Published: November 07, 2009 08:58 pm      

Leave it alone

Retain board size and Code Home rule

Does Allegany County need five county commissioners instead of three? We think not.

The idea of increasing the board of commissioners’ membership by two was broached Friday by State Sen. George Edwards when the Allegany County delegation to Annapolis met with the county board. Edwards said the commissioners might want to consider studying county residents’ desire to move to a five-commissioner board because of “a lot of things going on in the county.”

If the county’s population were dramatically growing, we might be able to understand the rationale for an enlarged board. But the population continues to dwindle. Whereas it was in the 90,000 range in the 1950s, it continues to spiral downward to near the 70,000 range today.

As for “things going on,” if the electorate is not happy about decisions being made by the county commissioners — or the delegation, for that matter — then the voters can use the ballot box on election day to vote people out of office.

At Friday’s meeting, there also was discussion about whether the county should continue as a code home rule county. We believe it should.

Years ago, even the most trivial of decisions often had to be handled in Annapolis because the county commissioners lacked home rule power. Code home rule keeps local decisions at the local level and provides for an opportunity to petition issues to a referendum if the electorate is dissatisfied with commissioner decisions.

Much of the uproar over the size of the county commission body and code home rule is the result of the debate over how the present board of commissioners handled the creation of the Allegany County Bureau of Police to replace road patrol duties of the sheriff’s office.

But as we said previously, that is a political decision that can best be addressed in the next election. Voters who approve of the move by the county will be able to support the present commissioners’ reelection. Those who oppose the move will be able to support alternative candidates.