MoCo Charter Review Commission

I am pleased to announce that this morning the Montgomery County Council appointed the members of the Charter Review Commission (CRC), and they named me as Chairperson.

The CRC examines the County Charter and all suggestions for changes, and makes recommendations to the Council which if approved appear on the ballot for vote of the citizens of our County.

It’s a little like a Constitutional Convention, but admittedly on a smaller scale and without James Madison to guide us. I have wanted to hold this position for a while and I am very proud to have been appointed to it.

I have put together a website where I collected information about the Charter that is useful to me so i could view it from any computer. This website is completely unofficial and not connected with the County government in any way, but if anyone wants to look at what I consider interesting you are welcome to do so. 

It contains the Charter, a summary of the Charter in plain English, description of issues that might be researched by the CRC, charters of other charter counties in Maryland, reports of the CRC in the past, and a lot of other information that I find useful. It’s at http:bessel.org/charter Again, it is not official and just a personal website of mine, but you are welcome to view it..

I strongly encourage all MoCo citizens to read our Charter and documents about it, and to make any suggestions you wish about revisions you think will be helpful to our county. There will also be some public hearings by the CRC and I urge everything to attend. You can reach me at besselpaulm@comcast.net with any question or comments or suggestions about the CRC and I will post any information I feel will be helpful, such as meeting announcements, at http://bessel.org/charter in addition to official announcements on the MoCo website.

Quote by Justice Clarence Thomas in the Marriage Equality Decision by the Supreme Court

Can anyone understand what Justice Clarence Thomas meant by the following quotation which is from his dissenting opinion in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, decided June 26, 2015, at page page 17:

“Slaves did not lose their dignity (any more than they lost their humanity) because the government allowed them to be enslaved.”

"Slaves did not lose their dignity"? They didn't lose their humanity?

Hypocrisy by Dissenters to Supreme Court Decision on Marriage Equality

One of the ironies of today's Supreme Court decision on marriage equality is that all 4 dissenters talked about how important it is that elected officials, on behalf of the people, rather than unelected justices make law. That might have some weight if it weren't for their hypocrisy. 

These are the justices who stopped the counting of votes in the 2000 presidential election, who ruled against the key provision of the Voting Rights Act that had been adopted by large bipartisan majorities in Congress, and who threw out a hundred years of precedent when they ruled that the rich and corporations can contribute all they wish to political campaigns, undermining the political process and overturning law adopted by the same elected officials whom today they said should be the decision-makers. 

These justices (especially Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito) are for deferring to the people and their representatives when they agree with them, but think nothing of ignoring them when it suits their political goals.

It's the same as states' rights. Even the Southern states in 1861 wrote in their declarations of secession that a major reason for seceding was that the Northern states were exercising their states' rights because they were not agreeing with Southern states that slavery was good and should be expanded, and the Northern states used their states' rights to interfere with attempts to recapture runaway slaves. 

People support states' rights and the right of elected officials to make the laws when states and elected officials agree with them. When they don't, they are against states' rights and the right of elected officials rather than justices to make law. That's why the dissents of Scalia, Thomas, Alito, and even Roberts cannot be taken seriously.

Attorney General Brian Frosh Spoke Tonight at the Democratic Club of Leisure World

Maryland's relatively new Attorney General, Brian Frosh, spoke tonight to the Democratic Club of Leisure World. (The photo above is from his website. I forgot to take his photo at tonight's event.)

Brian Frosh is always thoughtful and knowledgeable about the facts concerning important issues in our state. He talked about what he has done since taking office as Attorney General this past January.

For example, his office is opposing the merger of Pepco and Exelon, because the newly-merged company would not have any requirement to be any more efficient that Pepco now is, which is very poor. He is also happy to have authority to hire an ombudsman in his office, but pointed out that there is no money in his budget for that.

He responded to questions about the use of the Confederate battle flag on Maryland license plates, pointing out that can be ended relatively easily. The state song with its references to "northern scum" will require an act of the General Assembly to change.

In response to a questioner who pointed out that the MoCo Board of Education has a record of many violations of the Maryland Public Information Act, he said this is a priority of his office and complimented State Senator Jamie Raskin (who was also present) and others for helping to tighten the Public Information Act with an appeals process and limits on what the public can be charged for copies of documents requested by the public.

Confederate Flag & Maryland's Current Support of the Confederacy

   

Many are happy that South Carolina government officials are saying it's time to remove the Confederate battle flag (it was never the flag of the Confederate government) from its Capitol grounds, that a Republican leader of the Mississippi legislature is saying it's time to remove the Confederate battle flag from its state flag, and that Walmart is saying it's time to remove items with the Confederate battle flag from its stores.

