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DELEGATE GLEASON: I second.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gleason
seconded.
The Chair recognizes Delegate Sickles to
speak to the amendment.
DELEGATE SICKLES: Mr. Chairman,
fellow delegates, I hope I can cover what is
really a long story in just one or two sen-
tences, but hope by making it brief I do not
give the problem less than its full con-
sideration.
I hope you will bear with me long enough
to realize that there is a whole body of
law now being developed, particularly in
those counties which are trying to cooperate
with their neighbor counties, by setting up
the intergovernmental agencies that we
have provided for.
When we passed the recommendation of
the Committee on Local Government one
of the avenues opened up to them was the
development of regional bodies which will
not be independent of the governing agen-
cies and will not be independent of those
office holders who have been elected by the
people.
We have had some problems in the past
in the metropolitan Washington area, and
I think this has been declared to be a na-
tional problem, in setting up what we call
"special purpose" agencies, who then have
appointed heads, who then are not really
responsive and responsible to the elected
officials.
If we continue the prohibition as set out
in section 5, this is one area which will
not be available to us, the area of having
the elected officials setting up a by-county
or multiple county agency, and then ap-
pointing themselves to sit on these boards;
so that in effect they are making the basic
decisions and the people who have been
elected are in turn making the basic de-
cisions which involve, really, part of the
sovereignty of the government to which
they had been primarily elected.
In becoming aware of this problem a few
years ago when we were negotiating the
interstate compact to set up the transit
report I reviewed all the cases. There was
provided to us a report, and you received
it at one time, a report prepared for the
Constitutional Convention Commission;
and you will have to read through that to
see the many times that the question has
been raised and notice the different deci-
sions that have been made, and you know,
it is hard cases that make poor law.
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When we set up this absolute prohibition
in the constitution then the courts find
themselves in that rather difficult spot of
trying to fit this law to a particular cir-
cumstance, and you have the rather in-
teresting situation where the councilman
of Capital Heights was determined by the
attorney general not to hold an office of
profit, but the councilman per se was held
to hold an office of profit. The cases are just
full of this kind of torturous roads that the
courts had to follow in order to make a
decision in each case.
Now, with specific reference to the at-
tempts of the metropolitan Washington
area to concern itself with its sanitary
problems, there has been some discussion
about abolishing the Washington Suburban
Sanitary Commission. There is a strong
ground swell in favor of that.
Perhaps a better alternative would be to
make the governing officials those from
Washington as well as the counties, so that
this special single-purpose agency should
still be subject to the will of the people.
If we were to pass this in its current
form without modification, without giving
the legislature the authority to recognize
these kinds of problems, then it seems to
me we would be doing a grave injustice to
people who were trying to solve these
regional problems in a very real and a very
equitable manner.
I would hope and urge you to seriously
consider this amendment, and support it as
really being in the best interests of pro-
viding government on a regional basis
within the framework that is available to
us.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Kiefer.
DELEGATE KIEFER: Mr. Chairman,
ladies and gentlemen of the Committee, I
would have no objection to adding this lan-
guage, because I understand what the prob-
lems are that are raised by Delegate
Sickles.
In fact, he had discussed this with me
earlier. If this will cure it, frankly I have
no objection myself.
THE CHAIRMAN: Is there any further
discussion?
Delegate Nielson.
DELEGATE NIELSON: Mr. Chairman,
I rise to offer an amendment to the amend-
ment of Mr. Sickles.
THE CHAIRMAN: Is the amendment
printed?
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