Still Bad for County Government in Prince George's

“Prince George's voters to decide on executive's responsibilities.”

This is the headline from a weblog posted on October 15^th from an article in the Prince George’s Examiner. I would like to quote two sections of this article for you, my fellow citizens and voters of proud Prince George’s. The first refers to the depth of change which would take place if we do not vote NO on the proposed charter amendments: BCFGH . “The changes to the county charter would grant the council several powers generally unavailable to the legislative bodies of other Maryland counties with elected executives. They include the power to approve or reject all contracts totaling more than $100,000.”

I continue to search for any examples to support the position that voting for these Horribly Bad For County Government amendments would bring our county into line with other jurisdictions. What I do find is summed up in the second quote from the article. “Other proposed charter changes would require the council's approval before positions could be added to county agencies or before transfers of more than $250,000 could be made within county departments. Although the council must now sign off on the county's budget, the executive has significant power to reprogram money after its approval. Eliminating those powers would give the council wide authority to determine priorities of government departments.”

Whatever the original idea, these five amendments are bad for business, bad for government, and bad for the county. What we need is more democracy, not less. We need more direct accountability, not more fetters and chains, and temporal coalitions built to gain aggregations of interest groups necessary to move votes of consultations. We need action, direction, and execution. We have already the tools to watch over excesses; we need enforce the current laws and regulations if we sense the taint of corruption. We need to trust that we the voters will deal with the chief executive if he strays too far a-field. And remember, we have already limited the extent of his or her power with term limits.

Building coalitions of interest groups already is a challenge which taxes many local groups who try to move government. Adding to the layer of complexity is not a solution, but an impediment. The ballot and the vote,; not the expanded legislative partnership, is what we need.

Vote NO BCFGH on November 7^th, and vote for democracy.