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(a) In addition to its corporate powers heretofore granted, the county is hereby authorized and empowered:
(1) To acquire by purchase, gift, devise or bequest, sites for county schools and to enlarge or improve such sites and to construct, alter, enlarge, improve, develop or extend existing county schools, and to construct new school buildings and purchase the physical equipment necessary or incident thereto and to purchase, construct or otherwise acquire any other buildings or equipment other than schools considered necessary for educational purposes.
(2) To acquire by purchase, gift, devise or bequest rights-of-way for county roads and to layout, open, construct, improve, extend and replace county roads, streets, highways, culverts, viaducts and bridges.
(3) To contribute toward the cost of highway projects of the state roads commission located in the county.
(4) To enlarge, renew, replace, alter and improve existing county public buildings and to acquire by purchase, gift, devise or bequest sites for and to construct or otherwise acquire new buildings to be used for any legal governmental or municipal functions.
(5) And provided further that the county may contract or covenant with the government of the United States and of the state and with any commission, board, district or authority for the purpose of carrying out the powers conferred by this section, including the method of financing in whole or in part the projects authorized herein.
(b) This section shall be deemed to provide an additional and alternative method for the doing of the things authorized hereby and shall be regarded as supplemental and additional to powers conferred by other laws, and shall not be regarded as in derogation of any powers now existing. This section, being necessary for the welfare of the inhabitants of the county, shall be liberally construed to effect the purposes hereof. All acts and parts of acts, however inconsistent with the provisions of this section, are hereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency. (Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 2-17; 1947, ch. 835, §§ 1, 4; 1969 L.M.C., ch. 36, § 2.)
Editor's note-The predecessor paragraph to paragraph (2) of the above section is mentioned in County Council v. Lee, 219 Md. 209, 148 A.2d 568 (1959).
(a) Within two (2) years following the effective date of this section, and periodically thereafter, the county executive shall cause to have evaluations made of the departments, offices and agencies herein created, with the exception of the office of management and budget which will be evaluated by the office of legislative oversight at the direction of the county council. Such evaluations will include, but not necessarily be limited to:
(1) The validity of the original goals, objectives and performance criteria stated as the rationale for creation of the department, office or agency, to the extent that they reflect the intent and purposes envisioned by the county council.
(2) The effectiveness with which these goals, objectives and performance criteria have been accomplished.
(3) The efficiency with which the department, office or agency has operated.
(4) An assessment of other activities and consequences not specifically anticipated at the time the department, office or agency was created.
(5) Recommended changes in the goals, objectives, performance criteria, programs and operating procedures of the department, office or agency, which would, in the opinion of the evaluators, improve the ability of the department, office or agency to meet its intended purpose in an effective and efficient manner.
(b) A report by the county executive of each evaluation pursuant to this section shall be transmitted in writing to the county council, within two (2) years of the effective date of this law. Except as otherwise provided in subsection (c) of this section, all reports shall be made available to the general public.
(c) Within 15 days after receipt of a written report from the County Executive, the Council must determine whether the report, or any part of the report, must not be made public. The only basis on which a report or any part of a report may not be made public is if the report or part contains information that would not be available for public inspection under Title 10, Subtitle 6 of the State Government Article of the Maryland Code.
(d) If a report or any part of a report is not made public by the council, the county executive shall promptly release to the public a general summary of the report or part together with the reasons why the report or part was not made public.
(e) Reports by the office of legislative oversight will be submitted in writing to the county council pursuant to section 29A-9 (reports) of this Code.
(f) The evaluations pursuant to this section will be in addition to the annual audit required by section 315 of the charter of Montgomery County. (1980 L.M.C., ch. 21, § 15; 2011 L.M.C., ch. 49, § 1.)
The council in its discretion shall have full power and authority to enact ordinances for the county as it may deem necessary for the peace, good government, health, safety or welfare of the county, and which are not inconsistent with the provisions of the constitution or public general laws or public local laws of the state, subject, however, to the following limitations and restrictions:
(a) That the council shall not have power to license, regulate, prohibit or submit to local option, the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages.
(b) That nothing in this section contained shall be construed as a grant of additional powers to the council to authorize the issuance or renewal of any bonds, certificates, notes or other evidences of indebtedness of the county, except as now or hereafter provided by public general or local law. (Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 2-23; 1945, ch. 947.)
Editor's note-Section 2-12 is referred to in Cade v. Montgomery County, 83 Md. App. 419, 575 A.2d 744 (1990), cert. denied 320 Md. 350, 578 A.2d 190 (1990), U.S. cert. denied 112 L.Ed.2d 1047 (1991), as authority for the County's enactment of County Code Ch. 30C, Motor Vehicle Towing From Private Property. Section 2-12 [formerly §2-23] is cited in County Council for Montgomery County v. Investors Funding Corporation, 270 Md. 403, 312 A.2d 225 (1973); Scull v. Montgomery County Citizens League, 249 Md. 271, 239 A.2d (1968); and in Montgomery Citizens League v. Greenhalgh, 253 Md. 151, 252 A.2d 242 (1969).
The county executive is hereby authorized and empowered to use or to direct the use of any and all facilities, equipment, buildings and land belonging to the county, including trucks, school buses, motors, tools, buildings and any other equipment and property of the county for such purposes and in such manner that shall be necessary for the welfare and benefit of the citizens of the county for the duration of the war or other public emergency and thereafter and also, subject to any contractual obligations to the contrary, to direct any employees hired by the county in connection with the operation and maintenance of facilities, equipment, school buses and trucks to perform such duties, as will, in the discretion of the county executive aid the war effort and any other emergency use to promote the general welfare and benefit of the county; and the county executive may prescribe a pecuniary charge against any person, using such equipment, facilities, buildings and land provided by the county executive in the exercise of authority and power, and in the exercise of this power and authority the county executive is further authorized to purchase and hire additional equipment to carry out the purposes of this section and to establish parking lots. The jurisdiction or regulatory power of the public service commission shall not extend to the special transportation facilities, activities and services furnished in the exercise of authority and power by the county executive and the county executive is hereby further authorized and empowered to pay for the services, facilities, and the purchase and hire of additional equipment from any fund that may be available or that may be made available or levied for. (Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 2-18; 1943, ch. 188; 1970 L.M.C., ch. 9, § 1.)
Editor’s note—See County Attorney Opinion dated 10/29/21
explaining that, although the capital budget limits the County Executive’s expenditure of money for a capital project, the Executive can use that completed facility for any legitimate governmental purpose absent a law or appropriation limiting the Executive’s use of that facility.
The council is hereby authorized and empowered to appropriate at any time or from time to time, either in the annual budget appropriation or by interim resolution, such sum as they may by resolution declare to be necessary or expedient for public defense in time of actual or impending war, insurrection, riot or other emergencies such as floods, fires, disasters or epidemics of disease, and for the defense of the county or the safeguarding of its people or property, and to alleviate suffering in time of actual or impending disaster or peril or to otherwise aid the state or the United States in connection with national defense, or for any other purpose necessary for the preservation of the public health, safety or welfare in the county, and to borrow upon the faith and credit of the county such sum as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this section. (Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 2-19; 1943, ch. 75, § 1.)
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