, the commissioners did not have much incentive to push a change through.

"It's really about timing," she said. "It may be that we just haven't gotten to that point yet."