Proposed Charter

South Carroll Republican Club will meet at 7: 30 p.m. Tuesday in the community room of Carroll County Bank and Trust Co. in Eldersburg.A panel of supporters and opponents will debate the proposal for charter government with a county executive and council to replace the commissioner system in Carroll County. Copies of the proposed charter will be available.Refreshments will be served.The bank is at Routes 32 and 26; entrance is by the door at the left of the bank lobby.Information: 410-781-6316.

A city councilman's proposed amendment to ethics legislation introduced by Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake would violate the terms of Baltimore's charter, according to an opinion issued by the city solicitor. The proposal, intended to limit the mayor's influence over the ethics board, was suggested by Councilman Bill Henry last week, but he has not drafted an amendment. Currently, the mayor controls all nominations to the five-member volunteer panel, which came under scrutiny during former Mayor Sheila Dixon's public corruption trial.

About 40 Carroll County residents have formed Citizens Against Big Charter Government to campaign against the proposed charter change in local government.Voters will decide May 2 if the three-commissioner form of government will remain in Carroll. Two initiatives on the ballot will ask voters whether to expand the commissioner board to five or change to an executive and county council.The anti-charter group has been meeting for about a month, said Carmen Amedori, who served nearly nine months as chairwoman of the charter-writing board.

The Baltimore County Council voted last night to ask the voters to remove a prohibition in the county charter on council members' working for the state - a restriction that was overlooked twice in the last decade. Also last night, the council approved a deal with a developer to transform the razed site of a crime-ridden apartment complex in Essex into a village of mixed-income housing. Under the agreement, the county will give $4.1 million in subsidies and the 18 acres that had been the site of the Kingsley Park apartments to a development team.

WESTMINSTER -- The committee promoting charter government for Carroll might have to wait longer than it had hoped to raise the curtain on its full-scale campaign."

The County Commissioners asked the local State House delegation yesterday to draft emergency legislation that would allow prospective candidates for offices created by a proposed charter to file after a state-imposed July 6 deadline.The bill would extend the filing deadline for the September primary to Aug. 8. The commissioners acted on the advice of the state attorney general's office."This request for a departure from the normal deadline is for this election only because of special circumstances," said Commissioner Donald I. Dell.

After a monthlong controversy, the Baltimore County Council approved last night a proposed charter amendment for the November ballot that would give the county executive the power to keep his office staff outside the civil service merit system.The vote was 6-1, despite the continued opposition of a group of high-level county bureaucrats known as the Supervisory, Management and Confidential (SMC) employees, who believe any change to the county's charter deserves more time for consideration.

A set of proposed charter amendments for Annapolis that would change the face of city government received high praise from residents, business owners and civic organizations at a city council public hearing last night.Supporters applauded the 11 proposals, calling them "long overdue." The proposals include placing day-to-day government operations in the hands of a city administrator, abolishing city council committees and prohibiting aldermen from interfering in the city's daily operations.

A festive group of anti-charter advocates gathered in the sunshine outside Carroll County's historic courthouse yesterday to air their objections to a proposed change in the county's form of government, in place for more than 100 years."

The Carroll County Commissioners' jobs would be eliminated -- if voters decide they should go -- under a proposed charter approved last night.The Carroll County Charter Board endorsed a charter that would replace the three commissioners with an executive and county council.Hampstead Mayor Christopher M. Nevin, the board vice chairman, and New Windsor Mayor Jack A. Gullo Jr., who wrote the proposed charter, planned to deliver a copy to the commissioners by the start of business today.Officials will have 30 days to publish the proposal twice in local newspapers and up to 90 days to schedule a special election to submit it to county voters.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqis began voting early today in a landmark referendum on a draft constitution that could be a key step in the country's passage to democratic rule. As the polls opened at 7 a.m., a few people were seen walking down empty streets in Baghdad heavily guarded by Iraqi soldiers and police to schools where polling stations were fortified with concrete barriers. Yesterday, Shiite religious leaders mobilized followers for a major show of support in favor of Iraq's draft constitution, hoping to secure approval of the charter in the face of continued opposition among angry but increasingly divided Sunnis.

