MACo Resists Unfunded One-Size-Fits-All School Infrastructure Mandate

...While well-intentioned, this bill would place a costly mandate on county governments to carry out new state policies to create sidewalks and crosswalks as alternative routes for all public-school students. MACo does not raise policy objections to the bill’s goal of ensuring safe routes for students – county concerns are merely practical and cost-driven...

https://conduitstreet.mdcounties.org/2026/02/24/maco-resists-unfunded-one-size-fits-all-school-infrastructure-mandate/

MACo: Bill on Small Cells Removes Public Input and Transparency, Favors Corporate Interests

On Tuesday, Natasha Mehu testified on a panel in opposition to SB 937 Wireless Facilities – Installation and Regulation alongside representatives from multiple counties, cities, and organizations.

Although Counties do believe that it is important to advance small cell technology, MACo and its affiliates believe that Maryland deserves a better path forward to delivering improved wireless “5G” service in the years to come.

SB 937 would significantly restrict local zoning authority, advancing corporate interests ahead of community input and needs. Counties hope to forge a balanced path forward for continued wireless roll-out across Maryland, but this cannot be accomplished with SB 937.

From the MACo Testimony:

Planning and zoning are central components of local authority under Maryland law – this is the essential means for citizen and community input. Local governments must be able to protect the safety and interests of their communities as necessary though zoning reviews and approvals. Counties must also have the ability to respond to the contours of historically important, culturally significant, and aesthetically designed areas. SB 937 instead imposes a statewide “permitted use” inside and outside of the local rights of way. In other words, it grants the wireless industry a right to deploy small cells (up to 28 cubic feet in size, on poles 50 feet high) wherever they want in the public right of way – even in communities with undergrounded utilities — with no substantive local government or community input. This sets a dangerous precedent of usurping local zoning authority over local rights of way.

 https://conduitstreet.mdcounties.org/2019/02/27/maco-bill-on-small-cells-removes-public-input-and-transparency-favors-corporate-interests/

Open Meetings Act Training Now Required by Maryland Law

Training Requirement for Maryland Public Bodies Training requirement: Effective October 1, 2013, each public entity subject to the Open Meetings Act must designate a member, officer, or employee to receive training on the requirements of the Act.   The designated person must receive the training within 90 days of the designation.  Because the legislation also specifies that the training must be completed “within 6 months after the effective date,” training received before October 1 will not satisfy the requirement.    The legislation requires each public body to send a list of its designees to the Open Meetings Compliance Board.  That can be done by an e-mail to OpenGov@oag.state.md.us, with a subject line specifying  “Open Meetings training designee(s) of [name of public body].”   The designee can receive the training either  through (1) the online class “offered by the Office of the Attorney General and the University of Maryland’s Institute for Governmental Service and Research,” or (2) “a class on the requirements of the Open Meetings law offered by the Maryland Association of Counties or the Maryland Municipal League through the Academy for Excellence in Local Governance.”   The online class is posted athttp://www.igsr.umd.edu/VLC/OMA/class_oma_intro1.php , and the designee can print out a certificate of completion. The text of the legislation is posted at:  http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2013RS/chapters_noln/Ch_351_hb0139E.pdf.

Where are County Elected Officials this week?

They are at the Maryland Association of Counties Summer Conference. 

Follow their activities on Twitter by using #MACoCon.

And, don't forget to thank the sponsors of this conference.  First, and foremost, you the taxpayer, and then...

http://conduitstreet.mdcounties.org/2012/08/13/thank-you-to-the-sponsors-of-the-2012-maco-summer-conference/

MABE: The Handout They Didn't Hand Out Last Night

UPDATE: Sunday, January 8, 2012:
It seems that some of the MABE links on Maintenance of Effort have become disabled since the original posting. To see the MABE legislative position on Maintenance of Effort, click HERE.


To see the MABE proposed amendments on the MOE "funding floor", CLICK HERE.


Our tax dollars, via the dues that the Board of Education pays, are being used to develop these platforms. Don't you think we should be permitted to read them?
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Turns out the Maryland Association of Boards of Education presented a "Call for Maintenance of Effort Reform" at the MACo conference last August, in Ocean City.
You can read the whole presentation HERE.

Interestingly, Valerie Ervin gave a presentation at the same conference, on Montgomery County's experience during the last budget cycle with the maintenance of effort issue. You can read her entire presentation HERE.(Just scroll down to the list of presentations, and click on it).