LA PLATA — A proposed Charles County law on collective bargaining for county employees never made it onto the books for a first reading Oct. 20, after the Board of County Commissioners split 2-2 on a procedural vote with one member absent.
Because the board did not declare the day a legislative day, it could not formally introduce Bill 2026-12, the collective bargaining measure, or Bill 2026-11, an update to the county code governing the Heritage Commission. Both briefings, along with requests to schedule public hearings, were pulled from the agenda and will have to be rescheduled.
The stall matters for the county workers who have spent years organizing. Charles County operates under code home rule, which voters approved in 2002, and under that system the commissioners can only introduce or adopt local laws on days they formally designate as legislative days. No legislative day means no first step for a bill.
Two tries, no majority
The first attempt came minutes into the morning session. Commissioner President Reuben Collins II called for a motion to make Oct. 20 a legislative day, and one was offered, but it drew no second. Collins told colleagues several items later on the agenda would need a legislative day and said he would note them as they came up.
Nearly two hours later, when the Heritage Commission briefing came up, the motion returned. Commissioner Thomasina Coates stood by her earlier motion, and it received a second for discussion. Staff explained that the board generally schedules about two legislative days a month, sometimes more, and that the county remained within the legal limit on how many it can hold in a year.
One commissioner said she would prefer that all five members be present for these bills and that her position would rest on that. Another member noted the original plan had been to revisit the question later specifically to handle the collective bargaining introduction. Asked what would happen if the board deadlocked, the county’s attorney said the motion would fail and could not be reintroduced at that meeting.
The roll call went 2-2:
- Yes: Coates and Collins
- No: Commissioners Gilbert “BJ” Bowling III and Amanda Stewart
- Absent: Commissioner Vice President Ralph Patterson II
Patterson was present for the evening session’s roll call later that day, but by then the legislative day vote had already failed. When the afternoon agenda reached the briefing on Bill 2026-12, the item was announced as rescheduled, and the board moved on without discussing the bill’s contents. Bowling did not state a reason for his vote on the record.
A fight that started in Annapolis
The push for county employee bargaining rights goes back more than six years. In 2020 the General Assembly passed legislation authorizing Charles County to enact a local law giving regular county employees collective bargaining rights with binding arbitration. A state fiscal note on the Senate version said any such law would have to define unfair labor practices, ban strikes and work stoppages, and leave existing bargaining rights for public safety officers untouched.
The House version became law in May 2020 without then-Gov. Larry Hogan’s signature, according to AFSCME Maryland, the union that has organized county workers. That spring, the commissioners also unanimously approved a neutrality agreement setting out a process for employees to organize, the union said. The state law only opened the door; the fiscal note said nothing would change until the county passed its own local legislation.
The issue has resurfaced this year. In June the county posted notice of a July 21 public hearing on Proposed Resolution 2026-04, Charles County Employees Collective Bargaining. Bill 2026-12 is the next step: a proposed local law that would be briefed, introduced and sent to its own public hearing.
Unionized public workers are not new in Charles County. Library employees, who work for the separate Charles County Public Library system, ratified their first union contract in August after 14 months of talks and a declared impasse. Across the state, a national report this fall gave Maryland an F on public-sector labor policy.
The Heritage Commission bill caught in the same vote would update the section of the county code that governs the commission, which advises on historic preservation. Neither bill’s text was presented at the meeting.
No new date was announced for either briefing. To move forward, the board will first need three votes to declare a legislative day at a future meeting, then introduce the bills and schedule public hearings before any vote on adoption, all with the Nov. 3 general election approaching.
