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Proceedings and Debates of the 1967 Constitutional Convention
Volume 104, Volume 1, Debates 1388   View pdf image (33K)
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1388 CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF MARYLAND [Nov. 29]

as the governor and they thought the best
way to achieve that was to have him elected
on the same ballot or by pulling the same
lever; when you vote for the governor, you
also vote for the lieutenant governor.

Indeed, the Committee even thought of
providing that only the governor be nomi-
nated in a party primary and that the
lieutenant governor be nominated after the
party primary, at the party convention, in
order to assure that the governor and the
lieutenant governor would be of the same
faction and would be completely simpatico
with one another.

DELEGATE FOX (presiding) : Dele-
gate Della.

DELEGATE DELLA: Are you going to
have a primary election to determine who
the political party's candidate for lieuten-
ant governor will be?

DELEGATE FOX (presiding) : Dele-
gate Morgan. That will be up to the Gen-
eral Assembly.

DELEGATE FOX (presiding) : Dele-
gate Della.

DELEGATE DELLA: That will be up
to the General Assembly to determine that?

DELEGATE MORGAN: Yes.

DELEGATE FOX (presiding) : Are
there any further questions?

Delegate Bennett.

DELEGATE BENNETT: I had hoped
that Dr. Pullen would be in the chamber
when I asked this question, but since he
is not and the time and patience of our
Chairman is being exhausted, I would like
to turn now to sections 4.21 and 4.22 and
ask the Chairman of the Committee to
give us the benefit of his thinking as to
why he insulates completely from the other
provisions of the constitution the adminis-
trative head of institutions of higher learn-
ing, and the state public school system.

As I understand it, the governor cannot
appoint those people. Presumably they are
appointed through the Board of Regents
or something else.

I might not object to that so much but I
presume that is the reason you left it that
way. Is that not correct?

DELEGATE FOX (presiding) : Dele-
gate Morgan.

DELEGATE MORGAN: Yes, it was

thought by the majority of the Committee
that education is a special situation. It

was the desire of the Committee to insulate
it as far as possible.

DELEGATE FOX (presiding): Dele-
gate Bennett.

DELEGATE BENNETT: Well, to be
sure you have made them a sacred cow
and it may be a good thing, although I
have a considerable doubt about it since
there are other people in the executive
branch, heads of departments, that have a
greater effect upon the public and voters
than do these officers.

Yet, I wonder on the question of removal
why at least the governor should not have
some say in removing the head of the State
Department of Education? The State De-
partment of Education controls a great
many policies that affect the voters.

For example, suppose our state superin-
tendent of education failed to follow the
guidelines of the federal Department of
Education and thus deprives us of all fed-
eral state aid, federal money which runs
into many millions of dollars, as you know.
And suppose the governor wanted to com-
ply with those guidelines. He would be
helpless, is that right?

(First Vice President, James Clark, as-
sumed the Chair.)

DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding) :
Chairman Morgan.

DELEGATE MORGAN: There is cer-
tainly no way that the governor can re-
move the superintendent of schools. The
superintendent is appointed by the Board
of Education, and of course, the governor
appoints the Board of Education, one mem-
ber each year for staggered terms. I sup-
pose when governors serve four years, they
finally get a majority of members on the
Board of Education and they could get rid
of the school superintendent in that time,
if he could control the people on the Board
of Education to that extent.

My experience has been it is very diffi-
cult to control an individual. You have to
take him as he is or not take him at all.

DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding) :
Delegate Bennett.

DELEGATE BENNETT: I think you
are right about it, but I think there ought
to be some way through which something
can be done. You virtually paralyze the
government. The governor does not have
enough appointments on either of these
boards to make known his views and to
make known his policies and the result is

 

 

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Proceedings and Debates of the 1967 Constitutional Convention
Volume 104, Volume 1, Debates 1388   View pdf image (33K)
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