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READING CLERK: Amendment No. 23
to Committee Recommendation EB-1 by
Delegate Maurer: On page 9 Section 4.23,
Appointment and Removal of Other Officers
of the Executive Branch, line 12, after the
period insert the following sentence:
"The General Assembly shall provide by
law that all employees in the service of
the State shall be appointed and promoted
in accordance with the merit principle,
subject to such exceptions as may be pre-
scribed by law."
THE CHAIRMAN: The amendment is
offered by Delegate Maurer. Is there a
second?
The amendment having been seconded,
the Chair recognizes Delegate Maurer to
speak for the amendment.
DELEGATE MAURER: Mr. Chairman,
this might be called a civil service amend-
ment. We have a civil service in this State
and most of the state employees are covered.
We may wonder, therefore, why put this
in the Constitution. I would like to point
out that in that sparse document, the model
constitution, there is a section on the civil
service; it is deemed to have a constitu-
tional dimension in the model constitution.
Most modern constitutions have sections on
civil service, even though their states al-
ready have legislation for a merit system.
Indeed, the recent New York Constitu-
tion, the one which failed, did have a sec-
tion on the civil service; Alaska has a civil
service section.
I think also with the changes that are
pending or will come about in the years
ahead to consolidate departments to inte-
grate the administration of this State, it
would be appropriate and fitting to reassure
our civil service employees in this State
that we intend to protect them and to con-
tinue the merit principle in employment
and promotion.
I would add as a fourth point that we
are moving into an age of collective ne-
gotiations among public employees and that
as we do this, we tend to fragment the
civil service. Negotiations tend to take
place by functional units, police, nurses, and
so on. This fragmentation presents some-
thing of a problem to maintaining an over-
all civil service. It presents the problem
also to the legislature as they try to de-
velop civil service laws. To give a Consti-
tutional dimension to the merit system will
provide a helpful balance in this particular
picture as we move ahead into new and
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developing territories in the area of ne-
gotiations with public employees.
I would suggest then that this addition
to the executive branch would be an im-
portant reassurance to the civil service em-
ployees of the State that it is of a consti-
tutional dimension and that we ought to
support it.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan.
DELEGATE MORGAN: Mr. Chairman,
I believe that the state of Maryland has
one of the best civil service systems at the
present time among the states in the un-
ion, and I really cannot see the necessity
for putting in the constitution a require-
ment that the General Assembly provide
that all employees in the service of the
State shall be employed and promoted in
the merit system subject only to such ex-
ceptions as the General Assembly may pre-
scribe.
I really cannot see the purpose of this
amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Any further discus-
sion?
Delegate James.
DELEGATE JAMES: I would like to
say that this certainly is another one of
those unenforceable provisions that you can
have in the constitution. If the legislature
so desires they can create a situation which
would dispense with the constitutional pro-
vision. It is a type of thing that should not
be done by legislation. It will only be done
if the people are behind it.
It does not belong in the constitution. We
are here to draft a constitution and not to
put everything in it including the Ten
Commandments.
THE CHAIRMAN: Any further ques-
tions?
Delegate Groh.
DELEGATE GROH: I have a question
of the sponsor.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Maurer, do
you yield to the question?
DELEGATE MAURER: I do.
DELEGATE GROH: Does that apply to
the subdivisions of the State, the counties
and cities?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Maurer.
DELEGATE MAURER: Unfortunately,
as it is developed under the executive
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