On Nov. 5, residents of Wicomico County will be given the option to vote either “Yes” or “No” on a proposed charter amendment– called Question A– that will change the structure of the current county government. Twenty years ago, a county executive structure was implemented. After years of tension, conflict and political drama between elected officials, voters will now have the chance to vote on the question yet again to either maintain the current system or go back to the original county manager structure. 

Wicomico County Executive Julie Giordano has been the staunchest critic of Question A and has been campaigning to encourage voters to reject the amendment, which, if passed, would liquidate the position she currently holds starting in 2026. Giordano has described the proposition as a “power grab,” and emphasizes the necessity of balanced powers, which she argues would be infringed upon with a county management structure. 

“The biggest thing is that the county executive is your voice, it is your elected representation of who runs this county, and I know people say, ‘well the council is elected,’ and the council is elected, as the legislators, obviously, but then they’re picking the executive branch,” Giordano said on a PAC 14 episode. 

“The whole thing very much frustrates me; it’s not getting rid of a position, it’s literally getting rid of your voice and your choice as to who you want running the county.”

Rather than through popular vote, reverting back to a system of county management would give councilmen the ability to appoint a manager to handle executive matters. However, proponents of the Question A amendment contest that this would be beneficial to the county. 

Joseph Venosa, a history professor at Salisbury University and the chairman of the “For Question A” committee, became active in the cause after defending friends who were allegedly being legally targeted by opponents of Question A. He believes that the county executive role was written too broadly, allowing for great power to be concentrated in the hands of one individual. 

“A council of seven people has to also operate openly and in a transparent way,” he said. “The executive right now doesnt have to have public meetings, doesn’t have to have any oversight over contracts: it’s as if everything can operate in the dark.

“There’s a lack of transparency and lack of citizen input.”

One point of contention in this debate is that, only twenty years ago, the current structure was implemented by the will of the voters. By putting it on the ballot after such a relatively short period of time, some argue that the interests of the people are being disregarded.

Venosa, on the other hand, favors the fact that Wicomico residents, many of whom were not voters when the current structure became implemented two decades ago, have the ability to assess whether the county executive structure was a good experiment. 

“Our view is that 20 years of failure, lack of transparency and massive government spending in budgets has not helped,” he said. “We are one of the poorest counties in the state, our schools have gotten markedly worse since the executive, we have massive personnel disputes and vacancies in key positions and more importantly, we are looked at by Annapolis as a basketcase in the sense that they know our dysfunctionality is now infamous among state lawmakers over the bridge.”

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By COLIN McEVERS

Editor in Chief

Featured image courtesy of Colin McEvers