Judge Stephen Rideout (ret.)
swrideout@aol.com
Dear Readers:
The Charter Commission Report has been posted on the County Council Website. I have downloaded it, and it is attached. If you prefer to go directly to it on the County Website, I found it at
You can copy the link above and search for it directly.
I leave it to each of you who live anywhere in the County to make your own decisions about the recommendations. Each of them has with it or separately an explanation by the Charter Commission as to its reasoning. At the final Charter Commission meeting most of these recommendations were adopted 6-0. I think one was 5-1 and one was 4-0-2 with the 2 being abstentions.
I attended most of the Charter Commission meetings, and I want to compliment the Commission Members on the work that they did, especially given the short time that they were given to do their job. While I see a couple of their proposals that I would have worded differently, they worked hard and did a very good job. I think that all of the recommendations deserve consideration by you and by the County Council. Understand that any of the recommendations that are approved would be placed on the November ballot for the voters to approve or not as they choose.
The Council needs to hear your thoughts – for or against – and why. If they do not hear from you, they may think that you do not care; so email them, call them, or show up at the meeting on July 18th before 6 p.m. and sign up to speak. Under the notice, you will have 3 minutes to speak. If lots of people show up, that may be cut back.
If you are going to speak, prepare in writing what you want to say and test it out a couple of times to be sure it is no more than 3 minutes long and bring it with you.
Below is contact information of each of the the County Council Members that is found on the County website:
Council Member Newcomb
Cell: (443) 521-6957
E-Mail: jnewcomb@docogonet.com
Council Member Nichols
Home: (410) 221-1371
E-Mail: wnichols@docogonet.com
Council Member Travers
Work: 410-228-4313
Home: 410-228-1532
E-Mail: rtravers@docogonet.com
Council Member Pfeffer
Cell: 443-521-3690
E-Mail: lpfeffer@docogonet.com
Council Member Nagel
Cell: (443) 521-5469
E-Mail: lnagel@docogonet.com
Please let them know what you think.
Thanks.
Steve