Commissioners Debate the Definition of Word 'Facilities'

Leonardtown - 8/3/2006

By Sean Rice

McKay, left, says removing the word limits the property. Jarboe says keeping the word in leaves the door open to undesired possibilities. – The Bay Net photo by Sean Rice

It seems the last bit of the drama surrounding the St. Mary’s County Board of Education’s decision to build a new elementary school on protected land has been played out in the county commissioner’s room.

It’s been more than six months since the commissioners narrowly agreed to make an exception to the county comprehensive water and sewer plan and allow an elementary school to be built within the Rural Preservation District (RPD) off Indian Bridge Road.

One final issue was decided Tuesday in Leonardtown, regarding a single word in the law crafted to give the school the go-ahead to build.

Commission President Tommy McKay and Commissioner Larry Jarboe had a short but pointed debate on whether the enabling text should allow for an “elementary school facility” or just state an “elementary school.”

The debate over the use of the word facility has been an issue since the commissioners held an illegal, non-public meeting to work out a deal to allow the school project.

In December, the commissioners tried several times to pass a motion to approve the school site. After four unsuccessful votes, the board illegally excluded the public from the decision making process and adjourned to a back room to continue debating the issue.

Maryland law allows for a few narrow reasons a public body can exclude the public from hearing the debate, such as bargaining for property or reprimanding employees. Considering a zoning text change is not one of the accepted reasons.

The board emerged from their secret meeting and approved the issue with no discussion on what debate took place.

Jarboe on Tuesday shed some light on that back room deal. He said he was persuaded to change his vote and let the school site go forward in exchange for a promise that the board would consider removing the entire site and Myrtle Point Park land from the RPD.

McKay began the debate Tuesday, stating that if the board is taking all these extra months of procedure simply to remove the word “facility” from after the words “elementary school”, people in the future will wonder what the board’s intentions were.

“10 years from now I think people will say, ‘what was the intent for removing the word facilties?’ McKay said, adding the decision will leave the public, “owning school sites that have limited use.”

“Because someone is going to interpret it that the board of commissioners intended something to be removed from that property in terms of facilities,” McKay continued. “And what facilities exactly are we removing from that property?”

Jarboe responded: “That’s their problem” if school officials wonder in 10 years what the commissioners' intentions were.

“You can read an interpretation, or interpret any way you want to interpret,” Jarboe said. “The word ‘facility’ opens up something else, because the public feels like it might open up something else."

“The schools should know by now what schools are. They sent a letter wanting to know the definition of schools,” Jarboe continued. “I hope they have Webster’s dictionary within the schools.”

“I don’t know if Webster’s defines a Judy Hoyer Learning Center as being part of a school facility,” McKay rebuked, adding daycares, fine arts centers and sports centers to the list.

“They should be able to use it for school facilities in whatever way the school system thinks it should be used,” McKay said, adding that all building projects need budget approval from the commissioners, and the 10-member school board.

“The fact that we want ‘facilities’ removed must mean that the commissioners want some facilities removed,” McKay said. “People will say, ‘they must have meant something else’, and I’m trying to figure out what that something else means.”

A moment later Jarboe stated what that something else might be, referencing the far-reaching possibility of a “juvenile correctional educational facility” in the distant future.

After a moment of silence passed, McKay called for a vote on removing the word ‘facilities’. McKay cast the lone vote to keep the word in the text.

The restriction still remains on the property, as it would have if ‘facilities’ were included: any further building requests on the property need to be approved by the St. Mary’s Board of Zoning Appeals.

“It’s the same thing, they’re the same thing,” McKay said just before the vote.