Gauging quality of a charter school Howard County school board member Joshua Kaufman wants to be convinced that the proposed Columbia Public Charter School will offer an "education quality [that] will be as good or better than the ones offered in other schools in Howard County" (in "Parents pursue Columbia charter school," April 20). What Mr. Kaufman fails to say in the article is what yardstick he intends to use to measure the educational quality of the proposed charter school. If Mr. Kaufman and the rest of the school board evaluate the "education quality" of the proposed charter school using the same measures they use for the rest of the school system, they will undoubtedly refuse to accept the charter.

THE ISSUE: CHARTER SCHOOLS Last week, the Anne Arundel County school board approved an application for a proposed science and technology charter school in Glen Burnie, but rejected an application for a charter school aiming to improve the achievement of low-performing Annapolis students. The Annapolis group plans to appeal to the state board. Charter schools operate independently of the school system but receive public funds and face the same state and federal mandates. Debate has focused on the need for such schools.

Echoes of last year's battle that resulted in a countywide tax increase drew nearly all of the speakers at last night's monthly County Council public hearing. This time the tax fight is over a proposed charter amendment that would - if approved by county voters - make it harder for an executive to raise income taxes or property taxes. County Executive James N. Robey, a Democrat, pushed through a 30 percent income tax rate increase last spring, with support from the council's three Democrats.

Howard County's Republicans are eagerly backing a petition to limit the county executive's ability to raise taxes via a charter referendum, but the party's two most prominent elder statesmen oppose the idea. Charles I. Ecker, a two-term county executive, and Charles C. Feaga, a three-term councilman and a county executive candidate in 1998, said changing the structure of government because of one tax increase is not wise. Both men opposed the 30 percent income tax increase pushed through last year by Democrat County Executive James N. Robey.

Montgomery County voters have petitioned a proposal for a tougher property tax limit on next year's election ballot, election officials confirmed yesterday, setting off the fourth such effort there in the past decade. "The [Montgomery] population is increasing slowly, but the county budget is up 50 percent in six years," said Robin Ficker, a Republican gadfly whose property tax limit petitions were certified Thursday by the Montgomery County election board. Ficker's amendment would remove the Montgomery council's ability to override a 1990 inflation-linked limit on property tax increases.

Gauging quality of a charter school Howard County school board member Joshua Kaufman wants to be convinced that the proposed Columbia Public Charter School will offer an "education quality [that] will be as good or better than the ones offered in other schools in Howard County" (in "Parents pursue Columbia charter school," April 20). What Mr. Kaufman fails to say in the article is what yardstick he intends to use to measure the educational quality of the proposed charter school. If Mr. Kaufman and the rest of the school board evaluate the "education quality" of the proposed charter school using the same measures they use for the rest of the school system, they will undoubtedly refuse to accept the charter.

A special election will be held Tuesday to determine whether Frederick County should replace its current government with home rule.Proponents of the proposed charter argue that it is needed to give local authorities legislative powers that now largely rest in Annapolis. Opponents say the charter would only create an unnecessarily expensive form of government that goes against the advice of Thomas Jefferson: "That government is best which governs least."Frederick County, which is less than an hour's drive from both Baltimore and Washington, has been experiencing explosive growth in the past two decades.

The Baltimore County Board of Education apparently has become the first school board in Maryland to formally oppose Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich's bill to make it easier to start charter schools. Board members voted unanimously Tuesday night in favor of a resolution opposing the governor's proposal for nonsectarian, tuition-free charter schools. "I see this as being detrimental - this whole charter and choice movement - to public education," said Warren C. Hayman, a board member. Ehrlich proposed last week bringing Maryland in line with 39 other states that allow universities, the state school board and other institutions to create charter schools, which are funded by school systems but run independently of them.

Days after the Baltimore County Council redrew district lines, residents across the county are advancing proposals to overhaul a process they say shuts out the public and protects incumbents. Changes to the council's initial redistricting proposal after two public hearings diminished some of the widespread opposition to the plan, but they didn't lessen complaints about the process, leading many to demand changes to the county's charter. "After the second hearing, in fact, almost before the first hearing was over, we knew there were going to be some changes, but we knew we were not going to like them," said Calvin L. Reter, president of the Reisterstown/Owings Mills/Glyndon Coordinating Council.