(9/12) The Emmitsburg Town Council voted 4 – 1 to adopt an updated town charter that included decreasing the residency requirements for both mayor and commissioner candidates at their September 7 meeting.
Residency requirements for mayor and commissioner eligibility was reduced to just a 30 days’ residency for both positions from the current one-year for commissioner and two years for mayor.
The old residency requirements had the potential to set the town up for litigation as "the one-year residency requirement is likely unconstitutional," according to town attorney Clark Adams.
When presented to the commissioners, the new charter proposed setting the residency requirements to three months for mayor and 30 days for commissioner.
Although Commissioner Joe Ritz preferred the residency requirement to remain at one year and two years for commissioner and mayor respectively, he suggested they both be changed to 30 days for consistency. "If we’re going to change both of them, we might as well make them the same," he said.
"I only brought it up for consistency’s sake, I do not agree with it," Ritz said, arguing neither three months, nor 30 days was enough time for an elected official to know the town and the people whom they represented.
Commissioner Frank Davis echoed Ritz’ concerns, stating he was worried it would open the council to being run by officials who were unfamiliar with the town. "I’m not against new people being involved in town government, but it takes you six months to find the reservoir," Davis joked.
In commenting on the change, Council President Tim O’Donnell said, "It’s imperative upon the constituency to engage …I think this is going to put a new emphasis on people participating in elections."
Other changes in the new charter included replacing text with more modern verbiage, such as including gender nonspecific pronouns, cleaning up inconsistencies and grammatical errors, as well as updating or striking information that is no longer applicable or out of date, such as the description of the town boundaries and references to the old town police department.
The new charter also removed some of the more ‘interesting’ expectations required of commissioners dating back to the early 1900s, such as the: regulating the cleaning of chimneys; prohibiting the running-at-large of animals in the streets; licensing and regulating public forms of transportation; regulating the speed and travel of all animals & bicycles and designating over what streets they may be driven.
When the final vote on adopting the new charter were cast, only Ritz objected, stating that his objection was based solely upon the change in residency requirements.
