Charter Amendment - Charter Commission General Recommendations For the purpose of increasing the City’s record keeping flexibility; repealing an obsolete provision regarding the City’s official time; improving the City’s legislative and administrative flexibility by removing redundant Charter provisions and language more appropriate for ordinances or regulations; removing Charter provisions found to simply restate applicable State law; requiring the Department of Finance to employ at least 1 Certified Public Accountant to perform certain duties; allowing certain agencies to be designated by law to approve the withdrawal of City monies from depositories; removing certain formal lien requirements from the Charter; clarifying that the review of disciplinary matters by the Board of Fire Commissioners is at the request of the Fire Chief; clarifying the authority of the Mayor to appoint the Board of Recreation and Parks; modernizing various public notice provisions, including removing mandatory requirements for notice to be published in a newspaper of general circulation in Baltimore City; simplifying requirements related to the City’s Master Plan; removing certain penalties relating to the Department of Planning from the Charter; conforming to State law requiring alternate members be made available for the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals; allowing the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals to change its rules internally; removing the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals’ authority to appoint employees other than its Executive Secretary; updating the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals’ powers for reviewing paving assessments and other matters; conforming a provision relating to appeals from Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals’ decisions to State law; replacing the Board of Legislative Reference with an ad hoc board appointed by the Mayor, the President of the City Council, and the Comptroller; allowing the newly restructured ad hoc Board of Legislative Reference to make recommendations regarding the hiring of a Director of Legislative Reference; removing the Civil Service status of the Director of Legislative Reference; making the Director of Legislative Reference removable for any reason rather than just for incompetence or neglect of duties; allowing the Mayor and the President of the City Council to jointly appoint and remove the Director of Legislative Reference; allowing the President of the City Council to recommend 1 of the 3 Civil Service Commissioners; updating the required qualifications for Civil Service Commissioners; formally transferring many of the powers formerly belonging to the Civil Service Commission to the Department of Human Resources to improve administrative flexibility; allowing the Department of Human Resources to transfer employees into and out of the Civil Service by regulation, and to adjust Civil Service protections administratively, to increase flexibility in personnel management; updating the required qualifications for the Director of Human Resources; removing certain penalties relating to the Civil Service Commission from the Charter; adding the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City to the list of elected officials covered by the Compensation Commission for Elected Officials; removing certain obsolete provisions regarding street railways, trackless trolleys, and advertising from the Franchises Article; establishing a procedure for regularly appointing Charter Review Commissions to review the Charter and make recommendations as to the necessity for deleting, adding to, or revising any portion of its contents; requiring the appointment of a Charter Review Commission at least once every 10 years; requiring that the Charter Review Commission publically report on its findings to the Mayor and City Council; clarifying and conforming related provisions; setting special effective dates for the proposed Charter amendments; and submitting this amendment to the qualified voters of the City for adoption or rejection.

Committee

City Council

Requested by

Mayor's Charter Review Commission

Introduced

June 11, 2018

Passed

August 10, 2018

Enactment no.

18-11