Charter committee recommends larger city governing body, possible new voting procedures

Sep. 21—A committee reviewing Frederick's charter has recommended that the city expand the size of its legislative body, with some members elected in districts.

The city should also consider changing its voting procedures, while keeping the timing of the city's elections the same, the committee agreed at a meeting Thursday.

The recommendations were some of several possible changes to the charter that the committee agreed on at its meeting at City Hall.

The committee's draft recommendations finalized on Thursday include:

—The city should adopt separate executive and legislative branches in a mayor and a legislative body. Currently, the mayor is considered a member of the Board of Aldermen.

The vote on the structure of the city government was 8-0. Committee member Ashley Waters — who recently took a post in the city's Department of Housing and Human Services — abstained from the vote, saying she didn't think it was appropriate for a city employee to vote on an item regarding who would oversee members of the city's staff.

—In a separate vote, the committee voted unanimously that the legislative body should be known as the City Council, rather than the Board of Aldermen.

—Another unanimous recommendation is that the City Council should be made up of seven members, some elected by district and some citywide.

The committee is recommending that the council be made up of four district members and three at-large members. The city would decide how to create the council districts, with help from an outside expert.

Committee member Jim Racheff voted against the recommendation. Racheff said he preferred five district members and two at-large, to give more power to the council members representing individual districts.

—Another unanimous recommendation is that the city stay with its current schedule of off-year voting, rather than moving city elections to coincide with presidential or gubernatorial elections.

—The committee is recommending a primary system that allows voters who are unaffiliated with a political party to vote in city primary elections.

Unaffiliated voters are the second-largest bloc of voters in the city, behind Democrats. But under the city's current rules, voters who are not affiliated with the Republican, Democratic, or other parties are not allowed to vote in primary elections.

Committee member Ron Peppe said he would support the recommendation, but would like to see the city move toward nonpartisan elections. The recommendation was approved 9-0.

—The committee said the city should give "serious consideration" to implementing ranked-choice voting in future city elections. The city's Board of Supervisors of Elections should be consulted and help the city leadership figure out the best approach for implementing ranked-choice voting.

During its deliberations, the committee heard from several experts on the pros and cons of implementing ranked-choice voting.

Advocates of the practice, which lets voters rank candidates in order of preference, believe it helps eliminate much of the divisive rhetoric in campaigns by forcing candidates to appeal to voters beyond their immediate base of support.

But a change by the city would have to be studied further because of current state law that hampers the use of ranked-choice voting.

Policies put in place after the controversial 2000 presidential vote require states from using voting systems that aren't approved by the federal government, which can't process ballots that use ranked-choice voting, committee member Stuart Harvey said after Thursday's meeting.

Jurisdictions that use ranked-choice voting, such as Takoma Park, run their own ballots for local elections, said Harvey, the former head of Frederick County's Board of Elections.

If Frederick moved to ranked-choice voting, the city may not be able to get assistance from Frederick County, and may have to operate and tally its own votes until the state acquires a system that can accommodate the practice, Harvey said.

The committee's recommendation also calls for the city to "advocate to state election officials and to the Maryland Legislature that tools and/or legislation be created to permit implementation of [ranked-choice voting]."

At its next meeting, scheduled for Oct. 5, the committee is scheduled to consider recommendations including whether to allow documented, non-citizen residents to vote; the appointment of a committee to periodically set the compensation of the mayor and city council; and establishing a process for considering and passing legislation in the city, among other items.

Follow Ryan Marshall on Twitter: @RMarshallFNP