I have some questions concerning the draft charter sections.
ARTICLE 4
Executive
404 Term of Office
(b) No Executive may serve more than two four-year
consecutive terms.
Why consecutive? If the goal is to keep executives from serving for decades should that not be removed? Our current Commission President is in his fourth term and would be qualified under this wording.
405. Qualifications
must be a resident and
five-year registered voter of the County
I strongly object to including residency requirements in order to be elected. This not only excludes potentially highly qualified applicants but also insures that anyone running has been carefully vetted and well funded by the powers that be in the county. Requiring residency after election is fine but this provision seems designed to avoid loss of power by those who currently hold it. The time limit on voter registration makes it likely to extend the requirement even more. Unless there is a pending election, who registers to vote as one of the first things they do after a move?
406. Compensation
the Executive
shall receive: (1) a Salary of $150,000 per annum;
The Salary of the Executive may not be increased or reduced during his
or her current term.
What research has gone into this salary? Since the term of office will not start until after the 2016 election this locks this salary in place for 6 years before it is reviewed. If it turns out to be not competitive, the likelihood of attracting good candidates becomes rather small. With no provision for inflation it also risks mid term departure due to family financial reasons and the disruption that would go with that.
Seriously under paying an individual with this sort of power also increases the chance of graft.
ARTICLE 2.
County Council
206. Term of office
(d) A council member shall not have more than 4 absences, from regularly scheduled standing
council meetings, in a calendar year. This is not to include attendance at Special Meetings called
within the calendar year.
(e) Each council member shall be required to host at least quarterly (4) townhalls within their
respective district each calendar year. The At Large member shall be required to host at least 1
townhall per district within the calendar year.
Or what happens???? This needs to be clearly defined and reviewed by county attorneys. Otherwise it is meaningless and gives the impression that charter can do something it cannot.
210. Vacancies
The Council shall provide by law for the conduct of special elections to fill any vacancy
on the Council that occurs during the first 3 years of a term.
Special elections for a single position are prohibitively expensive and likely to have a low turnout not reflective of voter intent.
We found the LTE by Chairman Waring interesting. He quotes positions of the "Residents" based ont he meetings and public input - Could he provide some metrics to that.. of 170,000 folks, how many people took the Survey, how many eComments did you Receive to date, Im counting about a dozen.. what maybe 200 people total in ALL your public meetings?-- and that eComment process is total crap-ware. Ive had several older folks email me for help to get through the process, itws almost hidden on the agend page -- then it goes offline - There should be a SIMPLE, ONE CLICK solution at the Charter Page. i.e. .Click here to submit a comment for the next meeting. Thank you all for your service. v/r ken
Good evening my name is Frank Gilliard IV long time resident of Waldorf. I recently attended the meeting at the West Library where I was brought up to speed on the limitations of our current government structure vs. the advantages of the proposed charter. During that meeting the County Executive position was discussed, specifically the qualifications and residency requirements. One gentleman expressed concern that we might be too restrictive with some of the requirements to be eligible for this position. Since then I was pondering what exactly that gentleman's concern was.
I think the main concern was whether or not our talent pool was deep enough within the county to produce someone not only qualified but also willing and available to serve in the Executive position? If not then what? So my thoughts are as follows:
- I agree with the minimum age of 25
- I think the qualifications should be further broken down into minimum, highly desired and expectations after accepting position.
- Under the minimum qualifications I recommend dropping the initial residency requirement with the expectation that residency should be established within say 9 months (just a suggestion) which is approximately the length of a school year if kids are involved. This will allow us to cast a wider net to at least get a look at what talent outside of the county might offer. Under the highly desired we can get specific with the residency requirements. This will communicate that although we prefer an established resident we will consider applicants outside of the county if they meet the minimum requirements. This helps to ensure that we potentially get the best candidates available to fill the position.
- Ultimately this process will look how we want it to look and breaking out the qualifications section alleviates a potential self induced handcuff from the inception of the charter. Just a few thoughts thanks for reading. I will be perusing the other sections and providing feedback as necessary.
