Legislative Updates - By Delegate Mike McDermott

Jan. 20th, 2012

Field Notes

Observations and Reflections on Legislative Activities

By Delegate Mike McDermott

Week 2 January 16-20, 2012
Monday-Martin Luther King Jr. Day
It is a tradition in the House that on MLK Day the Black Caucus picks a member to deliver a speech honoring the fallen civil rights leader. This year the message was delivered by Del. Jay Walker of Prince Georges County. He is a former NFL player and used some analogies of football in his presentation referring to King as a “quarterback” in keeping a cool head when all around him was in turmoil. He focused on a struggle that he sees continuing to this day and his desire to see us move forward. His remarks were a good reminder of how far we have come as a country. Of course I like to remind folks that Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican and it was his party that was the champion of civil rights he struggled to secure. Somehow, that message has been stolen.

Following the speech, we conducted a Second Reader for an Emergency Bill (SB-46)on behalf of Somerset County to address their redistricting (local districts) which was very time sensitive. The bill will be on Third Reader on Tuesday.

Tuesday:
Today I opened the morning session with prayer. This is an honor that members of the House sign up for at the beginning of session and for which I am a thankful participant.
Legislation:SB-46: Approved by a vote of 135-1. This is the redistricting plan submitted by the local officials in Somerset County which addresses the new census numbers. The law will move to the Governor’s desk for signing so the upcoming elections can take place accordingly.
Judiciary Hearings:
We heard from various advocates regarding Eyewitness Testimony being utilized by police and prosecutors. A study was presented which seemed to indicate a wide discrepency as to the methods used by police in Maryland to present photo line ups or live line ups of suspects to victims of crimes. This has been prompted by several cases involving  eyewitness identification which were later turned over by DNA evidence. The testimony was compelling, but there was some questioning as to the best methods for addressing any potential problems. I believe this may be something better handled through training and the Maryland Police Training Commission along with the State’s Attorneys across Maryland. The advocates would like legislation along the lines which were drafted in North Carolina. They may be right, but it will be important to hear from more folks in the law enforcement community should a bill be filed. Anything we can do to keep innocent folks from being sent to prison should be looked into with diligence.

We reviewed three bills during the afternoon session of the committee:HB-17: Seeks to increase the penalties for Elder Abuse from a maximum of 10 years to 20 years. It also would make it tougher for those charged with this crime to receive a pretrial release. Increasing the penalty to 15 years may be possible, but the pretrial release was not received well.
HB-25: Seeks to increase penalties for the Malicious Destruction of Property by graffiti. It would require people convicted to perform community service as a part of their sentence along with any fines imposed by the court. In the past, community service has always been an option the court has used, but this would make it mandatory. I kind of like the idea of these defacers of property to spend many days cleaning up their mess.
HB-34: Seeks to change the law concerning the release of mental patients who have been found Not Criminally Responsible (NCR). Under the current system, people deemed NCR by a trial court judge are placed under confinement in a state institution until they are deemed to no longer be a threat to society. Currently, the law provides for an annual review by an Administrative Judge, but the original trial court can only review the findings on appeal. We heard testimony of several individuals who have been released under this system who went out and committed murder. This bill seeks to provide an additional opportunity for the original trial court to conduct a hearing into the case to determine if someone should be released. Arguments were testy at times. I suppose this is to be expected when one side is referring to a homicidal maniac as a “client” and the other side views them as a “criminal”.  I suggested that perhaps the review could be applied to those who are institutionalized for having committed a homicide. I also requested some additional information from the state to better determine the number of persons that would fall into this category.

Wednesday
Judiciary Hearing on Collaborative Law
The committee heard testimony from several attorneys in support of establishing another method of addressing out of court settlements in Maryland. Collaborative law is similar to mediation. From a layman’s prospective, it seeks to allow more revelation at the negotiating table with the hopes of achieving greater success with the outcome. The idea is to do everything possible to come to an agreement together rather than the typical back and forth offered through traditional negotiations. The downside is the understanding that, should an agreement between the parties not be reached after much effort, the client cannot utilize their same attorney for additional court actions. This was seen as a significant draw back and it seemed apparent that this was going to be a sticking point for many of the members.

Thursday
Morning Session:
We received the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, who gave a speech to the members. He implored us to stand strong on terrorism and he thanked Maryland for working with Israel for the purposes of economic development. The ambassador referred to a time in early Maryland statehood when Jewish people could not hold public office and how this law was changed by Thomas Kennedy, a member of the House of Delegates during the early 1800’s.

Judiciary Committee
We held bill hearings on the following:HB-4: Seeks to change the qualifications of Baltimore County Judges of the Orphan’s Court and would require them to be members of the Maryland Bar. There are currently no non attorneys serving on the panel in Baltimore County. This will most likely be treated as a Delegation Bill if the Baltimore County Delegation agrees. There was testimony that the presence of attorneys-judges allows the processing of cases to move through the system much quicker than was previously done.
HB-39: Seeks to abolish some aspects of the immunity enjoyed by members of the General Assembly while they are engaged in debate or actions as a member.of the House or Senate. Testimony indicated that it is very difficult to prosecute cases against members who are accused of accepting bribes since their floor discussions and debates cannot be used against them in a court of law. There was much discussion on this issue. There was a fear that in lowering the fence of protection could make it difficult for members to act freely or even protect themselves from false accusations and a zealous prosecutor. While the debate was rigorous, it is clear we were left with more questions than answers and the hypothetical renderings carried the committee down many paths with no clarity.
HB-8: Seeks to modernize the Harassment statute which currently only covers electronic mail and does not cover other digital or electronic devices or methods of communication. As drafted, the bill extends coverage to all methods of electronic transmission. There were many questions as to the definition of “harassment” as it applied to this statute. There were also questions about the various methods that one can digitally eliminate the potential for someone to contact them for purposes of harassment. This statute addresses only the actual contact of an individual and not the broadcasting of information to others. It seems likely that this bill may pass out of committee , but there will probably be some amendments adopted to make it better.

