Charter Amendment

I recently read the article titled "Bill would all City Council to dedicate funds for school facilities" written by Erica Green ( June 1). I applaud the Baltimore City Council for taking a strong and affirmative action to address Baltimore City's efforts to improve its public school facilities. The initiative taken by the City Council to set up an account to pay for school construction and athletic facilities is something I've strongly advocated for in my many years of public service.

When Baltimore voters go to polls Tuesday, they will decide on two charter amendments designed to address a pressing problem in the city and a lingering one. The first is an effort to tackle the estimated $2.8 billion in unmet needs for school construction and renovation, and the other is an attempt to increase political engagement in a city where few bothered to vote in the primary election and, sadly, even fewer are likely to cast ballots in Tuesday's...

The Annapolis City Council approved a measure last night that allows the city to establish an independent, non-elected board to fund large-scale urban development.The council, in a 5-4 vote, approved a charter amendment that gives the city the power to create a revenue authority. Such boards finance local construction projects and urban revitalization plans privately instead of through local government.The bitterly divided council voted only to make such a revenue authority legal. Decisions about the size, scope and sweep of the city's revenue authority will come later.

Voters who cast ballots in Tuesday's general election will have a chance to weigh in on two issues concerning the city's younger residents. One of the charter amendments would put aside money for repairing and building schools, an initiative inspired by an American Civil Liberties Union report that found city schools needed $2.8 billion in work to fix damaged windows and doors and heating and cooling systems, among other problems. The other amendment would give residents as young as 18 the right to serve on the City Council.

Howard County voters on Election Day will get a chance to amend the county charter so that many zoning decisions can be brought to referendum in future elections. If the amendment is approved, it will mean a major restructuring in the way the county makes zoning changes and in the balance of power within county government.Despite the referendum's superficial appeal as a way of giving residents a direct say over land-use decisions, this is not a step that should be taken.Charter Amendment B, the so-called zoning question, should not be approved.

The new charter amendment governing Howard County's zoning process will have little effect on the day-to-day business of developers and opponents of development, now that the County Council has exempted most zoning changes from its scope.Long term, however, the amendment could mean the end of comprehensive rezoning -- the very process it was meant to improve, says Darrel Drown, a Republican council member from the First District, who chairs the Zoning Board."Saying to land owners, 'We have the possibility of court cases and referendums and all those things,' is such a scary tactic," Mr. Drown said.

Opponents of a proposed Redskins stadium in Laurel are vowing to continue their petition drive to place a charter amendment on the November ballot that would prohibit the use of county funds for large sports facilities, even though the Anne Arundel County Council voted down the amendment.Jeanne Mignon, president of Citizens Against the Stadium II, said after the council's Tuesday night vote that her group has nearly half the 10,000 signatures needed to put the charter amendment on the ballot.

All new city government employees would have to live in Baltimore under terms of a charter amendment introduced into the Baltimore City Council last night.The measure, introduced by Councilman Wilbur E. Cunningham, would affect city employees hired after Jan. 1, 1993.The council resolution comes a month after Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke suggested that all government workers be required to live in the city.But, while Mr. Schmoke could simply issue an executive order to impose the requirement, the charter amendment could not take effect without public hearings and approval by the voters.

Decrying what he called a "perversely political" redistricting process, Douglas B. Riley proposed last night the expansion of the Baltimore County Council from seven to nine seats, the establishment of a citizen commission to redraw district lines and mandatory public hearings on new district maps - all in time for a special election in 2004. Riley, a Towson Republican and a former councilman who is running for county executive, put forward the first detailed proposal for an amendment to the county charter since a public outcry over County Council redistricting three months ago. Announcing his plans at a meeting of the Greater Parkville Community Council, Riley said he will solicit input on his amendment and, if there is enough interest, seek the 10,000 signatures it would take to put it on the ballot next year.

