Politics

Baltimore voters will determine the fate of seven ballot measures when they cast their votes this November. The referendums could have reverberations throughout the city: they will potentially limit city elected officials to two terms in office, establish local control of the Baltimore Police Department and move the city’s embattled procurement process away from the mayor and to the comptroller.

A state delegate plans to introduce legislation that would restrict predatory real estate practices, including the exclusive right-to-list agreements reported on by The Baltimore Banner this week. Del. Marlon Amprey, a Baltimore Democrat, is drafting a bill to be introduced in early 2023 that would seek to protect homeowners from predatory realty and lending companies that Amprey says are siphoning generational wealth from homeowners — especially Black homeowners.

Baltimore will pay city police overtime to collect and transport flash drives containing vote counts on election night next month in hopes of avoiding a situation similar to the July primary when multiple drives were misplaced. Armstead Jones, the city’s election director, announced the policy change during a committee meeting of the Baltimore City Council Thursday to discuss issues that arose during the primary. Then, election results for 12 city precincts were delayed by about 24 hours after some of the drives containing vote counts were temporarily misplaced.

For the first time in a decade, Baltimore County’s top prosecutor will have an opponent in November. Longtime State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger, 63, coming off a tight Democratic primary race, is running for reelection against a former federal administrative judge named Jim Haynes, a 72-year-old Republican, who casts himself as a fresh alternative to the “status quo.”

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich continues to push for a delay in the approval of a long-term planning document, even as the Maryland county’s council gets set to sift through over 100 applications to its Planning Board. The tension over the Planning Board’s “Thrive 2050” blueprint comes in the weeks following turmoil that led to the firing of county planning director Gwen Wright and the resignation of all five Planning Board members.

Prosecutors in the Roy McGrath fraud trial told a federal judge Wednesday that a defense motion seeking a delay “sweeps too broadly” in its characterization of recently turned over evidence. The prosecutors’ filing was in response to a Tuesday motion from Joseph Murtha, McGrath’s attorney, for a postponement of the trial. Murtha said a slew of new evidence turned over to the defense by prosecutors required more time to review and would make it difficult to be prepared for trial, which has been scheduled to start next Monday.

When contractors finish a job, they expect to get paid. But vendor payment is a perennial issue for Baltimore City, where the most recent finance department audit found 5,253 outstanding invoices — nearly a third of which were overdue by more than a month. This November, Baltimore voters will weigh in on a ballot measure that the mayor and comptroller say will stabilize the vendor payment process. A “yes” vote on Question J would move the oversight of about 10,400 vendor invoices each month out of the finance department and to the Office of the Comptroller.

President Joe Biden will announce the release of 15 million barrels of oil from the U.S. strategic reserve Wednesday as part of a response to recent production cuts announced by OPEC+ nations, and he will say more drawdowns are possible this winter, as his administration rushes to be seen as pulling out all the stops ahead of next month’s midterm elections. Biden will deliver remarks Wednesday to announce the drawdown from the strategic reserve, senior administration officials said Tuesday on the condition of anonymity to outline Biden’s plans.