The League of Women Voters of Howard County was severely disappointed by the announcement that the Howard County delegation has scheduled their public hearing on local bills and statewide legislation at the Delegation Room in Annapolis, breaking with a long tradition of holding such hearings within Howard County.

We understand that our elected officials are busy people, but they are far from alone in that. If the delegation finds it difficult to make the trip from Annapolis to Howard County for the hearing, they must understand that such a trip is much more difficult for the Howard County citizens the delegation was elected to represent.

We are hard-pressed to understand why this hearing could not be held locally, as they historically have been. No vote will be taken on the night of the hearing, and as such, it does not require a quorum of the County delegation. When the vote is taken later in the session, all members of the delegation would be able to vote, regardless of whether or not they attended the hearing.

That the delegation could not identify a single evening or Saturday afternoon in the month of February on which this hearing could be scheduled in Howard County is hard to believe. Beyond the inconvenience to the citizens of Howard County wishing to testify or observe the proceedings, this scheduling deprives all county citizens of the public access they are accustomed to through broadcast on the local government channel, as hearings held in local delegation rooms in Annapolis are neither aired live nor posted for public viewing later.

Scheduling a hearing on local bills and an opportunity to speak on statewide issues in Annapolis does the very opposite of what our delegation was elected to do: It fails to serve the residents of Howard County.

Alice Giles

Betsy Grater

co-presidents

League of Women Voters of Howard County