7-23-12: Large Enough to Cope?

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Charter-0723.mp3

“County governments are large enough to cope, and small enough to care.”  It was actually a federal lawmaker who said that, the late Maryland Congresswoman Gladys Noone Spellman, who represented Maryland’s fifth district in the 1970s.  Exactly how large varies throughout the state. 

This fall, voters in Frederick County will decide whether their county government should change in both size and function.  A new county charter will be on the ballot.  If adopted, the current board of commissioners would be gone, and in its place would be a county executive and council. 

You can view a draft of the Frederick County charter here.

Sheilah talks about what’s at stake with Pete McCarthy, who’s been covering this issue for the Frederick News-Post, and with Herb Smith, Professor of Political Science at McDaniel College and co-author, with John Willis, of the book Maryland Politics and Government: Democratic Dominance, which is where we found that quotation from Gladys Spellman . . . and many other wise nuggets.