Baltimore County Council chair fires back on criticism of council expansion

Lia Russell

The Baltimore Sun

September 10, 2024

Baltimore County Council Chair Izzy Patoka fired back at the ACLU of Maryland over the legal group’s contention that a recent bill he sponsored could violate federal civil rights law and state law, which the Pikesville Democrat previously derided as a “political stunt.”

The American Civil Liberties Union’s Maryland affiliate said last month that a bill the seven-member council passed in July asking voters to add two new members included a proposed redistricting map that could violate the federal Voting Rights Act. The map would create two new districts, including one in majority-Black western Baltimore County, which the ACLU said would dilute Black residents’ voting power. The group also sued Baltimore County in December 2021 over redistricting. State lawmakers, including House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, said they also oppose Patoka’s bill because it includes language that would undercut their authority by replacing two state-appointed county Board of Education members with council appointees if Baltimore County residents approve expansion on the Nov. 5 ballot.

In a letter sent Friday, Patoka said many of the ACLU’s legal objections were “moot,” citing his co-sponsoring of a bill Councilman Pat Young, a Catonsville Democrat, introduced last week that would strip the language legislators are concerned about and repeal the proposed map included with the expansion bill. Young said he proposed his bill due to his frustrations that council staff drafted the proposed map without public input. He cast the lone dissenting vote against Patoka’s bill, which passed 5-1; Councilman Julian Jones, a Woodstock Democrat, was not present and did not vote. Jones is also cosponsoring Young’s bill.

The council’s three Republican members criticized Young’s bill, which currently lacks the votes to pass, and Patoka’s support for it. They said they overcame their initial opposition and voted for council expansion because Patoka promised them no changes would be made to his proposed redistricting map, which creates another district in conservative-leaning southeastern Baltimore County. Patoka said he had always said the map would be subject to change via a redistricting commission process, and that Young’s bill gave the council “another shot at attempting to get closer to perfection.”

The council, which is made of four Democrats and three Republicans, typically has a cordial working relationship. In recent months, they have sparred with County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. over development and zoning. Last week was the first time in recent years that members directly criticized each other, though they did not name one another. Jones and Patoka are expected to run for county executive in 2026, when Olszewski’s term ends.

In his letter to Legal Director Deborah Jeon, Patoka admonished the ACLU of Maryland for not participating in the legislative process, calling the group’s response “adversarial” and “disingenuous at best.”

“I was hopeful that you would recognize and understand the earnest efforts my colleagues and I undertook to achieve this unprecedented outcome — including overcoming decades-long difficulty and opposition by previous councils and others to even consider expansion — with the passage of (the expansion bill), and also on a bipartisan basis,” Patoka wrote. “The council’s intent in adopting the map with (the expansion bill) was not to violate the Voting Rights Act. In fact, it is just the opposite — the map created two majority-Black districts that give Black candidates a meaningful opportunity among the voting age population in those districts, while maintaining a third majority-minority district. The maps are also compact, contiguous, and attempt to give due consideration to the importance of keeping communities intact in their representation.”

The ACLU of Maryland did not respond to a request for comment. In 2022, a federal judge approved the council’s second redistricting attempt despite the ACLU’s objections, ruling that the new map created a “cross-over district” and gave Black voters, who make up about a third of the county population, a chance to elect a representative of their choosing.

Patoka has advocated for adding two new members since he first won election to the council in 2018. Advocates say adding members to the council would allow women and other minorities a greater chance of winning election to office as Baltimore County’s population has grown threefold and diversified since adopting its charter in 1956. A grassroots effort to add four members failed to make the Nov. 5 ballot, despite a spate of last-minute endorsements from state Democratic leaders and Olszewski.

Olszewski, who is expected to win election to Congress in November, has largely stayed out of the redistricting fight. He previously said he supports the council’s attempt to engage in an “equitable, inclusive, and lawful” redistricting process.

A month after the council passed Patoka’s bill, Jeon wrote to the council, asking them to repeal the map and strip the county Board of Education language by Sept. 5, the day before the state Board of Elections was expected to begin printing ballots. That deadline passed after Patoka said he would not draft amending legislation.

The council will discuss Young’s bill at its Tuesday meeting and again Oct. 1 before voting on it Oct. 7.