After much wrangling, a majority of Chesapeake Beach Town Council members voted to set a date for allowing voters to decide the fate of the water and sewer rate structure approved in June. The issue regarding the validity of the referendum, however, prompted two members of the town’s Election Board to tender their resignations.
The latest developments in the turgid water battle occurred during the council’s Thursday evening, Sept. 19 meeting. The motion to set a date for a special election for town residents to vote up or down on the flat rate schedule a majority of the town council approved for the fiscal year (FY) 2014 budget was made by Councilman Patrick J. “Irish” Mahoney. He recommended the special election be held Saturday, Dec. 7, which is the same day as a Christmas parade in North Beach. The motion received five votes in favor.
The special election will be held since a petition was circulated in town this summer by opponents of the flat rate structure. The petitioners claim the schedule will dramatically increase water and sewer bills of all users. Proponents of the flat rate structure saw the schedule as a way to incentivize lower water consumption and make the town’s largest users pay a high price.
Petitioners were required to obtain the signatures of at least 20 percent of the municipality’s qualified voters—a minimum of 789 voters. When the deadline passed petitioners submitted exactly that number of valid signatures, or so it appeared at the time. The town Election Board then notified Mayor Bruce Wahl that the special election could be scheduled.
However, Councilman Jeffrey Krahling, one of the flat rate schedule’s proponents, asked Election Board members if he could review the petitions and his request was granted. An error on one of the previously validated entrees was discovered.
In a letter to Wahl dated Aug. 23 and signed by all three members of the Election Board, the error was acknowledged and the panel declared they were reversing their previous advisement.
However, after obtaining an opinion from Town Attorney Elissa Levan, Wahl asserted that the Election Board’s original ruling was valid and any appeal of the initial ruling had to be taken to circuit court.
During the public comment period of the meeting, Election Board Member Ron Draper stepped to the podium and announced his resignation. He was followed by fellow board member Malcolm Funn, who also told the gathering he was leaving the panel. Draper stated the attorney provided to give the Election Board counsel “has been totally unresponsive” and that the board’s integrity was “impugned.”
“This whole thing has been a fiasco,” sa
