Extra Extras, City Election
Ethics, Sanctuary City, and Election Changes, Oh, My!
City Ethics Commission Weighs In
Candidate Roger Wilson wants Frederick city voters to know that he has nothing to hide regarding conflicts of interest between his job and a seat on the Board of Aldermen. Wilson, a Democrat, works as a government liaison for Frederick County government. His job is a politically appointed position under County Executive Jan Gardner, and he’s one of 10 candidates seeking five seats on Nov. 7.
In a proactive move, Wilson said, he requested an advisory opinion from both the city and county ethics boards. “I want the light to be on me. I believe in transparency … this is not a bad thing. This is a good thing,” he said.
The city’s ethics commission released an opinion, dated Oct. 9, stating it had determined:
... a clear conflict of interest exists between the Candidate’s roles of Frederick County employee and Frederick City elected official, and that the Candidate’s particular position and role in policy development for Frederick County Government accentuate this conflict. The Commission further determined the conflict of interest provisions of the City Code prohibit the Candidate, should he be elected as Alderman, from participating in any matter in which Frederick County Government is a party.
The five-person commission advised that if Wilson is elected, he should try to remedy any conflict, and then ask for guidance from the commission. If elected, the commission said, conflict of interest provisions prohibit him from “participating, deliberating, or voting on any matter involving his employer, Frederick County government.”
Wilson encountered little to no public scrutiny during the primary election about how his role as Government Affairs and Public Policy Director for Frederick County would interfere with his duties as an alderman, except for an opinion piece by George Wenschoff in AirItOutWithGeorge.
Wilson requested two ethics opinions about a month ago, including one from the Frederick County Ethics Commission, he said. The county’s opinion is not yet available, according to Vivian Laxton, spokeswoman for the county. County Attorney John Mathias told Wilson before he filed to run, confirmed by The Frederick Extra, that he could legally run for city office and keep his position at the county.
If he runs into a conflict, Wilson said, he will recuse himself. When asked for an example, he said that he would likely have to recuse himself for a discussion of the tax-equity issue - the money the city receives from the county for duplication of services. As for other potential problem areas, he said he would have to address them as they come, if he is elected.
On the campaign trail, Wilson said he hasn’t run into concerns about his ability to serve on the board of aldermen because of his job with the county. “Republican voters weren’t talking about this,” he said. “Rather they saw it as a plus. They like my experience in government affairs and my 20 years with IBM.”
Republican candidates haven’t yet issued any formal response to the commission’s opinion, but there’s some discussion behind the scenes. Requests for comment from one Republican candidate who had expressed concern about the opinion, went unanswered. The ethics opinion began circulating, and was posted on Facebook days after it was signed by Ethics Commission Chair Richard Stup.
Wilson came in third in the Sept. 12 primary, behind incumbents Kelly Russell and Donna Kuzemchak, with 13.57 percent, or 1,652 votes. He and Democratic candidate Derek Shackleford made Frederick city history on primary night, marking the first time there are two African Americans on the ballot for a general election.
Changes to General Election After Missteps with Primary
The City of Frederick dropped 42,000 specimen ballots in the mail earlier this week. The mailing to the city’s registered voters is among several improvements the city has made following a series of mishaps and missteps in the Sept. 12 primary election.
Among them: a scheduled road closure in front of a polling place on election day; kinks in the polling place locator on the city’s website; no candidate campaign information on the city website; no information about early voting in a video announcement; and the loss of the election board chair the day before the primary.
As it turns out election board members are only paid for their work on election night, and submit W-4 forms with their current address. James Hammond had moved out of the city in 2015. Election board members are not required by city law to file disclosure forms with the city.
As for the change of heart for mailing specimen ballots, Democratic candidate for mayor and current alderman Michael O’Connor had advocated they be mailed out during the primary campaign, but said it is the city’s three-man election board who ultimately voted to mail general election ballots.
“The expenses of an election over a four-year cycle are minimal compared to the budget and when you consider how critical a well-run election is the City’s future,” O’Connor said in an email.
