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DELEGATE GALLAGHER: We did not
check to see what the other committees
were going to do. I think we both intend
to effect the same result by that language.
We did want to preclude, however, a party
elected official from being appointed to this
commission; in other words, the chairman
of the State Central Committee.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Wagandt.
DELEGATE WAGANDT: In other
words, your intention is that no person
who holds a public office of profit can be a
member of this commission?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: If he has
been elected; we restricted it to elected
officials. That was intentional.
A person could hold an office of profit
which was not elected and be eligible for
appointment to our commission under our
language.
DELEGATE WAGANDT: You feel this
is a proper procedure?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Yes. We
felt that it was proper. We did not see that
the converse was improper.
DELEGATE WAGANDT: In section
3.03a you cite many reasons for a redis-
tricting commission, and a bit of this baffles
me because after reading your commentary
I come to a somewhat different conclusion
from what you come to in your recom-
mendations.
I note that you refer to a redistricting
commission as being a relief to most state
legislatures, that it will free them of some
of the burden of having to pass on their
fellow members' political survival. Then
further on you refer to legislatures redis-
tricting the legislature, and refer to this
as a conflict of interest. Later on page 8,
it is stated that, "An argument can be
made that the root cause of the entire re-
districting controversy was the error of
allowing legislators to design their own
districts in the first place."
So my question to you is this: Why let
the legislature prepare a redistricting plan
after the commission has already done its
job?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: We did
feel that the legislature was so vitally
bound up with what happened in redistrict-
ing that it ought to have an opportunity
to see if it could not work out a plan which
was satisfactory to the legislature itself.
By the device of providing if the legisla-
ture failed to do so that the commission
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plan would become law, we felt that there
was enough of the gun, so to speak, pointed
to the head of the General Assembly so
that it would decide on a redistricting plan,
if it could.
We did not feel that the legislature ought
to be excluded from a decision that so
vitally affected it.
I might say, too, that there was an argu-
ment that the legislature ought to have
nothing to do with it, and you can certainly
defend that point of view. But what we felt
we did here was to take the best elements
of all approaches and combine them into a
single procedure.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Wagandt.
DELEGATE WAGANDT: Could you
enlighten us a bit on the experience in
Baltimore City, where I understand re-
cently that the mayor and the president of
the City Council appointed a commission
to draw up city council districts? This, you
might say, is the gun to the city council-
man's head. At the same time the City
Council drew up a plan for redistricting of
Baltimore City. I think it was called the
Best Plan.
Could you tell us which plan really was
the best, and which plan did the voters of
the City of Baltimore prefer?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: I do not
believe that the situation is analogous, be-
cause the city charter had no provision
that the commission plan would become
law within a stipulated period of time if
the City Council failed to agree upon the
law, and I would not care to say that you
can compare these two situations.
The fact of the matter is that the Bard
plan, named after the celebrated delegate
from the fifth district, ultimately prevailed,
and that the Best Plan, contrary to its
name, was not accepted.
DELEGATE WAGANDT: Thank you.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate James.
DELEGATE JAMES: Directing your
attention to section 3.17, your requirement
that there be a transcript of debates, did
you make any inquiry into the cost of
that?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: We con-
sidered the cost, Senator James, and we
felt that despite the cost, whatever it might
be, it was a valuable public service to have
available.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate James.
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