If this continues, the only state in the country that will still glorify the Confederacy and the institution of slavery for which it stood will be Maryland. Maryland?

Our state song, embedded in legislation, is "Maryland! My Maryland!" That title sounds innocent, but the statute includes the words to this nasty song.

In its very first line, Maryland My Maryland tells our citizens that “The despot's heel is on thy shore.” The “despot” being referred to is Abraham Lincoln, who asked loyal Americans to come to the aid of the U.S. government against threats from the rebel Confederate government to attack Washington D.C..

Then it urges our citizens to “Avenge the patriotic gore, That flecked the streets of Baltimore." This "patriotic gore" refers to American soldiers defending themselves when Baltimore gangs attacked the soldiers who were peacefully marching from one train station in Baltimore to another. This song is cheering for the Baltimorians who attacked and killed U.S. soldiers who were defending our county.

It goes on to tell Maryland, “Come! for thy dalliance does thee wrong." This refers to the “dalliance” of delaying from seceding from the United States and joining in making war against the United States to support slavery. It goes on, “Virginia should not call in vain,” meaning Maryland should join Virginia in making war against the United States. If this isn’t clear enough, we then hear, “Better the blade, the shot, the bowl,” so Maryland’s state song is making it clear that Maryland should make war upon the United States.

And it ends with, “Huzza! she spurns the Northern scum!" The northern scum referred to here is the United States army, Abraham Lincoln, and the United States government.

It is an embarrassment for Maryland to still have this state song. Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy, years ago repealed its state song that idealized the culture of the old Confederacy, and South Carolina is doing the right thing now by removing the Confederate flag from its Capitol grounds. Even in Mississippi some state legislators are making a move to remove the Confederate battle flag from its current state flag. Maryland should not be left behind as the only state that still glorifies the Confederacy, treason, and the fight to preserve slavery.

The Maryland General Assembly should adopt a law repealing Maryland Code, General Provisions, Title 7.  Emblems; Designations; Commemorative Days and Months, Subtitle 3.  Additional Emblems; Designations, Part II.  Arts, Culture, and Food, Md. Ann. Code art. GP, § 7-318  (2014)

The General Assembly could then provide for a contest, as Virginia has done, to welcome all Maryland citizens to prepare original songs that celebrate the beauty of our state, the spirit of our people, and our exciting history. That would certainly get a lot of good publicity and excite our people with this contest for a new state song for Maryland.

Council Committees Consider OLO Report on CCOC

Montgomery County's OLO (Office of Legislative Oversight) produced a report in March 2015 on the CCOC (Commission on Common Ownership Communities), and today two County Council committees (Public Safety and Planning, Housing, and Economic Development) held a hearing about that report.

The report makes many conclusions based on a survey it made. As pointed out by Council Member Sidney Katz, there are about 340,000 MoCo citizens living in COC's (common ownership communities) but the OLO report based is survey on 61 responses to its survey, which was only sent to 211 people suggested by the CCOC. That type of survey is useless.

Another issue discussed was whether the CCOC should remain under the Office of Consumer Protection (OCP) or should be transferred to the Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA). The OLO report recommended moving it, but OCP and DHCA didn't seem to have strong feelings about this.

The real issue seems to be whether the CCOC is focusing on what it is supposed to, according to the MoCo Charter and regulations and the desires of the County Executive and Council. It is supposed to focus on education of COC's but according to the CCOC it is spending a lot of its time on hearings. However, Council President George Leventhal pointed out that the OLO report says only about 12% of the cases that come to the CCOC go to hearings. This led to what appeared to me to be confusing responses from staff present at the hearing.

Two Interesting Events Yesterday

   

There were two very interesting MoCo political events yesterday.

The first was an early meeting of the Rockville Mid-County Democratic Breakfast Club, now led by the hard-working and very capable Dolly Kildee.

The speaker was Marc Elrich, who presented a very thoughtful talk about the MoCo budget and what it means for life in our county. 

There are, as we all know, many budget problems resulting from a slow recovery from the recession of 2008, the Wynne case decision by the Supreme Court, and other things. 

Council Member Elrich explained in detail how we still have the ability to determine what kind of a life we'll have in our county by making smart decisions about the county budget, such as helping renters, trying to get detailed audits for the county and especially the school system, and in other ways. It was a very interesting morning session.

In the evening, there was a discussion at the Council room about public financing of MoCo elections. It's a complicated issue and the details are still a little murky, but hopefully regulations that are almost ready to be made public will clarify the issue. Those of us who support stopping the use of huge sums of money to win elections look forward to success for this program.