The State of Maryland recently passed a new law that requires each town in the state to have an ethics board. The legislation also requires each town to require disclosure of financial and real estate holdings, in the form prescribed by the state, by any person seeking elected office.
The state recognizes that its “one size fits all” approach to ethics boards may, in fact, not fit. The new state law allows towns to ask the state to exempt them from the inflexible state law so they can adopt their own laws that suit their own communities. So far, about 80 towns have received exemptions.
St. Michaels has had an Ethics Board for more than 31 years. We have made our Board responsive to the needs of our community. Our town Commissioners have amended our ethics ordinance from time to time to meet the needs of our community. Yet, last September, our town Commissioners voted 3-2 not to seek a total exemption from the state law and instead adopted a new ethics ordinance that substantially conforms to the new state law. Over 170 residents of the Town petitioned to suspend the new town ordinance and it has not gone into effect. Although it has not gone into effect, it has been approved by the State Ethics Commission. This means that if the new town ordinance does become effective, it can never be amended without the consent of the State Ethics Commission – this puts control of St. Michaels ethics legislation in the hands of the State Ethics Commission, not the town Commissioners.
On February 3, the citizens of the town will vote whether to keep our old ordinance and keep control of our Ethics Board or to approve the new ordinance and hand over control of our ethics ordinance to the state Ethics Commission in Annapolis. Don’t let Annapolis dictate how we govern ourselves. Let’s keep control of our Ethics Board local. Vote NO on February 3.
Doug Rollow
St. Michaels