UPDATE August 18, 2026: Mayor James has responded.
The La Plata Town Council voted 4-1 Aug. 18 to censure Mayor Jeannine James over her handling of a state highway-safety coalition appointment, the latest and most public clash yet in a monthslong rift between the mayor and her four-member council.
The resolution, introduced by Councilman Paul Guttenberg and seconded by Councilman Patrick McCormick, cites violations of the town Charter, the council’s rules of procedure and its code of civility. Council members Guttenberg, McCormick, Tyjon Johnson and Gregory Sampson voted for censure; Mayor James cast the lone vote against it.
At issue is how the town responded to an invitation from the Maryland Department of Transportation to join its newly formed “Serious About Safety” — Safer Maryland Coalition Local Leaders Cohort. According to the resolution and McCormick’s account, Town Manager Chuck Stevens told MDOT in mid-July that any town representative would need council approval first, consistent with the council’s authority over board and commission appointments.
On July 28, the council voted 4-1 to designate Guttenberg as La Plata’s representative; James cast the dissenting vote. The next morning, after Stevens formally notified MDOT of that decision, James emailed MDOT and the Maryland lieutenant governor’s office, writing that the council’s designation “does not align with the intent or basis of your invitation.”
Roughly three days later, according to the resolution, MDOT reversed course, withdrawing the invitation from Guttenberg and extending it to James instead — an outcome the resolution says leads council members to believe James’s email “result[ed] in MDOT rescinding its acceptance of the Town’s delegate,” undoing the council’s vote.
Mayor James offered three defenses at the meeting, according to McCormick’s account: that she was being censured simply for sending a letter on town letterhead, something she said other council members have also done; that she was being penalized for MDOT’s own decision to reverse course, which was outside her control; and that she was not afforded due process before the vote. McCormick rejected all three points in his public statement, arguing the censure concerns the content of her email rather than the act of writing it, that MDOT’s internal decision-making isn’t the relevant issue, and that the council’s process — laying out its case and letting James respond — satisfied due process. “We do not have a serious Mayor,” McCormick wrote, describing James’s actions as a demonstration of disrespect toward the council, town staff and the democratic process.
The censure carries no formal penalty; it does not remove James from office or alter her duties, McCormick noted in his statement. But it lands amid a broader, ongoing tension between James and the council that dates back at least to 2025, when the council voted to suspend a $10,000 monthly stipend James had received for taking on town manager duties. The council is also scheduled to hold a public hearing Sept. 8 on a proposed charter amendment addressing the “Powers and Duties of the Mayor.”
Mayor James’s own comments are documented here only as characterized in the resolution and McCormick’s statement, including brief excerpts from her July 29 email read into the meeting record; her office has not issued an independent statement on the censure. However, the Southern Maryland Chronicle has reached out to her office for any comment.
