Six proposed charter amendments, including plans to change the structure of Baltimore’s Board of Estimates and to overhaul the city’s redistricting process, will not make it to ballots this fall and are set to expire at the end of the current council session in December.
The proposals, most of which were introduced by Council President Nick Mosby, called for several structural changes to city government, most notably the Board of Estimates which is effectively controlled by the mayor under its current composition. The board, which approves city spending, has five members including the mayor and two of his appointees. The council president and city comptroller also serve on the board.
Mosby’s proposal called for the mayoral appointees — Baltimore’s solicitor and public works director — to be cut.
Mosby introduced the plan shortly after the May 14 primary election, leaving little time for a committee hearing and two subsequent votes. Ballot questions are certified in early August. Ultimately, a committee hearing was never scheduled and the proposal was never discussed.
Mayor Brandon Scott, who backed a similar plan to adjust Board of Estimates membership during his time as council president and backed off once elected mayor, was non-committal when pressed about Mosby’s proposal.
The council also neglected to schedule hearings on several additional proposed charter amendments introduced by Mosby to change the schedule for budget passage, establish an independent budget director for the council and a proposal to require city officials to present revenue estimates to the council earlier in the year.
Mosby, who has control over the committee hearing schedule, said this week he wanted to hold off on moving the changes forward until the members of the city’s Charter Review Commission could present their work to the council. The commission, which was convened following the approval of a ballot question in 2020, completed a report in June. Mosby said scheduling conflicts prevented the group from appearing before the council.
“When we talk about playing with the charter, it’s important that everyone is at the table including the general public,” he said. “There’s a reason the Charter Review Commission was established.”
Mosby said he was hopeful that the council will revisit the proposal during the next council session which will begin with the swearing-in of new members in December. The council president will no longer sit on the council by then. He lost his bid for reelection in May. Councilman Zeke Cohen won the Democratic nomination. He will face Republican Emmanuel Digman in November.
Cohen said he would support a review of “best practices” for the Board of Estimates if he becomes council president. “All options are on the table,” he said.
Comptroller Bill Henry, who publicly supported Mosby’s proposal, urged the next council to take up the matter.
“If it is not something this council is willing to consider, I certainly hope the newly elected council will — before other parties take the lead and petition their own charter amendments directly to the ballot,” he said.
Competing charter amendments proposed by Mosby and Cohen to overhaul the city’s redistricting process will also not appear on ballots this fall. No committee hearings were ever held on the proposals which were sparked by a conflict between Scott and the council last year.
Baltimore’s charter calls for the mayor to draft a proposed redistricting plan every 10 years following the census and ahead of the next municipal election. That plan is introduced to the council which is required to take action within 60 days. The window for the council to consider the plan is limited if it has any hopes of overriding a mayoral veto.
After assurances from Scott about his commitment to include the council in the process, the council chose to take additional time to consider the plan last year. It passed an alternative map proposed by Mosby with the assistance of a consultant. Scott raised objections and ultimately vetoed it, leaving too little time for a veto override. Scott’s plan became law.
Under Mosby’s proposed charter amendment, the mayor would have been required to veto measures passed by the council within two weeks. The council would have then had 20 days to reconsider the legislation.
Cohen’s plan called for the creation of a redistricting commission that would draft a proposed redistricting plan every 10 years following the release of census data. The plan would have been subject to approval by the mayor and City Council.
Cohen said he was disappointed his proposal never received a hearing, but said he plans to revisit the plan next council session. Council members and residents were disappointed with the outcome last time, he said.
“I think constituents were incredibly fired up during the redistricting process, and there was a lot of frustration with how it unfolded,” he said. “I think the same coalitions that formed while it was happening will reform in order to create a more fair process.”
