MARVIN MANDEL, Governor

4047

As noted, Senate Bill 600 required only that the
Board "negotiate" any agency shop provision, without
specifying what it had to agree to, and the negotiations
were not restricted to any one organization. The
Attorney General advised me that the word "negotiate", as
used in Senate Bill 600, meant only that the Board had a
duty to confer in good faith at all reasonable times, and
to reduce to writing the matters agreed upon as the
result of such negotiations. This left the Board with
sufficient discretion in its negotiations, and allowed it
to consult and negotiate with several groups before
agreeing to anything.

House Bill 1258 obligates the Board not only to
negotiate, but to agree to both the requirement that
nonmembers of the exclusive bargaining organization pay a
representation fee and what that fee would be. This
additional requirement clearly circumscribes the
discretion of the Board, and will cause an imbalance in
the negotiation process. It is inconsistent with Article
77, Section 160A(1), dealing with negotiations concerning
noncertificated employees, which states that "the public
school employer shall render the final determination as
to matters which have been the subject of negotiation..."

Although I am not especially enamored with agency
shop requirements in public employment, I would sign a
bill similar to Senate Bill 600, requiring the Montgomery
County Board to negotiate these matters in good faith.
As a result of Senate Bill 600, the Prince George's
County Board of Education has, in fact, negotiated an
agency shop arrangement, and it has done so without the
type of compulsion mandated by House Bill 1258. The
objectives of the labor organizations representing
noncertificated employees can, therefore, be achieved
within the normal framework of collective bargaining, and
this is the way they should be achieved.

For these reasons, I have vetoed House Bill 12 58.

Sincerely,

/s/ Marvin Mandel

Governor

House Bill No. 1268 — Prince George's County; Notices
of Public Auction

AN ACT concerning