Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1950-05-25


years with the general laws of the
state. In 1889 and again in 1947
Horace Flack of the Legislative
Council assembled laws pertaining
to Montgomery in a volume by
themselves. Ordinances, resol :
utions, etc. passed by County Com
missioners since our county broke
away from Frederick in 1776 were
buried deep in heavy volumes of
the Journals (minutes) of the Com
niissioners.
Mr.. Shearin Takes Over
Mr.. Shearin came to his job of
discovering, boiling down and ar
ranging county rules after six
months as clerk to the new Coun-
eli and three years as office man
ager and then executive secretary
for the committee which sponsored
the charter. He has his law degree
from George Washington Univer-
sity and is a member of the bar
both in the DC, and Maryland.
He lives in Kensington with his
wife and two small children. Let's
follow his story of preparing the
Montgomery County rule book.
30-Year Span Covered
In November, 1919, he tackled
the hardest part of the job first,
what is now designated as Part V.
Ordinances, Rules, and Regula-
tions. Viewing the mere reading of
journals covering a75 years as
next to impossible in the months
before May, an arbitrary decision
had to be made as to where to
start. January l, 1920 "a thirty
year span) was hit upon as suit
able point. He later discovered that
few general rules of a permanent
sort were passed until the forma-
ton of the Suburban District in
1927.
SO Volumes Scanned
He went through SO volumes Of
minute page by page (about 500
pages per volume), much as the
housewife would sort the accum-
ulation of generations in the attic
of the family homestead. Each item
had to be scanned critically to see
whether it was so out of date as
to be useless-such as ordinances
authorizing bond issues or front
foot benefit charges. Those which
looked as if they might have more
in them were laid aside for
further examination. Many more
were weeded out in the light of
day when compared with Charter
provisions and later ordinances.
For instance some 140 regulations
having to do with placing traffic
and parking signs in the suburban
area were no longer necessary
since now the responsibility of the
County Personnel Board regula-
tions have outmoded most of the
regulations adopted under the old
merit system.
Journals In Long Hand q
Rules ordering policemen to live
in the district from which they
were appointed, or limiting the
number of police ball games to one
a year are unreasonable, and the
Police Division now operates under
specific personnel regulations. But
Mr.. Shearin asked the Council to
repeal many such to make certain
they no longer be applied. The job
was not made easier by the fact
that up to 1929 the journals were
sll written in long hand in varying
degrees of accuracy and infor-
nlality.
Some Old Rulings Sound
It was inevitable that among the
useless and outworn rules there
should have appeared some per-
|, fectly sound orders laid away and
forgotten. These were busted of
to join the more than 70 ordinances
which are rp-to-date for use in
1859. The journals, of course, are
still intact in their bindings fol
the instruction of future county
, historians.
Arrangement of Assembly
Before assembling the laws per.
tanning to the county, the editor
planned the form in which HI
should arrange all the variety o.
rules. This was like the job O.
the orderly housewife who mus
devise places to store and arrange
conveniently all the 1901 household
belongings from winter woolen
to memorabilia. Mr.. Shearin spen
several days at the Library of Con
gress studying state and municipa
codes from all parts of the U. S
He then went through all loca