ALERT---Charter Amendment Alert! ~ Annapolis Capital Punishment
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Wednesday, May 6, 2009

ALERT---Charter Amendment Alert!

Aldermen Hoyle and Shropshire, almost assuredly with backing from the mayor, are trying to push our upcoming elections back a year, thus ensuring Ellen "O" Moyer will remain in office another year as well. This is real. This is not a test. It is an actual emergency. You are instructed to read this, reflect upon it and freak out...now. Call your alderman. Write a letter to the editor. It goes to first reader on Monday night. Luckily for Moyer, Hoyer and Shropshire, I'll be away that night. But you can go. And should. And make a big stink. If this passes, it throws the current election into a dither but worst of all, it means another year of Moyer and that is unacceptable. And it means Josh Cohen can compete his county council term. The time to make our elections coincide with the state and county elections is well in advance of the next election and NOT five months away. Moyer, Hoyer and Shropshire--you have overstepped the bounds this time. This is wrong:
(Some of the formatting may have dropped out. You can visit here for details: www.annapolis.gov/oh shit)


CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ANNAPOLIS
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3 CHARTER AMENDMENT NO. CA-06-09
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5 Introduced by Alderman Shropshire
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7 Co-sponsored by Alderwoman Hoyle
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LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
First Reading: Public Hearing: Fiscal Impact Note: 120 Day Rule:
05/11/09 09/08/09
Referred to: Meeting Date: Action Taken:
Elections Board
Rules and City Gov’t
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11 A RESOLUTION concerning
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13 Municipal Elections Coinciding with County, State, and Federal
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15 FOR the purposes of establishing the primary and general elections as coinciding with
16 the county, state, and federal elections in 2010 and extending the current term of
17 the sitting Mayor and Aldermen/Alderwomen by one year.
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19 BY repealing and reenacting with amendments following portions of the City Charter:
20 Article II, Section 2
21 Article II, Section 5
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23 SECTION I: BE IT ESTABLISHED AND ORDAINED BY THE ANNAPOLIS CITY
24 COUNCIL that the Charter of the City of Annapolis shall be amended to read as follows:
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26 Article II ELECTION OF MAYOR AND ALDERMEN
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28 Sec. 2. General election dates.
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30 The citizens and residents of the City of Annapolis qualified to vote for members of the
31 General Assembly of Maryland, and otherwise qualified by the registration and election
32 laws for such cases made and provided, shall elect by ballot, every four (4) years,
33 beginning in 1985 2010, on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, a
34 mayor; and the qualified voters, in each ward shall at the same time elect by ballot one
35 (1) resident of the ward as alderman.
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Sec. 5. Primary election dates; municipal election dates; term dates.
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3 Nomination for a mayor and for one (1) alderman from each ward in the city shall be
4 made by direct vote of the respective political parties at primary elections to be held in
5 the city for the several candidates for mayor and, in each ward of the city, for the
6 several candidates for aldermen, on the third Tuesday of September in each year in
7 which municipal elections in the city are to be held. Municipal elections shall be held on
8 the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in every fourth year, beginning with
9 the year 1985 2010. However, in the event an election will occur on the same day as
10 the public observance of a religious holiday, or in case of severe weather, the board of
11 supervisors of elections shall have the authority to reschedule the election to a day
12 within one week of the day prescribed by this section. The mayor and aldermen elected
13 at each municipal election shall qualify in the manner prescribed by Article II, Section 3
14 of this Charter, and shall take office on the first Monday in December of the year in
15 which they are elected and shall hold office until the first Monday in December in the
16 fourth year following, or until their successors are elected and qualify.
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18 SECTION II: AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED BY THE ANNAPOLIS CITY
19 COUNCIL that the date of adoption of this Resolution is ______________, and the
20 amendments of the Charter of the City of Annapolis, hereby enacted shall become
21 effective on _________, unless a proper petition for referendum hereon shall be filed as
22 permitted by law within 50 days of adoption, provided a complete and exact copy of this
23 Resolution shall be continuously posted on the bulletin board in the City Hall until
24 _______________, and provided further that a copy of the title of this Resolution shall
25 be published in "The Capital", a newspaper of general circulation in the City of
26 Annapolis, or in any other newspaper of such general circulation, once in each of the
27 weeks on _________________, __________________, ______________, and
28 ________________.
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30 SECTION III: AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED BY THE ANNAPOLIS CITY
31 COUNCIL that the Mayor is hereby specifically commanded to carry out the provisions
32 of Section II hereof, and, as evidence of such compliance, the Mayor shall cause to be
33 maintained appropriate certificates of publication of the newspaper or newspapers in
34 which the title of the Resolution shall have been published and if a favorable
35 referendum is held on the Charter change, shall declare the Charter change hereby
36 enacted to be effective on ____________, by affixing her signature hereto in the space
37 provided on the effective date of change.
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39 SECTION IV: AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED BY THE ANNAPOLIS CITY
40 COUNCIL that as soon as the Charter Amendment hereby enacted shall become
41 effective, either as provided herein or following a referendum, the Mayor shall send to
42 the Maryland Department of Legislative Services a copy of this Resolution showing the
43 number of Aldermen voting for and against it and a report on the votes cast for oragainst the amendment hereby enacted at any referendum thereon and the date of
2 such referendum.
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4 The above Charter Amendment was enacted by the foregoing Resolution which
5 was passed at a meeting of the Annapolis City Council on , 2009;
6 ____ voting in the affirmative, _____ voting in the negative, ____ abstaining and _____
7 absent and the said Resolution becomes effective in accordance with law on the
8 ______ day of _______________.
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12 ADOPTED this _________ day of _________________, 2009.
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16 ATTEST: THE ANNAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL
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19 ________________ BY: ____________________________
20 Regina C. Watkins-Eldridge, CMC ELLEN O. MOYER, MAYOR
21 City Clerk
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EXPLANATION:
Highlighting indicates matter added to existing law.
Strikeout indicates matter deleted from existing law.
Underlining indicates amendments.



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2 Comments:

Josh Cohen said...

Hi Paul,

While there are arguments to support shifting the election year (not the least of which is to save money) I think it is better for Annapolis to maintain its off-year election cycle, for one big reason.

Our municipal issues and races deserve the voters' attention without the distraction of dozens of simultaneous county, state and federal campaigns.

Think about all the campaigns during the 2010 cycle: U.S. Senate, U.S. Congress, Governor and Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Comptroller, State Senate, House of Delegates, State Central Committee, County Executive, County Council, Sheriff, State's Attorney, Orphans Court, Register of Wills, Clerk of the Circuit Court. I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple. These races will be spending fortunes to saturate us with television ads, direct mail, billboards, radio, robo-calls and more. It is enough of a challenge to have a meaningful public airing of city issues during our off-year elections; it will be that much more challenging if we will be drowned out by these other, more highly publicized races.

Josh

Paul Foer said...

Josh The big issue here and now is this is an eleventh hour ploy by Ellen "O" to stay in office a year longer-and who knows for what other reasons. This from the "Let's Talk" mayor who has called the effort to create a city manager form of government "an assault on representative government." Perhaps you will speak out against this.

As for aligning our elections with other elections, there are reasons pro and con, but one in favor is so that an elected official in one level of government will not have to abandon his or her post to run at another level.

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