[RP TownTalk] Separation of Powers

[Jack R. Jones]

Dear TTers,

I have been a resident of Riverdale since October 1975, its my 30th 
anniversary!

My experience of the Town Government over the years has been of a 
Mayor with a Rubber Stamp Legislature followed by a change of 
Administration and Reform. It is said best in a WHO song "here comes 
the new boss, just like the old boss". I have seen the cycle three 
times so far.

The problem is that some group gets riled up about some one issue. 
They get their Mayor in and their Council and they have their way 
with their issue, but as the issues multiply and as the 
administration was only interested in their issue, the government 
begins to represent less and less of the citizens and then a group 
forms again...like the people of COG that put in an administration, 
then had to form PRIDE to take the same administration out, since it 
no longer responded to the broadened concerns of the administration's 
original supporters.

My opinion is that the Separation of Powers as put forth by the 
founding fathers has been the strength and duration of this 
Democratic Republic. The three powers of Executive, Legislative, and 
Judicial exist at the Federal, State, and County level of government.

On a municipal level an effective Judicial power does not exist; one 
must go to a County or State level, often at some expense to check a 
Municipal impropriety. The history of Riverdale politics has been 
that the citizens make no major continuos effort to maintain the 
separation of powers. Efforts are always directed at that narrow 
scope of concern that will bring the Executive Power of a mayor and 
merge it with the Legislative Power of a council that is in camp with 
that mayor, totally overpowering the Judicial Power which can only be 
surely carried out by twenty percent of the citizens by petition at 
the next election and only on one subject.

So eventually the 40% minority becomes the 60% majority and a turn 
over begins again. More realistically the percentage to raise a 
petition should be lowered to at least the level of minority 
protection provided by the one in twelve that prevents the unanimous 
decision of the Common Law Jury (Article 23 Maryland Declaration of 
Rights). Not having that certain and easy check and no Term Limits 
allows for the "Mayor for Life" syndrome to set in. With the check 
the Mayor and Council need to stay in tune with the citizenry so that 
their actions will satisfy a super majority (75-90 %) instead of the 
usual simple majority (50+ %)

Riverdale Park will be better served by a broad diversity of opinion 
with Legislative Power rather than having a council of people who are 
of the mayor's frame of mind. For
  Mayors with their Executive Power to expect Legislators who are of 
an extremely similar mind is a conflict of interest contrary to the 
separation of powers.

There were calls for reform of the town form of government in COG 
such as Recall and Term Limits, but when COG won, it was said we have 
good people now and do not need the reforms now. PRIDE also looked 
for government reform and again they never fully developed. The 
citizens of Riverdale Park should look to ways that give then an 
equal ease of applying the Judicial Power as a check to the Executive 
and Legislative Powers when their interests are not broadly served. 
The citizens should take the statement below (appears at the end of 
the web address document) serious and work toward establishing a 
system that guarantees a super majority consent.

http://www.tpaine.org/fractal.htm (which I wrote in 1999 for my own 
distribution and the PRIDE campaign) It contains some conditions that 
would improve my consent. I have additional concerns regarding Term 
Limits and Recall to come later.

"WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created 
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the 
Pursuit of Happiness - That to secure these Rights, Governments are 
instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of 
the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes 
destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or 
abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on 
such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form as to them 
shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

excerpted from
The Declaration of Independence
Action of Second Continental Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States

Submitted Respectfully, Jack R. Jones, July 1999



-- 
"We have met the enemy, and he is us!" Pogo Possum
http://theriverdaleobserver.blogspot.com
-- 
"We have met the enemy, and he is us!" Pogo Possum
http://theriverdaleobserver.blogspot.com