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porations are permitted by these existing
laws to amend their charters."
The difficulty is that although all law is
continued in effect and therefore Article
23A would be continuing in effect as statu-
tory law, it provides only the procedure and
not the authority. The authority to the
amendment of the charter is contained in
Article XI-E, section 3 of the old Con-
stitution.
Now, municipal corporations are essen-
tially a creature of the General Assembly
in that the General Assembly has plenary
power to do with them whatever they want
to do. Of course they have to do it by
public general law, but they are within
the complete purview of the General .As-
sembly. Therefore, we do not want to put
what was formerly HE necessarily in the
constitutional status. We have to continue
to give it legislative status.
THE CHAIRMAN: You have one
minute.
DELEGATE GRANT: If at some future
time the General Assembly would desire to
change this, they should have on option
but up until that time we have to put a
complete package in. We have to retain
section 3 of Article HE of the old Consti-
tution to give the authority, and we have
already retained Article 23A of the Code
to implement that authority by the pro-
cedures. Therefore, it is necessary in the
schedule of legislation to incorporate sec-
tion 3 of Article XI-E of the old Con-
stitution.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Grant, in
view of .Amendment No. 11, would you
modify your Amendment No. 12 to change
33 A in line 4 to 33B?
DELEGATE GRANT: Yes, Mr. Presi-
dent.
THE CHAIRMAN: Is there any
objection?
(There was no response.)
If not, the modification is made by unan-
imous consent. 33B instead of 33A, in line 4.
Is there any further discussion?
Delegate B. Miller.
DELEGATE B. MILLER: Would Dele-
gate Grant yield to a question?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Grant.
DELEGATE GRANT: Yes.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Miller.
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DELEGATE B. MILLER: If we put all
this language in the schedule, what could
the municipalities not do that they could
not do by putting the language in?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Grant.
DELEGATE GRANT: As it is right
now, the municipalities are authorized to
amend their charters. That is, they could
amend them themselves. The General As-
sembly does not have to pass a law. The
procedure whether to amend it would still
continue in existence but the authority to
do so would not be in existence if they did
not have XI-E to do it with.
DELEGATE B. MILLER: Would this
mean if they needed the authority to amend
their charter, they would have to go to the
General Assembly.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Grant.
DELEGATE GRANT: If they had to.
First of all, essentially they would no
longer have authority to amend their char-
ter. That is the problem. Now one of the
existing powers they have is the power to
amend this charter. In other words, we
create an inconsistency in that we say they
have the existing power but we then turn
around and by leaving the procedure but
not the authority, we do not give them
that existing power.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate B. Miller.
DELEGATE B. MILLER: As I under-
stand it, you are saying the procedure for
changing or amending the charter in the
municipality is now in here but the au-
thority is not. My question to you is that
if they then need the authority, why can
they not go to the General Assembly and
ask for that authority.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Grant.
DELEGATE GRANT: There would be
no reason why the municipalities could not
go to the General Assembly and ask the
authority. What I point out is that it is not
necessary for them to do it. In other words,
there is no point in providing for proce-
dure if you do not have authority to im-
plement the procedure.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate B. Miller.
DELEGATE B. MILLER: Where do we
put the procedure? Maybe we had better
strike the procedure and let the General As-
sembly act the whole thing.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Grant.
DELEGATE GRANT: Delegate Miller,
the procedure is in Article 23A of the Code.
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