History of the St. Mary's County Commissioners

The county commissioner form of government in St. Mary's County dates from 1838. At that time the Board of County Commissioners was comprised of five members, one elected from each of the county's five election districts. The first five commissioners were to serve until the first Wednesday of October 1841. After that, elections were to be held every three years. To qualify as a candidate for county commissioner, you had to have lived in that district for one year. The elected board of commissioners selected a member of its body to serve as president. In 1838 a commissioner received $2 per day compensation for each day's service.

In 1851, the Maryland Constitution provided that all the counties of the state be administered by a Board of County Commissioners. (St. Mary's County was thirteen years ahead of its time). The first Wednesday in November 1851 was the start of the election cycle, which would then occur every three years afterwards.

The five-member Board of County Commissioners government lasted until 1892 when legislation was enacted which reduced the Board of St. Mary's County Commissioners from five to three members. This same legislation also grouped the county's nine election districts into three commissioner districts, with one to be elected from each of the three commissioner districts. The term of office was designated as six years with successive terms prohibited.

The system of electing one county commissioner every two years to serve a six- year term remained in effect until 1922. The name of St. Mary's County Commissioners and the year of each man's election follows:

In 1922 a constitutional amendment designed to reduce the frequency of elections was adopted. The amendment reduced the number of commissioners to three, with four year terms. These provisions were to commence with the election held in November of 1926. These provisions lasted from 1926 until 1974.

The year 1972 was marked by a home rule movement in St. Mary's County. A charter writing board was authorized; voters had an opportunity to vote for charter government or home rule. Charter government was rejected by the voters with 3,710 in favor and 6,477 against.

In 1973, the term limits for County Commissioners were changed to three full four year consecutive terms. This law was approved May 24, 1973, but a note at the bottom of the page says that nothing shall be construed to affect the tenure of the members of the Board of County Commissioners until the regular election in the year 1974.

In 1974 legislation increased the number of St. Mary's County Board of County Commissioners from three to five with four Commissioners representing the first, second, third and fourth election district and requiring that the fifth county commissioner run at large and serve as president of the board.

In 1978, the offices of the St. Mary's County Commissioners moved from the Court House to the County Governmental Center, at the former Leonard Hall School.

In 1984 efforts were made to remove the three year term limits – Chapter 422 of the 1984 Session Laws of the Maryland General Assembly for the purpose of removing the restriction prohibiting the Board of County Commissioners from serving more than three consecutive terms of office and submitting the Act to a referendum of the voters of St. Mary's County, which did not pass.

In 1989, charter government was again proposed for St. Mary's County. The proposed charter was overwhelmingly rejected in a special vote held on September 12, 1989, with 1,819 citizens voting for charter and 3,781 voting against it.

In 2007, the County Commissioners formed a task force to study the forms of government. In August 2007 a Forms of Government Task Force Report was presented to the County Commissioners. Twelve of the fifteen members of the Task Force voted to recommend the Board of County Commissioners move away from the commissioner form of government to one of the two forms of home rule. Of those twelve members, nine voted to recommend a change to the charter form of government. Three voted for code home rule. Of the fifteen-member task force, only three members voted for no change.

On October 16, 2007, the County Commissioners voted to prepare a Notice of the Board's intent to consider the adoption of Code Home Rule form of government and to schedule at least four public hearings. The motion carried 3 to 2.

On February 26, 2008, after four public hearings, the Board of County Commissioners rejected the adoption of Code Home Rule in a 5 to 0 vote.