The city’s budget for the 2017 election is $300,000.
The cost to the city to print and mail the sample ballots was less than an earlier estimate of $15,000. Legislative Clerk Phyllis Hane reported that estimated printing costs for the sample ballots is $4,500, while mailing cost is $6,738.40, for a total of $11,238.40. To view a sample ballot, visit here.
Despite adding early voting, at a cost of less than $5,000, to the mix of options for those who can’t get to the polls on election day, primary turnout amounted to a little over 13.73 percent, or 4,356 voters. Early voters made up 2.3 percent of the total, or 733 voters.
In the Annapolis primary race for mayor and aldermen, turnout was over 26 percent. Annapolis sent out sample ballots, but also featured some tight contests.
With sample ballots, and issues with the city’s poll locator on the city website resolved, voter turnout is expected to surpass the dismal numbers of the primary election. The city made other small fixes along the way to tighten up the process and make it easier for voters to get information.
Some watchers at City Hall on Sept. 12 questioned the slow pace of election returns. At the city’s election board Sept. 25 meeting, the election board reviewed the primary election and recommended additional training for chief and unit judges prior to the general election.
Another complaint from some voters and candidates is that the Republican aldermanic candidates, although running unopposed, were not listed on the primary ballot. State races list unopposed candidates.
“The city chose not to put the names on the ballot to save money,” said aldermanic candidate and former alderman Alan Imhoff. Imhoff, running as a Republican, previously served as chief election judge in the county. “When you print a ballot, it doesn’t cost more if you have one name or a hundred on the ballot. If you’re running unopposed, your name should be there.” City election law precludes listing the names of unopposed candidates on the ballot.
Also, according to the minutes of the election board’s Sept. 25 meeting, Frederick County’s Board of Election Chair Stuart Harvey asked to preview any future video announcements of the general election details.
Candidates’ social media information, along with their campaign websites were added to the candidate page on the city’s website on July 18, as a result of public pressure.
The city also clarified the city’s laws on write-in votes in response to a write-in campaign launched by failed Republican mayoral candidate, Shelley Aloi.
VOTE!
General election early voting: Friday, October 27, 2017 12p.m. - 8 p.m. Saturday, October 28, 2017 12 p.m. – 6 p.m.
All early voting will take place at the Frederick Senior Center, 1440 Taney Avenue.
The general election is Tuesday, November 7, and polls are open from 7 am - 8 pm. Go here to find your polling place.
Candidates Respond to Controversial RCC Flyer
For the majority of the Republican alderman candidates, a flyer published by the Republican Central Committee cautioning voters on the perils of a “sanctuary city” was mostly a miss. The flyer featured photos of five aldermanic candidates, with an authorization line from the RCC, who paid for its publication.
Like their Democratic counterparts, Republican candidates Bryan Chaney, Hayden Duke and Alan Imhoff said the topic is rarely, if ever, an issue on the campaign trail. Mostly, residents worry about more mundane, nonpartisan issues like traffic, taxes, trash and the state of their sidewalks.
Chaney, a last-minute substitute for Bruce Blatchey, said he’s been trying to get up to speed on issues by talking to city staff, residents, nonprofits, and doing a ride-along with police. The flyer put out by the Republican Central Committee, he said, is “reckless” because it perpetuates a problem. Both police and immigrant community advocates agree the message sent by the flyer is potentially dangerous.
“They tell me that MS-13 gang members are abusing people in their own communities, but that innocent people aren’t reporting crimes because they are afraid of getting deported,” Chaney said. They need to be educated about the law, and encouraged to report these crimes, he added.
Frederick city police don’t ask for anyone’s immigrant status, and never have. If someone is arrested in the city and taken to jail, the Sheriff’s Office checks the status to determine if the person can be detained via the 287(g), a program that partners local law enforcement with federal immigration officials to rout out undocumented immigrants who have been arrested.