I have some questions concerning the draft charter sections.
ARTICLE 4
Executive
404 Term of Office
(b) No Executive may serve more than two four-year
consecutive terms.
Why consecutive? If the goal is to keep executives from serving for decades should that not be removed? Our current Commission President is in his fourth term and would be qualified under this wording.
405. Qualifications
must be a resident and
five-year registered voter of the County
I strongly object to including residency requirements in order to be elected. This not only excludes potentially highly qualified applicants but also insures that anyone running has been carefully vetted and well funded by the powers that be in the county. Requiring residency after election is fine but this provision seems designed to avoid loss of power by those who currently hold it. The time limit on voter registration makes it likely to extend the requirement even more. Unless there is a pending election, who registers to vote as one of the first things they do after a move?
406. Compensation
the Executive
shall receive: (1) a Salary of $150,000 per annum;
The Salary of the Executive may not be increased or reduced during his
or her current term.
What research has gone into this salary? Since the term of office will not start until after the 2016 election this locks this salary in place for 6 years before it is reviewed. If it turns out to be not competitive, the likelihood of attracting good candidates becomes rather small. With no provision for inflation it also risks mid term departure due to family financial reasons and the disruption that would go with that.
Seriously under paying an individual with this sort of power also increases the chance of graft.
ARTICLE 2.
County Council
206. Term of office
(d) A council member shall not have more than 4 absences, from regularly scheduled standing
council meetings, in a calendar year. This is not to include attendance at Special Meetings called
within the calendar year.
(e) Each council member shall be required to host at least quarterly (4) townhalls within their
respective district each calendar year. The At Large member shall be required to host at least 1
townhall per district within the calendar year.
Or what happens???? This needs to be clearly defined and reviewed by county attorneys. Otherwise it is meaningless and gives the impression that charter can do something it cannot.
210. Vacancies
The Council shall provide by law for the conduct of special elections to fill any vacancy
on the Council that occurs during the first 3 years of a term.
Special elections for a single position are prohibitively expensive and likely to have a low turnout not reflective of voter intent.
We found the LTE by Chairman Waring interesting. He quotes positions of the "Residents" based ont he meetings and public input - Could he provide some metrics to that.. of 170,000 folks, how many people took the Survey, how many eComments did you Receive to date, Im counting about a dozen.. what maybe 200 people total in ALL your public meetings?-- and that eComment process is total crap-ware. Ive had several older folks email me for help to get through the process, itws almost hidden on the agend page -- then it goes offline - There should be a SIMPLE, ONE CLICK solution at the Charter Page. i.e. .Click here to submit a comment for the next meeting. Thank you all for your service. v/r ken
Good evening my name is Frank Gilliard IV long time resident of Waldorf. I recently attended the meeting at the West Library where I was brought up to speed on the limitations of our current government structure vs. the advantages of the proposed charter. During that meeting the County Executive position was discussed, specifically the qualifications and residency requirements. One gentleman expressed concern that we might be too restrictive with some of the requirements to be eligible for this position. Since then I was pondering what exactly that gentleman's concern was.
I think the main concern was whether or not our talent pool was deep enough within the county to produce someone not only qualified but also willing and available to serve in the Executive position? If not then what? So my thoughts are as follows:
- I agree with the minimum age of 25
- I think the qualifications should be further broken down into minimum, highly desired and expectations after accepting position.
- Under the minimum qualifications I recommend dropping the initial residency requirement with the expectation that residency should be established within say 9 months (just a suggestion) which is approximately the length of a school year if kids are involved. This will allow us to cast a wider net to at least get a look at what talent outside of the county might offer. Under the highly desired we can get specific with the residency requirements. This will communicate that although we prefer an established resident we will consider applicants outside of the county if they meet the minimum requirements. This helps to ensure that we potentially get the best candidates available to fill the position.
- Ultimately this process will look how we want it to look and breaking out the qualifications section alleviates a potential self induced handcuff from the inception of the charter. Just a few thoughts thanks for reading. I will be perusing the other sections and providing feedback as necessary.