Monday makes for busy day in politics

Busy day in Maryland Politics today.

The Maryland General Assembly will convene in a special session at 9AM to review and pass congressional and school board redistricting maps.

Governor Martin O’Malley, Senate President Mike Miller, and House of Delegates Speaker Michael Busch will hold a press conference to introduce the governor’s final redistricting plan. If the General Assembly fails to introduce and pass their own plan the governor’s draft will automatically become law.

The Fannie Lou Hamer Political Action Committee will join with GOP leaders to introduce their own congressional redistricting plan at noon also in Annapolis.

The Prince George’s County Council will meet as the District Council to review zoning decisions.

The county council will attempt to find a compromise between Executive Baker and the volunteer firefighters over plans to reorganize the Fire Commission.

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County Council to introduce own redistricting plan for districts

The Prince George’s County Council is preparing to reject a redistricting plan approved by their appoint commission this summer and introduce their own plan for consideration in a public hearing set for Tuesday, October 11th at 10AM.

Under county law the council has until the last day of November to either introduce and pass their own plan, as it is rumored they will do, or pass the plan submitted by the Redistricting Commission. If the council fails to approve a plan by the end of November, the recommendation submitted by the commission will automatically become law.

Click here to view the council agenda for Tuesday, October 11th

Click here to view the report of the Redistricting Commission

In other important news—

The Committee of the Whole, a committee of the county council made up of all of the members, will take up a bill by Council Vice-Chair Eric Olson to amend the charter making it easier to ensure republican representation on the redistricting commission. This year the commission is made up of three members, all democrats, because the republicans failed to get more than fifteen percent of the vote in the 2010 council elections. Under the current charter the county council was not required to give them the two seats they would have been able to have. If Olson’s amendment passes and wins approval on the ballot next year, should this happen again the party with the next highest percentage of registered voters, the republicans, would get at least one seat on the commission. The text of his bill can be read here.

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Did the Pr.George’s Redistricting Commission miss an important deadline?

The Fannie Lou Hamer Political Action Committee thinks so and guess what…they are right! According to Section 305 of the Prince George’s County Charter, the County Council “shall appoint, not later than February 1 of the year prior to the year in which redistricting is to be effective, a commission on redistricting.” The section also says that “By September 1 of the year prior to the year in which redistricting is to be effective, the Commission shall prepare, publish, and make available a plan of Council districts and shall present that plan, together with a report explaining it, to the Council.” Clearly the commission missed that deadline but the Fannie Lou Hamer PAC says that the 60 day legal deadline for the council to pass either a different plan from the one the commission develops still does start, the problem is a few county officials aren’t so sure. A source in the County Office of Law says he isn’t sure but the issue isn’t as black and white as the PAC is explaining it but declined to offer further comment.

Read the full email from the Fannie Lou Hamer PAC below and let us know either in the comments or on Twitter and Facebook about your thoughts.

Greeting Prince George’s County Residents,

Please be aware that on yesterday, Thursday, September 1, 2011, the Prince George’s County Council Redistricting Commission was required by the Prince George’s County Charter Regulations to release the Redistricting Commission proposed map to the County Council and the General Public.  Please note the the County Council has only 60 days to accept or modify the County Commission’s proposal.  The official 60 calendar day clock commenced on Friday, September 2, 2011.  See Link below.

http://www.princegeorgescountymd.gov/Government/LegislativeBranch/redistricting_commission.asp#q2

This is important to be aware of since the Redistricting Commission’s final public hearing lacked precinct name, number, population counts for each district, and any racial demographic data.  Please note that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act requires that all redistricting proposals created in the State of Maryland have racial demographic data.  Also, population counts are required to ascertain the Federal Law governing Equal Population distributions.

Below is the link to the Redistricting Commision’s proposed map which currently does not contain the afformentioned data required by law.  If this is a concern to you, please contact your Prince George’s County Council member and request that this information be made available for public access and review.

Prince George’s County Redistricting Maps:  http://www.princegeorgescountymd.gov/Maps/index.asp

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