Baltimore County Council members erupted Tuesday night over a bill sponsored by Councilman Pat Young to strike a district map and language concerning appointment power from a ballot referendum that would add two new members to the seven-person council if voters pass it next month.

Accusations about backroom deals and hypocrisy were hurled. The council’s three Republicans — Wade Kach, Todd Crandell, and David Marks — accused Young, Council Chair Izzy Patoka, and Councilman Julian Jones, all Democrats, of trying to unfairly undermine an earlier bipartisan redistricting vote, which passed 5-1 on July 1. They framed Young’s bill as a Democratic power grab.

The council will vote Monday on Young’s bill but it is unlikely to pass.

Patoka supports Young’s bill, which would amend his original expansion bill by striking language and the proposed district map, causing consternation from the three Republicans who said they overcame initial opposition after Patoka promised no further changes to council districts. They said the map passed in July would ensure the minority party still had a fighting chance to win council seats in majority Democratic Baltimore County. Some 70% of registered county voters are Democrats, versus 31% Republicans.

The map would take effect Dec. 5 if voters approve expansion Nov. 5; it would create one district in western Baltimore County, a Black Democratic-leaning enclave, and one in the conservative-leaning southeast. Patoka said Wednesday he was still convinced residents would vote to expand the council. He plans to introduce a resolution on Nov. 18, the first legislative session after the election, establishing a redistricting commission to oversee the expansion.

Young, who cast the lone dissenting vote against Patoka’s original legislation, said he introduced his bill because the council did not follow a public input process in the county charter to redraw council districts.

The council is split 4-3 in favor of Democrats. Members are typically cordial but have shown more willingness recently to spar with each other and County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. over issues like development and zoning.

The most recent debate on council expansion mirrors public views about whether the all-male, mostly white council adequately represents the county population, which has diversified and grown threefold since adopting its charter-style government in 1956.

The charter is silent on council expansion.

A handful of Democratic state legislators and the ACLU of Maryland have hinted at a lawsuit. They argue Patoka’s bill violates state law by replacing two-state appointed county school board members with council appointees, and that it violates federal civil rights law because Patoka’s redistricting map would dilute residents of color’s voting power by splitting majority-Black districts. The group previously sued the county in 2021 over redistricting.

Patoka said the council did not “have the luxury of dysfunction,” accusing members of “pushing and shoving each other for political gain.” Councilman Mike Ertel, a Towson Democrat, said he would not support Young’s bill, calling it a “political stunt designed to fracture the council.”

Crandell, Young and Kach also accused Young and Jones of sour grapes because they supported another failed referendum that would have added four new council members.

“You’re mad at the process because you didn’t have a chance to gerrymander,” Crandell told Young. “The only free and fair elections Democrats are interested in the state of Maryland are ones in which Democrats win.”

Kach and Marks said state legislators’ support for Young’s bill was hypocritical, comparing it to a bruising 2022 fight between Democratic legislators and former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan over congressional redistricting.

Kach called Young’s bill “completely and totally unnecessary” in light of an amendment he passed in Patoka’s bill that allows the council to change or adopt an “entirely new map” until Oct. 1, 2025.

Young said after the meeting he proposed his bill because he thought Kach’s amendment did not contain forceful enough language to ensure the council underwent a public redistricting process and because of his qualms with how council staff drafted the original map in Patoka’s bill. Kach was unavailable to comment Wednesday, according to his chief of staff, Ryan Fried.

Marks said the recent rancor was being driven by “the most partisan Democratic legislators and activists.”

“I’d like to see the last time the ACLU of Maryland sued the Democrats over their maps,” he said Wednesday. “It took a bipartisan consensus to advance this expansion bill to the ballot. Were it not for three Republicans and two Democrats, Baltimore County wouldn’t even be expanding.”

Jones said he supported Young’s bill because the current map, which would create a second district adjoining his, preemptively “chose winners and losers” by splitting majority-Black districts like his, ensuring Republicans a five-seat majority.

That earned him a rebuke from Patoka, who criticized him for not attending the July 1 vote. The two Democrats are expected to run against each other for county executive in 2026. Jones said he was unable to participate because of an ill-timed flight, but “the fact is, Patoka went out and struck a secret deal with the Republicans where he did not need my vote.”

Ertel said he did not believe creating a second majority-Black district would significantly dilute minority residents’ voting power.

“The issue is that African American voters are just like everyone else — they’re spread out all over the county,” he said Wednesday.

Crandell said Jones’ comment about splitting districts “sealed” his point.

“What you guys don’t like is that you might not get a supermajority on the council,” Crandell said. “Because you haven’t had a supermajority on the council since I got elected as the third Republican.” Jones said Crandell’s remark was “telling” of the Republicans’ desire to achieve their own supermajority despite being a minority party.

Crandell did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Crandell won his first term in 2014 as part of the statewide “red wave,” succeeding Councilman John Olszewski Sr., a Democrat and father of the county executive, who stepped down after 16 years.

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