Evening star., 1960-11-02
Maryland Issue

OLle Oh Tie proposed
Charter amendments Mont
gomery County voters have
the opportunity to vote upon
would remove the existing
prohibition against the Coun-
ty Councils being able. by o
majority vote (rather than
5 to ~, to increase an item in
the expense and supplement-
ary budgets recommended by
the county manager. The
County's Republican Com
mittee is reported to oppose
this proposal. I believe such
opposition to be short
sighted.
We elect our County Coun-
Gil to make ultimate decisions
on policy and financial
matters. The Council hires q
county manager to run the
everyday affairs of the county
and make recommendations
to the Council on financial as
well as on certain types Of
policy matters.
A budget is not merely q
financial document. It deter
mines public policy in many
ways. Whether. when, or
where a project shall go for
ward, for example.
This county was the last
Of the Metropolitan areas to
obtain q central fire alarm
system. At a time when there
was a hot fight in the county
on fire protection with resist
ance against proposed re-
forms from persons thought
to have political power, the
fire marshal asked for several
additional men. They were
to form the nucleus of a
central fire alarm system.
They were cut out of the
budget by the then county
manager. Was that, decision
merely as to a financial
matter?
If the Health Department
had asked for a county psy-
chiatriSt and this was an
eliminated item in the mana
gers recommended !, budget,
this would be a determination
that there should be no public
psychiatry services In the
county-not merely a flnan-
cial decision.
A county manager is not
incapable of bad judgment or
error. Agency heads will often
have more expertise as to
their agencies than he. The
prior manager was disliked by
as many as those who ad-
mired him. He made some
inexcusably bad errors in con-
nection with last years
school budget-errors which
were caught by outside per-
sons.
To require that when he
makes a budget recommen-
dation. five members of the
council must vote for an in
crease is equivalent to plac-
ing the county manager on
the council for that purpose.
BY a majority vote we per-
init the council to make zon-
ing decisions which vitally
affect us, to make increases
or decreases in the capital
budget, to pass ordinances
and laws which compel us
either to do things or to pre-
vent us from doing things.
Many Of such are much more
significant to us than a par
ticular item in a budget. BY
a majority vote we allow the
Park and Planning Commits
sion and the Suburban Sani-
tary Commission spending
millions of dollars - to raise
or lower items in budgets
recommended to them. And
the biggest budget of them
all-the education budgets
not subject to this 5 to 2 pro!
vision.
We may note that budget
hearings are well attended.
Proposed increases and de-
creases are generally debated
at length.
The existing charter pro-
hibition, inserted at a time
when we were changing from
a commissioner form of gov
ernment to an untried coun-
Gil form Of government, is
unique. Philip Marcus.
Tees OFT on President
Mr.. Eisenhower said that
anyone who seeks world
leadership shouldn't spend
time wringing his hands.
Please permit us to observe
that the hands which were,
eight years ago, so platitudi-
nously pledged to lead the
world to peace, could have
been put to much better use
than being wrapped around
the handle of q golf club for
the past eight years.