Shrugging off the likelihood of a lawsuit, the Baltimore County Council Monday night decided to keep a district map it drew for nine Council seats.
The map will take effect if voters decide in November to increase the size of the council from seven to nine seats.
Councilman Julian Jones, a Democrat, said there is an excellent chance the County Council will be sued over the nine-district map, because the council drew it without giving the public the chance to weigh in.
“We don’t have a process to stand on because we sort of made it up on the fly,” Jones said.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland is threatening to sue over the map.
In an October 1 letter to the council, County Executive Johnny Olszewski said the County Office of Law found that the way that the map was produced and the lack of a process “is problematic and leaves the county vulnerable to legal challenge.”
But Republican Wade Kach dismissed the legal threat.
Kach said, “I don’t react well to threats of a court suit because we’re going to straighten this out.”
Kach and other Council members said they will hold hearings next year and tweak the map if necessary.
“The process will be open and transparent,” Kach said.
However, opponents of the map fear that once it is in place, it will be difficult to change.
Democrats control the council but the Republicans like the map because they believe it’s politically fair.
The map was included to get the Republican votes Democratic Chairman Izzy Patoka needed to get the council expansion question on the ballot. Patoka had to have the support of all three Republicans on the seven-member council to get the five votes he needed.
When legislation was introduced later to get rid of the map, the Republicans cried foul and questioned whether they could trust their Democratic colleagues.
Councilman Pat Young, a Democrat, proposed tossing out the map, calling it a “poison pill.”
Young said he believes expanding the County Council could have been done "while still keeping our character intact and the spirit of the charter intact as well, but that isn’t what happened here.”
