824'/Maryland Manual

pality by Act incorporating it, or any subsequent Act
or Acts amendatory thereto. Provided, however, that
the charters for the various Counties shall specify the
number of days, not to exceed forty-five, which may but
need not be consecutive, that the County Council of the
Counties may sit in each year for the purpose of
enacting legislation for such Counties, and all legisla-
tion shall be enacted at the times so designated for that
purpose in the charter, and the title or a summary of all
laws and ordinances proposed shall be published once a
week for two successive weeks prior to enactment
followed by publication once after enactment in at least
one newspaper of general circulation in the county, so
that the taxpayers and citizens may have notice thereof.
The validity of emergency legislation shall not be affect-
ed if enacted prior to the completion of advertising
thereof. These provisions concerning publication shall
not apply to Baltimore City. All such local laws
enacted by the Mayor of Baltimore and City Council of
the City of Baltimore or the Council of the Counties as
hereinbefore provided, shall be subject to the same rules
of interpretation as those now applicable to the Public
Local Laws of this State, except that in case of any con-
flict between said local law and any Public General
Law now or hereafter enacted the Public General Law
shall control.

SEC. 3A.¹⁷⁸ (a) The charter for the government of
Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Montgomery, Prince George's
and Howard counties under the provisions of this Arti-
cle, either as adopted, or by amendment, may provide
for the election of members of the county council by the
voters of councilmanic districts therein established, or by
the voters of the entire county, or by a combination of
these methods of election.

(b) No amendment to the Montgomery County
Charter authorized hereunder may affect the terms,
powers, and duties of members of the Montgomery
County Council in office or elected at the time of adop-
tion of the Charter Amendment.

(c) Any proposed amendment to the Montgomery
County Charter providing for the election of members
of the county council by voters of councilmanic districts
and approved by the voters prior to the 1984 General
Election shall be null and void.

SEC. 4. From and after the adoption of a charter un-
der the provisions of this Article by the City of
Baltimore or any County of this State, no public local
law shall be enacted by the General Assembly for said
City or County on any subject covered by the express
powers granted as above provided. Any law so drawn
as to apply to two or more of the geographical sub-divi-
sions of this State shall not be deemed a Local Law,
within the meaning of this Act. The term "geographical
sub-division" herein used shall be taken to mean the
City of Baltimore or any of the Counties of this State.

"'Amended by Chapter 358, Acts of 1971, ratified Nov. 7,
1972; Chapter 785, Acts of 1975, ratified Nov. 2, 1976; Chapter
682, Acts of 1977, ratified Nov. 7, 1978; Chapter 136, Acts of
1980, ratified Nov. 4, 1980; Chapter 729, Acts of 1982, ratified
Nov. 2, 1982.

Article XI-A

SEC. 5.¹⁷⁹ Amendments to any charter adopted by
the City of Baltimore or by any County of this State
under the provisions of this Article may be proposed by
a resolution of the Mayor of Baltimore and the City
Council of the City of Baltimore, or the Council of the
County, or by a petition signed by not less than 20% of
the registered voters of the City or County, provided,
however, that in any case 10,000 signatures shall be suf-
ficient to complete a petition. A petition shall be filed
with the Mayor of Baltimore or the President of the
County Council. An amendment so proposed shall be
submitted to the voters of the City or County at the
next general or congressional election occurring after
the passage of the resolution or the filing of the peti-
tion. If at the election the majority of the votes cast for
and against the amendment shall be in favor thereof,
the amendment shall be adopted and become a part of
the charter of the City or County from and after the
thirtieth day after said election. The amendments shall
be published by the Mayor of Baltimore or President of
the County Council once a week for five successive
weeks prior to the election in at least one newspaper
published in said City or County.

SEC. 6. The power heretofore conferred upon the
General Assembly to prescribe the number, compensa-
tion, powers and duties of the County Commissioners
in each county, and the power to make changes in Sec-
tions 1 to 6 inclusive. Article XI of this Constitution,
when expressly granted as hereinbefore provided, are
hereby transferred to the voters of each County and the
voters of City of Baltimore, respectively, provided that
said powers so transferred shall be exercised only by the
adoption or amendment of a charter as hereinbefore
provided; and provided further that this Article shall
not be construed to authorize the exercise of any pow-
ers in excess of those conferred by the Legislature upon
said Counties or City as this Article sets forth.

SEC. 7.¹⁸⁰ The word "Petition" as used in this Arti-
cle, means one or more sheets written or printed, or
partly written and partly printed. There shall be at-
tached to each paper of signatures filed with a petition
an affidavit of the person procuring those signatures
that the signatures were affixed in his presence and that,
based upon the person's best knowledge and belief, ev-
ery signature on the paper is genuine and bona fide and
that the signers are registered voters at the address set
opposite or below their names. The General Assembly
shall prescribe by law the form of the petition, the man-
ner for verifying its authenticity, and other administra-
tive procedures which facilitate the petition process and
which are not in conflict with this Article. The false
signing of any name, or the signing of any fictitious
name to said petition shall be forgery, and the making
of any fals affidavit in connection with said petition
shall be perjury.

'"Amended by Chapter 681, Acts of 1977, ratified Nov. 7,
1978.
""Amended by Chapter 849, Acts of 1982, ratified Nov. 2,
1982.