Although he understands the pull to push national issues important to the Republican party, Chaney said there’s no real place for that on the local level. To get elected in the city, he said, candidates cannot afford to alienate the unaffiliated or Democratic voters. Still, he credited the RCC with helping him prepare to be a candidate.
His biggest concern about the flyer, Chaney said, is the statement about “secret meetings” between Democrats and Safe Haven, a progressive organization. After talking to mayoral candidate and current alderman Michael O’Connor, Chaney said he is convinced that Dems haven’t met with the group since February, as reported in the daily paper in March, and that there are no plans afoot to implement “sanctuary city” status in the city. Besides, he said, city police already operate as if it does have that designation by not doing the work of federal immigration officials.
Alicia Barmon confirmed that her group met with Frederick Police Ed Chief Hargis early in the year. “Safe Haven met with the Chief of Police to express our concerns about valuing and protecting the rights of everyone in Frederick,” Barmon wrote in an email. “We were pleased to hear his commitment. The conversation was broadly about protecting everyone's rights.”
Duke, the former chair of Frederick County’s Human Relations Commission, said he included the term “sanctuary city” under the category of “law enforcement” in his own promotional materials back in the spring when the idea was “front page news.” “I would fight it, but if no one says anything about it anymore, that works for me,” he said.
Voters care more about the spate of recent shootings in the city, creating a city market, tax equity and blight issues, Duke said. Democrat Roger Wilson agreed that the voters he meets are more worried about who will clean up cigarette butts from their sidewalks than the idea of a “sanctuary city.” “It’s a nonissue,” he said. It’s just something that they [the RCC] decided to do."
Derek Shackelford, a Democrat running for aldermen, sees the flyer as nothing but “a political ploy.” “I haven’t heard anyone raise this issue at all,” he said.
For an analytical thinker like candidate Alan Imhoff, a former alderman who switched his party status from “unaffiliated” to “Republican” to run again, subscribing to the allegations in the RCC’s flyer is difficult for different reasons. “I don’t know enough about it or how it is supposed to work. It seems confusing. And there’s always a cost associated with anything government does,” Imhoff said. He does know he wouldn't support it for those reasons, he said.
The name “sanctuary city” triggers an emotional reaction for some, regardless if they understand what it implies. For Democratic Alderman Kelly Russell, now seeking a third term, the terminology is less important than the message the city sends to residents. “Regardless of terminology or rhetoric, the City of Frederick has been, is, and will continue to be a community that welcomes and embraces its rich diversity and values, and that supports all human rights,” she said in an email.
One Republican candidate, Nate Power, however, said he fully ascribes to the information presented, including the idea that Democratic candidates have had secret meetings with a progressive group called Safe Haven about implementing “sanctuary city” status in Frederick.
Incumbent Democratic aldermen never denied meeting with members of Safe Haven early in the year to hear concerns about the safety and treatment of undocumented residents in the city. Upon hearing this, Power said he “would never have met with Safe Haven in the first place” if they were advocating sanctuary city status.
Barmon of Safe Haven said she had seen the flyer in question. “I … was very disappointed in the fear mongering and racist stereotypes. I know that is not the way Frederick folks feel. While I have not met any of the Republican candidates, it's disappointing to see any participation in the racist and false narrative,” she said.
Candidate Power doesn’t see it that way. He said he’s sympathetic to “people who are brought here as minors,” but others are just being exploited by “unscrupulous employers who won’t pay them a living wage because they have no social security cards.” Those brought to the country as children should have a path to citizenship, he said.
Giving Frederick sanctuary status is an invitation to those who are here illegally, one that promises no repercussions and creates a burden on overstrapped charities, Power said.
“This issue comes up in virtually every discussion I have with the electorate,” Power said. “But then again, I only talk to Republicans, so others may think differently.”
NOTE: Although five candidates are listed on the ballot, Katy Bowersox has not actively campaigned, responded to questionnaires, or shown up at any candidate events or forums. Her father, Mike Bowersox, is the campaign treasurer for three of the five Republicans, including Bowersox, Chaney and Power.
