BALTIMORE — Mayor Brandon Scott issued a veto to Baltimore City Council's proposed redistricting map.
In a letter to Council President Nick Mosby, Scott mentions not being able to reach agreements on the amendments to the map as a reason for the veto.
Since we failed to reach an agreement on these amendments to your map, after careful consideration, I have chosen to veto City Council Bill 23-0428 pursuant to Article IV, Section 5 of the Baltimore City Charter. I have not come to this decision lightly. When we began this process, I made it clear that I wanted to ensure that each district had similar populations, including demographic makeup, and that each district also had within it an anchor institution.
The mayor also notes that in his map it included an equality of population and that each district had an anchor institution.
In the letter he says it was "unclear how decisions were made based upon the feedback provided by members of the public."
As a result of the veto, Mosby announced he'll be introducing several charter amendments that will change how the city government operates.
He also called the veto "counterproductive," as it disregards "the will of the people."
Redistricting, even more so than other issues, should be an easy, community-driven process where we all come to as close to a consensus as we can. The Mayor’s proposed map lacked input from the experts themselves - the community members. Our City Council brought the public in, held town halls with hundreds of participants, emphasized transparency, made a handful of tweaks based on that community feedback, and sent it back to the Mayor for approval. It’s that simple.
We are all Baltimoreans. We all win when we all win. The City of Baltimore operates best when its City Hall is operating in sync and as efficiently as possible. Anything less than that is counterproductive.
A veto in this case is counterproductive.
A veto disregards the will of the people. The citizens devoted energy in vigorous civic engagement and their voice deserves to be heard.
In the coming days and weeks, I will be introducing several charter amendments that will aim to provide significant reform and structural change to how this city government operates through a number of processes including redistricting. We want to ensure the next redistricting cycle does not fail the city again behind a faulty system that allows politics to win the day rather than community input.
The proposed map was based on requirements established in the City Charter, taking data from the 2020 Census on population changes, trends and new imbalances.
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