County charter commission opposes initiative to limit county executive to two terms, proposes three-term lifetime limit

Other recommendations include measure requiring two-thirds vote from council on budget matters

June 19, 2024 2:44 p.m.

Editor’s note: This story was published at 10:44 a.m. on June 19, 2024. It was updated at 5:28 p.m. on June 19, 2024 to clarify that the signatures of the ballot initiative petition still need to be verified by the Montgomery County Board of Elections in order for the initiative to appear on the ballot.

Montgomery County’s Charter Review Commission is recommending an expansion of term limits for the county executive while opposing a local initiative that would only allow two terms of service.

The commission unanimously opposes the “2T” charter amendment ballot initiative put forward by former Montgomery County Republican Central Committee chair and 2022 GOP nominee for county executive Reardon Sullivan through a nonpartisan group called the Committee for Better Government.

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That initiative calls for limiting the county executive to serving two terms. The proposed amendment has received more than 12,000 signatures, thereby meeting the 10,000-signature threshold required by state law to appear on the November 2024 election ballot, according to organizers. However, at least 10,000 of those signatures must be verified by the Montgomery County Board of Elections in order to for the proposal to actually appear on the ballot. 

According to a press release from the elections board, the organizers submitted 12,000 signatures June 13 and the board is in the process of reviewing them. The elections board has 20 days from the day of submission to verify. The petitioners can submit additional signatures before the July 29 legal deadline.

As an alternative, the commission is recommending the charter be changed to limit a county executive to serving a total of three terms throughout the executive’s lifetime. Currently, a county executive could technically be elected to serve more than three terms, as long as an additional term is not consecutive with the first three.

“That’s because of how our three-term limit works. It does not actually prevent somebody from serving more than three terms,” commission chair Jim Michaels said during a presentation to the County Council on Tuesday. “It actually doesn’t prevent somebody from serving an unlimited number of terms if they take enough breaks in service.”

Michaels noted that only two of the county’s seven county executives have served more than two terms.

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The 11-member commission is appointed by the County Council and is tasked with presenting a report to the council in May of every even-numbered year and to present proposed amendments members believe should be made to the county charter. Michaels said the commission held several community outreach sessions as part of its process this year.

Sullivan’s 2T initiative has received bipartisan support and is considered a nonpartisan initiative, but has been amplified by the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee (MCGOP) at its events and in communications.

“You’ll see signature collectors at grocery stores, at community events and local fairs and festivals,” MCGOP chair Dennis Melby wrote in a newsletter Monday. “Now’s your chance to treat the County Exec like the US President and the MD Governor, and most of the other Maryland County Executives – two terms (2T).”

According to the MCGOP, most of the signatures on the petition have come from Democrats and independent voters.

Michaels said the current makeup of the commission includes five registered Democrats, one registered Republican and four unaffiliated or independent voters. Michaels serves on the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee (MCDCC).

County Executive Marc Elrich (D) has criticized the 2T Initiative, calling it a ploy to remove him from office. Elrich is serving his second four-year term.

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“I think it’s bad for politics. I wouldn’t do this to a Republican. If the voters want to elect somebody, they should be able to elect who they want,” Elrich told MoCo360 last fall after the initiative was introduced.

Sullivan has maintained that despite his unsuccessful 2022 run against Elrich, he says his term-limit initiative is not personal.

“It’s not that I don’t like Marc Elrich … he’s a good person with a different vision than mine,” Sullivan told MoCo360 last fall. “For me, this is more of a matter of what’s the right thing to do.”

Councilmember Evan Glass (D-At-large) criticized the ballot initiative process and its 10,000-signature threshold during the commission’s presentation on Tuesday.

“I have major concerns with a decades-old process that the state of Maryland allows for the county’s charter commissions to operate,” Glass said. “More specifically, it is the Maryland constitution that allows for referenda to get onto the ballot with an extremely small percentage of the population supporting them.”

For context, Glass noted, 343,371 people voted in the 2022 election in 2022, and 10,000 signatures would equate to 2.9% of those voters.

Councilmember Gabe Albornoz (D-At-large) shared similar concerns. He said in the past, groups supporting ballot initiatives have hired outside organizers to gather signatures for  their petitions.

“I myself personally have had interactions with people that were aggressive, dishonest, unprofessional, and with a threshold that low, it creates the opportunity for nefarious

behavior,” Alboroz said. “And there’s no way to police that.”

Albornoz and councilmember Dawn Luedtke (D-Dist. 7) said they hope the Maryland General Assembly will take action to change the way state law handles ballot initiatives.

Luedtke and councilmember Kristin Mink (D-Dist. 4) specifically said they were concerned with the way ballot initiatives are often written, and voters’ understanding of them at the ballot box. Luedtke encouraged the commission to come up with “plain language” wording for any that may go forward.

“We know what each one means and we know what it says and you know what it says better than anybody, but to the average voter, maybe not so much,” Luedtke said.

Other recommendations from the commission include requiring the council to confirm all job appointments made by the county executive and a recommendation that certain budget decisions would require a two-thirds vote from the council rather than a majority vote. Those circumstances would include an annual county operating budget that exceeds the previous year’s budget after adjustment for inflation, an increase in property tax rates to fund the budget, and the overall approval of the operating budget, according to council documents.

For any of the commission’s proposed charter amendments to be placed onto the November ballot, any councilmember must contact the council’s legislative attorneys by July 1 for language to be drafted so that the proposed amendment can be introduced during its July 9 meeting. The council then would hold a public hearing on any proposed charter amendments and take action to send proposals to the Montgomery County Board of Elections.

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