Council discusses sidewalk and trail maintenance responsibility; approves legislative rule change

Apr. 14—Frederick County Council spent more than 30 minutes Tuesday discussing a minor but quintessential issue facing local government: Who should pay for portions of new sidewalk and trail maintenance and repair.

Councilman Steve McKay (R) and Council Vice President Michael Blue (R) drafted a bill that council members eventually workshopped but not before county staff, led by Chief Administrative Officer Rick Harcum, discussed how technical and detailed the changes actually were.

At the core of McKay and Blue's bill was an issue of fairness for property owners. McKay said sidewalk repairs can be costly for homeowners, but he was willing to work with county division directors to finalize a bill.

McKay and Blue said they were prompted to draft the bill after hearing from residents from Clover Hill about a need for sidewalks in the county between Whittier and Clover Ridge, both in the city of Frederick. But who should pay for the maintenance and repair of that infrastructure is up for debate.

Harcum said it would be tricky to connect those areas with a sidewalk given all the legal and logistical issues in that area. But Council President M.C. Keegan-Ayer (D) and Councilman Phil Dacey (R), both of whom reside in the city, said some agreement needs to be reached in order to connect those neighborhoods.

For McKay, the core issue of fairness still remains—even if it has some impact on the county budget or some unintended consequences.

"Yeah, it's easy on the budget, but someone pays the cost ... right now, we say someone else does whether they want it or not, so I say the county [should] step up when appropriate," he said. "Our intended consequence is the homeowners bear all the responsibility, whether they want it or not."

Despite the length of conversation between county staff and council members, Councilman Jerry Donald (D) warned that sidewalks and trail maintenance is a tough issue to deal with.

Donald sits on the county's Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee and has focused on bike paths and pedestrian accessibility during his two terms in office. Deciding who should shovel sidewalks and bike paths, or whether the county should pay for it, are much more difficult issues to tackle than they seem.

"I'm going to tell you now, you're going to need more than one workshop on this," Donald said.

Council passes legislative rule changeMcKay was able to get his colleagues to agree on a rules change Tuesday.

The change allows council members to reintroduce a bill if it doesn't pass or if the council cannot override a county executive veto. Right now, five of seven council members are required to override a veto.

The county attorney's office said council members could not reintroduce a bill unless it was substantially changed, per Robert's Rules of Order. Now, after a 7-0 vote, council members can reintroduce a bill a year after it fails either via a vote or override attempt.

McKay created the rule change after the council failed to override a bill updating the county's impact fees law, which are fees paid by developers countywide to pay for growing library and school systems.

Dacey added an amendment that increased the the maximum size of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) exempt from the public school impact fee waiver from 800 to 1,000 square feet. It made its way onto the bill, but Gardner vetoed the bill, and the council failed to override it.

Follow Steve Bohnel on Twitter: @Steve_Bohnel