A Baltimore City Council committee voted Tuesday 3-1 to approve a measure aimed at making it easier for council members to override a mayor's vetoes.
The bill sponsored by City Councilman Bill Henry would reduce the number of votes needed to override a mayoral veto from three-fourths to two-thirds of the 15-member City Council. It will now advance to a vote of the full City Council.
Henry's bill, proposed in 2012, was part of a package of legislation he introduced that had languished in the council's Judiciary and Legislative Investigations committee until this year. The bills gained new life after Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake vetoed four high-profile pieces of legislation in the past year — including plans to mandate body-worn cameras for police officers and a ban on plastic shopping bags.
In another matter Tuesday, the committee voted 3-1 to kill a measure, proposed by City Councilman Carl Stokes, that would have stripped the mayor of control of the Board of Estimates, a powerful body that approves big-ticket spending measures. Stokes' bill would have given the City Council president and the comptroller equal voting power to the mayor, who now controls three of the body's five votes.
Henry voted against that idea.
"The intention was not to eliminate the strong mayor system of government," he said. "The intention was to rein it in so it was not so overwhelmingly strong."
A third bill, introduced by Henry, that would impose term limits on the city's elected officials has yet to receive a vote.
All of the measures, if approved by the full council, would need to be ratified by voters in the 2016 election.
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