The Abdication of Responsibility
Wicomico County Council Decides Doing Its Job is Not All That Important
Earlier this week I wrote about how the Wicomico County Council was getting a second chance to make the right decision with regards to the vacancy for Wicomico County Council.
The Wicomico County Council today they were completely incapable of making that right choice:
In a 5-2 vote, Wicomico County Council approved the continuation of John D. Psota as Acting County Executive. This comes after almost two months of the council reviewing candidates and a declination of the position by Salisbury cardiologist Rene Desamarias.
Wicomico County Council President Larry Dodd says councilmembers were unable to come to a conclusion as to which candidates would be the best fit for the job. “After Council requested and received applications to fill the vacancy in the Office of County Executive and conducted interviews of certain applicants, the Council is unable to reach a majority consensus to fill the vacancy. So the Council decided that it would be in the best interest of the county for Mr. Psota to continue to fill the vacancy pursuant to the Charter,” said Dodd.
This is ridiculous. This is absurd. This is revelatory about the mindset of too many elected officials.
What Councilman Dodd said here is, bluntly, a crock. This decision had nothing to do with what was “in the best interest of the county". This has everything to do with the 2022 primary election.
We all know that the Republicans on the County Council don’t want to empower a fellow Republican and give that Republican two years of experience and incumbency heading toward the 2022 election. More than one County Councilmember wants to be the County Executive and has designs on running for that office in the 2022 primary. So those councilmembers colluded to deny any candidate the opportunity to serve as the permanent Executive.
Bottom line: it’s another salvo aimed at Delegate Carl Anderton, who twice now has been denied the spot he is more than qualified to occupy.
Never bet against a politician following their political self-interest.
What’s even wilder about this is the fact that the County Council’s decision violates the idea of separation of powers. Acting County Executive John Psota may be saying in office, but the County Council retains the power to fill the vacancy the way the Charter intended them to,. Basically it means the Council can replace Psota if he gets out of line with their way of thinking. It makes the County Executive’s seat totally beholden to the County Council and makes Wicomico County’s executive branch without real independence.
It’s clear that the County Council here has completely abdicated their responsibilities to the County. The Charter clearly empowers them, requires them, to fill a vacancy in the office of County Executive. Instead of making any sort of decision, they decided to kick the can down the road for brazenly political reasons. It’s an abdication of responsibility, a dereliction of duty, and tells me that the entire County Council needs to be voted out of any public office come 2022.