Sitting Howard County Council makes its last votes after eight years together

Howard County Council will soon be getting four new members, after the current council has been together since 2018.

But before that, the council had to make its final votes on a slew of bills Friday.

While the discussions before the votes were tense at times, each councilmember made sure to thank one another for the work they've done in the last eight years before adjourning.

IG records access

One of council's last and most watched bills was centered around Inspector General Kelly Madigan.

Created by Councilwoman Deb Jung, if passed, it would have made Madigan a custodian of county records.

"Passing this bill and making our IG an official custodian of records is much less contentious than months-long litigation between our county executive and our inspector general," Jung said Friday before the vote.

Madigan had told the council about the obstacles she's run into getting access to some records, particularly under the Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA). 

A 2011 Maryland Supreme Court ruling blocked Montgomery County's inspector general from obtaining internal police investigation records under the MPIA. Howard County's law office has interpreted that to issue Madigan mandatory denials for personnel records.

In the end, the bill failed 3-2, mostly due to legality concerns. Also, several councilmembers voiced that this is something state lawmakers should fix.

"The first letter in MPIA stands for Maryland, and that's why this is a good situation to be handled at the Maryland level," Council Chair Opel Jones said.

Councilman David Yungmann said the "supermajority in Annapolis" is refusing to fix the problem.

"It shouldn't even be up to us to fix it," he said.

Jones and Yungmann also talked about legislation Del. Chao Wu is working on to address this, with Yungmann committing to testify in support of a fix in Annapolis.

Bills that passed

Yungmann's bill on solar projects did end up passing. However, there had to be some changes made to make that happen.

First, it's no longer a moratorium, but it does beef up the county's Agricultural Preservation Board's involvement in solar project approval. It also shortens timeframes for public meetings about projects.

Jung's bill aimed at increasing transparency in grant funding for nonprofits also passed due to amendments. 

The bill looked to codify more stringent requirements for county grants, including more audits and other reporting. While it initially would've applied to all county grants awarded to nonprofits, it now will only apply to grants involved with construction, redevelopment and property purchases.

End of an era

At the end, every single councilmember took a moment to thank each other, their staff and the community for the last eight years.

All five were elected to their first terms at the same time in 2018. Jones, Yungmann, Jung and Councilwoman Liz Walsh will all be leaving the council.

Yungmann was the first to announce his departure.

"I love protecting Western Howard County and the [agriculture] industry, that community," he said. "I just have to hope whoever follows me does the same."

Council Vice Chair Christiana Rigby will be the only returning councilmember. Looking back at the last eight years, she said they met the moment on many difficult challenges, including government shutdowns, the COVID-19 pandemic and dealing with the aftermath of DOGE cuts.

"There's really just been some very big system shocks that have happened during our terms," Rigby said. "I'm really proud of the way the body's come together to meet them."

Kevin Chin, Jessica Nichols and Janssen Evelyn won council seats in the June primary election, since no Republicans ran in their races.

District 5, which is Yungmann's district, is the only one having a competitive race Tuesday. Cat Carter is running as a Democrat, with Ryan O'Connor running as a Republican.