1812                                      VETOES

House Bill No. 1187—Baltimore City Police

AN ACT to add new Section 543A to the Charter and Public Local
Laws of Baltimore City (1969 Edition, being Article 4 of the Code
of Public Local Laws of Maryland), title "Baltimore City," subtitle
"Police Department of Baltimore City," to follow immediately after
Section 542 thereof, as last amended by Chapter 203 of the Acts
of 1966, providing for vacation periods for certain members of the
Police Department of Baltimore City.

June 20, 1969.

Honorable Thomas Hunter Lowe
Speaker of the House of Delegates
State House
Annapolis, Maryland

Dear Mr. Speaker:

In accordance with Article II, Section 17, of the Maryland Con-
stitution, I have today vetoed House Bill 1187 and am returning it
to you.

This Bill, as originally introduced, specified the lengths of vaca-
tions to which Baltimore City policemen were entitled, depending
upon years of service in the Department. In the course of the legis-
lative process, the detailed provisions of the Bill were stricken out,
and the amended version merely provides the Baltimore City police
officers "shall be entitled to the same number of vacation days annu-
ally as is provided for other municipal employees from time to time."

I am in complete agreement with the purpose underlying this
Bill, which is to provide policemen with a reasonable amount of
vacation leave such as other public employees have. However, I
believe that, as a matter of public policy, provisions concerning
policemen's vacation leave should be promulgated by police depart-
ment regulations instead of legislative enactments.

Moreover, the Attorney General has advised me that this partic-
ular Bill, because of its wording, presents serious problems. The
Bill gives Baltimore City police officers the "same number of vaca-
tion days annually as is provided for other municipal employees......."
The Attorney General's opinion regarding the Bill states that there
is no uniform vacation policy applicable to all other municipal em-
ployees and that therefore the Bill may be too vague for the legis-
lative intent to be carried out.

For the above reasons, I have concluded that House Bill 1187
should be vetoed. However, the Baltimore City Police Commissioner
has assured me that he will promulgate regulations which will give
Baltimore City policemen the vacation leave which the General
Assembly intended them to have.

Sincerely,
/s/ Marvin Mandel,

Governor.