Friday
Eastern Shore Delegation Meeting:
This was a busy meeting with too little time scheduled to address the many questions that we had for the folks who presented.
MD Department of the Environment-Secretary Robert Summers
Sec. Summers attempted to update us on many areas of his department’s involvement across the state and, in particular, the eastern shore. It is fair to say the focus was on the flush tax increases along with the transfers of cash from the Chesapeake Bay Trust Fund to accommodate the governor’s budget shortfalls. The fees are slated to increase by 100% for average users, but could rise significantly more for higher end users of water. Instead of $2.50 per month, residents will pay $5.00 per month. Those who use more water will see that rate potentially double. This will not bode well for industry and businesses on the shore. This base rate is also projected to rise to $7.50 over the next three (3) years. When questioned about the fund raid conducted on the Bay Trust Fund, Sec. Summers stated that the cash had been replaced with bonds. This is a clever way of saying “state debt”. So we traded cash on hand for debt. It was further pointed ouot that the Eastern Shore was receiving an inordinate amount of scrutiny from his department considering we are only responsible for 3% of the Bay polution levels coming from our septic systems.

I pointed out to the Secretary that farmers have met their goals concerning Watershed Implementation Plans while local governments where not even close to meeting their goals. In spite of this, farmers still get to take it on the chin with delayed permitting and confused oversight.

Thee were some questions regarding hydraulic fracking (extraction method of removing deep deposits of Natural Gas). He towed the party line by indicating nothing will be allowed for another three years while the myriad of reports are compiled.  I believe he thinks we can manage the program with our current regulations in place, but that is different than what the governor and the liberals in the General Assembly want to do. (Presently, Pennsylvania is experiencing a boom accounting for 50,000 jobs and lower energy costs for residents while Marylanders wait...and wait...).

Secretary Summers seems to be a good man, but right now he is a good traffic cop at a lousy intersection...not much he can do to make things better.

Susquehanna River Basin Commission
We met with Ex. Director Paul Swartz and his Deputy Thomas Beauduy of the SRBC. This commission is responsible for managing the Susquehanna River Basin to insure adequate flow and supplies of water are being achieved. They are also suppose to be in charge of providing oversight for quality of water issues. Our concerns centered on the Bay and the impact of the river as one of the principle pollutants. Thee concerns were clearly on flood management and water supplies with water quality coming in last on the list of concerns. They seem to have conceded that the lower river dams like the Conawingo accumulate huge sediment piles that are subsequently stored behind the dams until a large storm increases the need to release water. This  causes large slugs of sediment to enter the upper bay and coat everything with incredible silt deposits destroying fisheries. It was very clear that little is being done to address sediment deposits in the river throughout the basin from Pennsylvania to New York. All upgrades needed in the basin are being funded locally with limited progress. There’s no established fund (such as MD’s Flush Tax) to address the system wide failures on the river. I ventured that perhaps Maryland money would be better spent on the river rather than simply trying to play catch-up with all of the pollution delivered to the  bay through the river.

When asked about addressing this problem, the directors looked at each other and clearly stated that they feel they are making some progress, but funding issues  them from moving ahead. There is a lack of urgency seen from those on the river basin to clean up the Bay.So , as we do our best to clean up our pool, the next door neighbor pumps his septic  in through a hose, and we can’t reach the spigot. Yet, we will continue to pump money into this project to make ourselves “feel good” about what we have tried to accomplish. How about we suit Pennsylvania to get their act together? What a colossal waste!

Eastern Shore of Maryland Educational Consortium:
This group consists of all nine (9) School Superintendents from the Eastern Shore. They brought Dr, Memo Diriker (Salisbury University) with them to make the case that spending on public education creates a return of the invested tax dollars on a scale of 1.90 for every $1.00 spent. The formula and figures were complex, but it was difficult to argue the outcome. For my part, the superintendents looked weary. When asked about a possible transfer of Teacher Pension Liabilities to the counties, their spokesman, Dr. Jon Andes of Worcester County, indicated that this was a burden that would no doubt have a significant impact on local budgets. It was pointed out by Senator Pipkin that the system was suffering from the high salaries being paid out on the western shore while the benefits were being borne by the entire system , This amounts to the Eastern Shore paying  more than their share of the bill due each year.

Governor’s Proposed Budget:
I wrote an article earlier in the week titled  “The Castle Demands More” which provided a broad oversight of some of the governor’s proposed tax and fee increases along with his increase in spending. I will keep you posted as more of the budget gets fleshed out in the House.

Bills I introduced on Friday:HB-112: This bill seeks to address a recent Court of Appeals ruling  that now requires a Public Defender to be present at an Initial Appearance before a District Court Commissioner. This has never been the case and it will cause significant budget issues for our office of the Public Defender as well as our Offices of our State’s Attorneys as they will also want to be present as well. I have been working with Wicomico State’s Attorney Matt Macearello and Worcester State’s Attorney Beau Oglesby in addressing these issues.
HB-119: This bill will allow law enforcement officer the option of issuing citations for all misdemeanor crimes ( except for crimes of violence). This would keep more cops on the streets for our more serious crimes instead of tying them up waiting for a District Court Commissioner. I have been working with various groups on this legislation for the past few months.