In November, voters will decide whether Charles County moves to a charter form of government, run by a county executive with five council members or if it will remain under Code Home Rule, with a five-member board of commissioners. This week the sitting Commissioners voted unanimously to endorse the plan proceeding to the ballot for a determination by county voters.

According to coverage from SoMdNews.com,

If approved, the charter will replace the current form of government with a five-member board of commissioners — known as code home rule, in which the commissioners perform executive and legislative functions — with a county executive and five-member county council, the latter of which would handle legislative matters.

“It is our collective belief that the charter we have proposed for county government includes a number of measures that will make that government more responsive to, and more easily directed by, the citizens it serves,” said charter board Chairman Leonard C. Collins Jr., who spoke to the commissioners on behalf of the board. “We believe it will make it easier for citizens to identify which elected officials are responsible for policies that the citizens either support or oppose, and for the citizens to be able to assign responsibility to those officials as appropriate at the ballot box.”

Currently in Maryland, 10 counties are run by a charter form of government.

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