Havre de Grace Sues Harford County, Council Over Redistricting

HAVRE DE GRACE, MD — The city of Havre de Grace is suing Harford County government and members of the Harford County Council over the councilmanic redistricting process.

Mayor William Martin alleged the County Council members violated the open meetings act and the county charter in the way they went about conducting the county's redistricting process.

“I am deeply troubled by these allegations,” Martin said.

Earlier this year, Martin joined Aberdeen Mayor Patrick McGrady in asking the council to support combining their districts due to their shared interests as municipalities in Harford County.

The Harford County Council passed its redistricting bill with amendments, 6-1, Tuesday night. It kept Aberdeen and Havre de Grace in two separate districts.

"We institute a commission and then we don't take that commission's recommendations," said Councilman Andre Johnson, who was the lone nay vote. He said he did not support the map.

Havre de Grace alleges the map violated both open meetings laws and the county's procedure.

“On information and belief, at the request of the Council President, a quorum of the County Council conducted two or more meetings between October 29th and October 31st for the purpose of deliberating the configuration of the Councilmanic districts and to come to a consensus to present a competing redistricting plan preventing the Commission Plan from taking effect," the city's complaint alleges.

“It should go without saying that the public’s business should always be conducted in the open for the public to observe, absent well-recognized exceptions to the Open Meetings Act," Martin said in a statement Thursday about the city's decision to file a lawsuit over the redistricting process.

In addition to holding closed meetings, the complaint says the council stepped outside its role in creating a new map for redistricting rather than adjusting the map presented by the Harford County Redistricting Commission.

The city's complaint references a case entitled Harford County v. Board of Supervisors of Elections of Harford County in which a judge interpreted the council's role in redistricting as accepting or amending a proposal put forth by a nonpartisan panel of citizens.

"Since the beginning of the redistricting process, I have urged the County Council to meet in public and introduce the Redistricting Commission’s plan in the form of a bill and modify it, if they saw fit, through amendments," Martin said. "After doing additional research, we believe that previous case law sets the precedent that the Harford County Council must do just that."

The council looked at the commission's map as a "foundation," County Councilman Robert Wagner said at the Dec. 7 County Council meeting.

"It's a recommendation," Councilman Curtis Beulah said. "We looked at that map first."

On Nov. 2, the County Council introduced a bill with its own redistricting plan, according to the complaint, which states it was "crafted in private meetings during deliberations among a quorum of County Council members that were outside of the public view."

The bill should not be accepted or signed into law, according the complaint filed by Havre de Grace. For not following the process outlined by the county charter and for holding closed meetings, the city asks the court and the county to consider the bill void.