Baltimore County voters have rejected a referendum question that would have permitted County Council members to be employed by state agencies. Opponents said the change could have led to conflicts of interest.
Had it passed, the measure would have triggered a change in the county's charter, which forbids such crossover jobs.
With all but three of the county's 219 precincts reporting, 157,514 voters, almost 54 percent, were against the charter amendment, while 135,077 (46 percent) were in favor.
"Interestingly, it was the only question to be defeated," said County Council Chairman Kevin B. Kamenetz, an opponent of the measure, alluding to the 10 referendum items on the ballot. The other nine authorize the county to borrow $255 million for a variety of purposes, including $105.2 million for schools and $84 million for public-works projects.
The change in the charter might have left people employed by both the county and the state "open to the potential for political abuse" and conflicts of interest, said Kamenetz, a lawyer and former assistant state's attorney. He was also unimpressed with a contention by proponents that it would help boost the number of people running for seats on the County Council, whose members serve part time.
"The motivation to expand the pool of potential candidates is specious," Kamenetz said. "There's no shortage of available, qualified candidates."
More to the point, he said, council members might "get political hack jobs" as state employees, "and I think we want to avoid that situation."
Kamenetz and T. Bryan McIntire cast the only dissenting votes last year when the seven-member council approved a bill placing the question on Tuesday's ballot. The bill was sponsored by councilmen Vincent J. Gardina. and John Olszewski Sr. Gardina had inadvertently violated the charter by working for five months in 2003 as a supervisor of dredging projects for the Maryland Environmental Service, an independent state agency.
After the measure had been defeated, Gardina said it was clear why, and who was at fault.
"I don't think the people understood it, mainly because it was improperly criticized by councilman Kamenetz," said Gardina, a math teacher at a private boys' school.
Gardina dismissed the council chairman's contention that competing interests would be set in motion by working for more than one master. "He said there were conflicts if interest, where there is no conflict of interest at all," Gardina said. "According to that logic, you couldn't do any work for any company that does any work for Baltimore County."
