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102 Op. Md. Att'y Gen. 3 (2017)

handle is hein.sag/sagmd0106 and id is 1 raw text is: MUNICIPALITIES CHARTER AMENDMENT PROCESS - PREEMPTION - A MUNICIPALITY MAY NOT REQUIRE THAT ALL CHARTER AMENDMENTS Go THROUGH AN ADVISORY REFERENDUM BEFORE BEING CONSIDERED BY THE LEGISLATIVE BODY July 31, 2017 The Honorable Patrick Wojahn Mayor, City of College Park You have asked whether the Council of the City of College Park may amend the City Charter to require that all future charter amendments be subject to a non-binding referendum before the Council may vote on adopting the amendment. In keeping with our procedures for addressing local governments' opinion requests, you provided the City Attorney's analysis of the question. Noting that no Maryland law explicitly prohibits a municipality's use of an advisory referendum for a charter amendment, the City Attorney advised that a supportable argument could be made that the City may adopt the requirement that you describe. In our opinion, the State statutes that prescribe the process for amending municipal charters do not permit municipalities to require an advisory referendum as an additional step in that process. Therefore, the City may not condition the commencement of the charter amendment process on the submission of the proposed amendment to the City's electorate for what amounts to a straw vote. I Background A. The History of the Proposal Currently, the City's charter provision on referenda addresses only binding referenda. That provision requires the Mayor and Council (Council) to submit the issuance of bonds to a binding referendum and authorizes the Council to place other items, except Charter amendment resolutions, to automatic and binding referendum by a majority vote of said Council. City Charter of College Park (Charter) § C4-9. With respect to referenda on charter amendments, the Charter currently incorporates by reference the process stated in Title 4, Subtitle 3 of the Local Government Article of the Maryland Code. See Charter § C5- 1.

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