Grass-roots democracy

It didn’t take long for the opponents of the recent annexations by the City of Frederick to get mobilized. There appear to be several possible avenues for local government to pursue in an attempt to nullify the annexations, but a separate grass-roots movement has already sprung into action with the same goal in mind.
Opponents of the annexations have mobilized and are proceeding on their own — without the official help of Winchester Hall. They have a daunting challenge, and it will be interesting to see how they fare.
By securing the signatures of 20 percent of city voters, annexation opponents can bring the question to referendum. In this case, that would mean a minimum of more than 7,000 signatures — and they would have to be secured by Oct. 17. This will be no small task.
Janice Wiles, director of Friends of Frederick County, says, “It’s a huge undertaking.” Nevertheless, she says, the corps of volunteers she and others are organizing will be going door-to-door to collect residents’ signatures. They have established a downtown office and have an e-mail address (frederick.referendum@gmail.com).
Even if the signatures are collected, the question would still have to pass muster with city voters.
Of all official and public options available to annexation opponents, we like the one that is initiated by private citizens. This is the real thing, grass-roots democracy at its best, at work addressing an issue that directly affects the lives of those involved.
It may be inevitable that these properties eventually end up as part of the City of Frederick, but if there is enough dissatisfaction or concern among city residents with the current annexation agreements to reverse these decisions, so be it.
Alderwoman Donna Kuzemchak was the sole board member to vote against the Crumland Farm annexation. She says she did so because she was in favor of further meetings between the Frederick County Commissioners and the Frederick Board of Aldermen.
In the days preceding last Thursday’s vote, the commissioners, speaking as one, voiced a number of concerns about the details of the annexations and the agreements with developers that the city had struck.
Those concerns were discounted by Mayor Jeff Holtzinger and the aldermen who, with the exception of Kuzemchak’s dissenting vote on the Crumland property, were unanimous in their decisions to annex all three properties.
As we said in a recent editorial on this subject, we were a bit confused how two bodies of public officials could have such diverse interpretations of the same set of facts surrounding the Crumland annexation and development.
Let the people decide. If there is enough interest in reversing these annexations, the law permits rank-and-file residents to do so. And that is as it should be.

Originally published in the Frederick News Post on September 11, 2009

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/archives/display_detail.htm?StoryID=101497