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Morgan, Chairman of the Committee, to
present the Committee Report. Delegate
Morgan.
DELEGATE MORGAN: Mr. Chairman,
the Vice-Chairman of the Committee, Dele-
gate Adkins, is going to present the Com-
mittee Report on this.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Adkins,
will you come to the reading desk, please?
While Delegate Adkins is coming to the
reading desk, the Chairman will announce,
so that there will be no misunderstanding,
since no one cared to suggest a change in
the Debate Schedule as interpreted by the
Chair prior to this session of the Com-
mittee of the Whole, we will proceed to a
consideration of items 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the
Committee Report seriatim, taking a vote
on each item after it has been debated.
Delegate Adkins.
DELEGATE ADKINS: Mr. Chairman,
ladies and gentlemen, some twenty-five
years ago when I made my maiden ap-
pearance before the Court of Appeals,
meeting in the building immediately across
the street, I approached the rostrum there
with much the same fear and trepidation
as I do here. One difference was that there
I dropped my books as I rose to speak. I
became completely flustered and was able
for several seconds to say nothing. The
late distinguished Chief Judge Bond, who
will long be my favorite and kindest per-
son, looked down from his high place, said
in the quietus of attorneys, counsellor, take
your time, the ferry for the Eastern Shore
does not leave for another hour.
It may very well be that before I finish
here, I shall have wished that that ferry
were still running.
No question here before presented to this
Constitutional Convention is fraught with
the brilliant omnipresence of the current
political scene as is the matter now pend-
ing before this house. We of the majority,
however, feel quite confident that this Con-
vention will, in its mature judgment, ap-
proach this question as it has all others
heretofore presented, and will judge it in
terms of what is best for the long range
governance of this State.
We are recommending to you that a
long-time elected office in the constitution
shall be eliminated as a constitutional of-
fice, and we do so for reasons which
through thought and testimony we con-
sider completely valid reasons. I ask you to
consider with me for a few moments what
those reasons are.
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I do not need to tell this sophisticated
and distinguished group what the duties
of the comptroller are. They are set forth
currently in the Majority Report. They
are set forth in the Report of the Com-
mission. All of you have had sufficient ex-
perience with the government of Mary-
land to know in essence that the functions
of the comptroller basically are to be the
fiscal manager of the State.
We are thus faced with a situation
where we have an executive department,
one of the most, if not the most critical
area of which is not responsive to the
elected representative at the top, to wit,
the governor of this State.
We are thus faced with an executive
branch, headed by a governor who is vested
with these general executive powers, and
yet is deprived of constitutional control
over the general management of the fiscal
affairs of the State.
We need many reasons to make this
Recommendation. We heard a great deal of
testimony. We heard testimony from many
people who have been studying the prob-
lem of strengthening of local government
for many years. Without exception, those
people recommended that if Maryland is
to have a modern executive to meet the
demanding problems of urbanization and
of the twentieth century, we must have an
increased power in the chief executive of
this State.
We heard such testimony from the Coun-
cil on Economic Development, one of the
most distinguished groups of business
leaders, professional leaders, academicians
in the country. We heard such testimony
from the Council on Intergovernmental Af-
fairs, not a business group, not an aca-
demic group, but a group of leaders in the
field of state, local and national govern-
ment.
We heard such testimony from the Na-
tional Municipal League and from inde-
pendent individuals, such as James Rennie,
for many years the budget director of the
State of Maryland.
Without exception, people with inde-
pendence who testified before us and who
were not involved in the political climate
of Maryland, testified that throughout the
country, the need was for an executive
branch headed by one or at the most two
elected officials.
Had you heard this testimony, I think
you, too, would have concluded that an ob-
jective assessment of it necessarily forced
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