ROCKVILLE -- A Montgomery County tax-revolt group finds itself in the unusual position of opposing a charter amendment to limit government spending that it worked for months to put on the November ballot.The group, Fairness in Taxation, consists of residents who balked at high property tax assessments earlier this year and sought relief through a charter amendment that would limit county property tax increases to 75 percent of the inflation rate in the area.Four County Council members, fearful of support for th proposal -- despite a 16-cent reduction in the tax rate and the statewide cap on assessments -- worked out a compromise with FIT that would limit tax increases to the area's rate of inflation.

I recently read the article titled "Bill would all City Council to dedicate funds for school facilities" written by Erica Green ( June 1). I applaud the Baltimore City Council for taking a strong and affirmative action to address Baltimore City's efforts to improve its public school facilities. The initiative taken by the City Council to set up an account to pay for school construction and athletic facilities is something I've strongly advocated for in my many years of public service.

If some city residents have felt a little lost recently, wondering who represents them on the City Council, they were not alone. The Baltimore City Law Department has been befogged as well. Late in March, that office issued an opinion saying that the recently redrawn map defining City Council districts would go into effect April 1. This meant, in effect, that some 72,000 city residents who were represented by one council member on Thursday, March 31, were suddenly represented by another on Friday, April 1 — April Fool's Day. Change of representation happens in political life, but most of the time it is caused by an election.

Baltimore voters will decide in November whether to allow city officials to make more purchases without a public announcement. Under the charter amendment, which was approved by a 9-6 vote of the City Council on Monday evening, expenses less than $25,000 would no longer require approval from the Board of Estimates. Currently, all expenditures greater than $5,000 require spending board approval. The measure, which was introduced at the request of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, would also change the threshold at which city contracts would have to be advertised.

A direct-mail appeal to 20,000 mostly Republican voters this weekend is Howard County Republicans' last chance to pull what has been a losing charter referendum petition drive out of a death spiral as time runs out. With two weeks until the Aug. 9 deadline for collecting 10,000 valid signatures to place a charter amendment on the Nov. 2 ballot, petition drive chairman Ken Aldrich said he has fewer than 3,000 signatures. He needs about 15,000 overall to end up with enough valid signatures for the Taxpayer Protection Initiative.

After months of debate over whether Annapolis should change its form of government by hiring a city manager to take over some of the mayor's duties, the Annapolis city council voted down Monday two versions of a "city manager" amendment that many Annapolitans argued would allow the city to be more professionally run. One version of the amendment - sponsored by Aldermen Ross H. Arnett III, Richard E. Israel, Samuel Shropshire and Julie Stankivic -...

Anne Arundel residents, asked to decide for the first time whether some school board members should retain their seats, voted to keep Tricia L. Johnson of Davidsonville and Teresa Milio Birge of Odenton. Voters defeated a charter amendment designed to clarify procedures for laws passed by the County Council but returned unsigned by the county executive, and passed a charter amendment requiring the council to nominate Ethics Commission members.

Foes of a proposed NFL stadium in Laurel have failed in their bid to place a charter amendment on the November ballot that would prohibit Anne Arundel County from using funds for large sports facilities.Citizens Against the Stadium II, an anti-stadium group named after an organization that fought an earlier Redskins stadium proposal in Virginia, needed to file 10,000 signatures by 5 p.m. yesterday to place the charter amendment on the November general election ballot.However, Nancy Crawford, administrator for the county board of election supervisors, said no petitions were received by the 5 p.m. deadline.

The Annapolis city council is expected to decide tonight whether to give an unelected panel the authority to oversee public projects involving transportation and parking.The council is to vote on a charter amendment, sponsored by Democratic Alderman Ellen O. Moyer of Ward 8, that would create an Annapolis parking and transportation authority.Gathering enough votes might prove difficult, however, because many candidates have made the issue a hot topic this election year.Despite objections from some residents, the council adopted a charter amendment in May 1993 authorizing such an authority.

As much attention has been given the historic presidential race and, locally, statewide questions on early voting and slot machines, Marylanders will discover tomorrow that their ballots include a number of items that have attracted considerably less attention, from appellate court appointees to local bond issues that require voter approval. Baltimore County's ballot issues are typical of these choices. All but one are routine matters of borrowing money to finance parks, storm drainage, street repair, community college construction and rural land preservation, and voters should approve them.