Seventh District Councilman Todd Crandell stated that he wanted to take action after Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski, Jr. issued an executive order on Thursday.
Olszewski’s order calls for all in-person religious institutions and personal services establishments (barbershops, nail salons and hair salons) to remain closed as a result of COVID-19. The Executive Order is a continuation of Gov. Larry Hogan’s statewide executive order and Hogan allowed local jurisdictions to continue the order at their discretion.
Crandell created emergency county council legislation that would overrule Olszewski’s decision to continue that order.
“I began the process of drafting legislation and convening a County Council Emergency Legislative Session to vote on that legislation. The legislation revokes the County Executive’s emergency authority to restrict, among other things, religious worship,” Crandell said in a statement on Friday.
“Council members will be requested by our Secretary to convene the emergency session as early as [Friday]. As this is happening very quickly, the emergency legislative session is currently unscheduled. I will update as information becomes available.”
Crandell reported on Saturday that he was not able to gather all of his six other council colleagues for meeting and/or vote.
“The Council did not meet yesterday in Emergency Session to vote on the Resolution that would repeal and revoke the County Executive’s State of Emergency powers. Councilmen [5th District] David Marks and [3rd District] Wade Kach have committed to the session. An attempt to convene the Council later today, with four different options on the time, was made this morning, but has been declined,” Crandell reported.
“This leaves some churches in an awful situation – adhere to the County Executive’s Order or defy it and exercise their Constitutional right to worship.”
Crandell, along with Marks, have publicly stated that they were never consulted by the County Executive’s office about the Executive Order for Baltimore County. Marks released a statement after the announcement of the executive order was on Thursday.
“I have always approached my job in a spirit of collaboration and bipartisanship. It is difficult for me to rationalize any announcements when the legislative branch is not consulted,” Marks stated.
