If Johnny Olszewski wins his race for the second congressional district in November, there will still be two years left on his term as Baltimore County Executive.
County Council Chairman Izzy Patoka is considering trying to change the county charter, so there could be a special election for someone to finish Olszewski’s term.
Currently under the charter, the county council would pick Olszewski’s replacement. Chairman Patoka said since that would take just four votes on the seven member council, it would be more democratic to hold a special election instead.
“That’s a long period of time to have a caretaker county executive,” Patoka said. “So maybe we need to take a look at the charter and if it makes sense to have a special election in 2025.”
Patoka said he is still thinking through what would trigger a special election for a vacancy at county executive in the future.
“Would it be any time during a four year term?” Patoka said. “One day? One year?”
Patoka said all options for naming a possible Olszewski replacement are on the table. He said he wants to see how his fellow council members feel about the special election idea.
“We have to do a lot of careful thinking moving ahead because we do have some unknown variables,” Patoka said.
Changing the charter would require at least five members of the county council approving a referendum that would then go to the voters in November.
Republican Councilman David Marks says he’s inclined to stick with the current law and have council members choose a replacement county executive.
“In the scenario before us, it would be several months into the two year vacancy by the time primary and general elections would be held,” Marks wrote in a text. “You’d already have an unelected county administrative officer holding power during that time.”
And that leads us to an interesting political twist.
Under the charter, the county administrative officer becomes acting county executive if there is a vacancy at the top until the council picks a permanent replacement. That happened in 2018 when County Executive Kevin Kamenetz died in office and then Administrative Officer Fred Homan was the acting executive. Several weeks later the council chose Don Mohler, Kamenetz’s chief of staff, to be the permanent county executive.
Under the charter, the county executive has to have lived in the county for at least five years, but it is silent about the residency of the acting county executive.
County Administrative Officer Stacy Rodgers is retiring.
The next likely administrative officer, D’Andrea Walker, who is expected to be confirmed by the county council next month, currently doesn’t live in the county. She said she is in the process of moving to Baltimore County.
“The charter requires for me to be a county resident at the date of appointment and I will be a county resident at the date of appointment,” Walker said.
An open question is whether she could become acting county executive if Olszewski wins the second congressional seat.
But first things first.
Olszewski has to win the Democratic nomination in May and the general election in November before finding a replacement becomes an issue.
