Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1942-10-29
Expert Questions
Legality OF
County Charter
Says Provision For Only
3O-Day Meeting OF Council
Takes Breath Away

The legal possibility of the adop-
ton of charter form of government
by Montgomery County as now
provided by Act of the General
Assembly was questioned this
week by Alfred Bettman, Cincin-
natl attorney and nationally recog-
nized authority on government.
Mr.. Bettman gave this opinion in
answer to a request by ]. Bond
Smith, general counsel to the
Maryland National Capital Park
and Planning Commission, for adj
vice as to the constitutionality of
Charter in regard to its effects on
existing coming laws.
Mr.. Bettman pointed out that
Article XI-A of the Maryland Con-
stitution, which provides for adop-
ton of a charter form of county
government, requires that county
council shall sit for the purpose of
enacting legislation in the county
for no more than one month in
each year.
"This is a provision which rather
takes ones breath away" he de-
clared. "It means that for eleven
months in every year Montgom-
cry County would have no legisla-
tive organ whatever; in other
words, no body which could enact
any ordinance or legislative meas
ure of any kind whatsoever. Is
such a provision constitutional?
ut is human impossibility for
any council or other group, in a
growing and urbanizing county
like Montgomery County, to COM
pletely foresee and provide for all
the events and problems which will
arise within eleven months and
which will need legislative action.
1t is further an utter human i'm
possibility for any council to
define the conditions and stand
ards and rules of administra-
tive actions on the situations
which will arise during those
eleven months that the executive
official for which the charter would
provide, could meet all the situa-
tions which will need attention and
still remain within the constitu-
tional scope of administrative, as
distinguished from Legislative ac-
ton. In short, under this startling
provision of Article XI-A, if Mont
gomery County wrote and adopted
a charter, it would be without a
legislative organ for eleven months
in every year, and I doubt the con-
stitutionality of such a system even
though it be provided for in a con-
stitutional amendment.
IF the argument be made that
provision in constitution cannot
be unconstitutional, and that this
article XI-A means that the execu-
tive under the new charter will
perform whatever is needed by the
people of the county during the
eleven months, the answer to that
argument is that the Article itself
provides that all "law-making
power of Montgomery County is
to be vested in the council, and
therefore no law-making power,
which means no legislative power,
can be exercised by the executive;
and, if the word Legislative" or
"law-maling" is to be emaciated in
it's meaning and the word executive
or administrative to be enlarged in
its meaning 50 that the latter
would cover every act which would
be needed during the eleven
months, then the result would be
that Montgomery County would
have, for eleven months of the
year, a non-democratic form of
government; a form of government
which departs from the concept of
democracy. and Legislation which
has prevailed in our country"