By JOE MURCHISON
Prince George’s County is in the midst of a cascade of special elections to fill political vacancies, and County Councilmember Tom Dernoga, of Laurel, (District 1) had a proposal to make them faster and cheaper. However, a majority of the council rejected his plan.
The county held one special election on Nov. 5 to fill the at-large council seat of Mel Franklin, who resigned in June after being indicted for using campaign funds for personal expenses. Three more elections are pending.
Jolene Ivey won the at-large seat, which leaves her District 5 council seat open; a special election will be held to fill that seat. Also on Nov. 5, County Executive Angela Alsobrooks was elected to the U.S. Senate — the first Black senator from Maryland — so her position needs to be filled. Ivey and another at-large councilmember, Calvin Hawkins, have indicated interest in running for Alsobrooks’ soon to be vacant county executive seat; if either wins, a third special election would be needed to fill the council seat they would leave.
Dernoga points out that these special elections are expensive and time-consuming. Each involves a primary election in which each party picks its candidate and a general election where the party nominees run against each other. A countywide special election, such as those for county executive and at-large council members, costs about $4.2 million. A district special election, such as the one to fill Ivey’s District 5 seat, costs about $660,000.
Dernoga introduced two bills in September, one for the county executive seat and one for county councilmembers positions, that would eliminate the first stage of special elections, the primary, leaving all candidates to run in an open general election. He noted that no Republican has been on the ballot for county executive since 2002 and that only six Republican candidates have run in the 47 county council elections that have taken place since 2006.
A county council staff analysis of Dernoga’s bills stated, “This change would provide multiple benefits to the County, including a reduction in the costs of special elections, a decrease in the amount of time between a Council vacancy and when that vacancy is filled, and a decrease on the demands of the Board of Elections.”
The majority of the council voted to table Dernoga’s bills in favor of bills by Councilmember Wanika Fisher (District 2). Fisher’s bills leave special elections in the current two-stage process but extend the time from vacancy to primary election to 100 days, with the general election taking place 100 days after that.
The existing county law permits a special primary election to be held within 45 days of a seat becoming vacant and the general election within 45 days after the primary. But the county received a letter from the Maryland Attorney General’s Office in June saying county law violated state law by not leaving enough time for the voting process, including receiving ballots from military personnel serving outside the country.
Fisher said her bills, which will be up for a vote on Nov. 19, are emergency legislation intended to get the county into compliance with the state. She said Dernoga’s bills raised major issues without allowing sufficient time to solve them.
For instance, she said the Prince George’s County Office of Law found that under Dernoga’s bill, candidates would not be able to designate their party on the ballot if the general election were open. Also, thresholds for entering a race without party approval would have to be established,including collecting a certain number of citizen signatures, she said. “What Tom was proposing does not exist in Maryland. … It’s a policy choice, and a really big one.”
Fisher said she would be open to discussing other possible changes in the special-election process next year.
Whether a special election will be needed to replace Alsobrooks is up in the air. County law requires a special election when the county executive vacates the seat in the first two years of the four-year term. After that, the county council is tasked with choosing a successor to fill out the term.
Alsobrooks’ first two years expire on Dec. 5. She will not be sworn in to the Senate until Jan. 3. She can decide to resign as county executive before Dec. 5, prompting an election, or remain in office beyond that date, triggering a county council appointment. If Fisher’s legislation passes, a special election would leave the post open for about seven months, during which time, by law, Alsobrooks’ chief administrative officer, Tara Jackson, would carry out the county executive’s duties.
Neither Alsobrooks nor a spokesperson could be reached for comment.
Other Dernoga bills
Dernoga has four other bills before the county council that will be voted on at the council’s final legislative session of the year on Nov. 19.
The bills seem likely to pass, given that the majority of councilmembers have signed on as co-sponsors.
- CB 88 would require that the county’s minimum wage be indexed to the region’s consumer price index. The baseline would be the state’s minimum wage of $15, which would go up at the rate of inflation. Montgomery County has used a similar indexing system since 2017.
- CB 72 would prohibit the sale and planting of bamboo and require property owners with current bamboo to take measures to keep it from spreading to adjacent properties. “Everyone knows it’s a problem,” Dernoga said.
- CB 84 would enable the county to install speed cameras on stop signs near schools. Dernoga said he would like a camera to be installed at Bond Mill Road and Sherwood Avenue in West Laurel, near Bond Mill Elementary School.
- CB 83 would create a two-year pilot program in which a few noise cameras would be installed on roads to measure the decibel level of passing vehicles and take their pictures. Dernoga said owners of vehicles that exceed legal noise limits would be required to have a mechanic lower the noise.
Before voting on these bills, the county council will hold a public hearing at 10 a.m. on Nov. 19 Citizens can sign up to speak or submitwritten comments on the bills at pgccouncil.us/458/Public-Hearing-Notices-Sign-Up-to-Speak.
