The Baltimore City Council is the legislative branch that governs the City of Baltimore and its nearly 700,000 citizens. Baltimore has fourteen single-member City Council districts and representatives are elected for a four-year term. To qualify for a position on the Council, a person must be twenty-one years of age, a registered voter, a U.S. citizen, and a resident of Baltimore and the district. If a position on the Council is vacated, a new representative from the Council District is elected by a majority vote of the Council.^[1] As of 2007 the annual salary for city council member was $57,000.^[2]

The Baltimore City Council holds its regular meetings on alternate Monday evenings on the fourth floor of the Baltimore City Hall. The presiding officer is the President of the City Council who is elected at large.^[3] The compensation for the President is (as of 2007) $98,000 a year.^[4] The Council has 7 standing committees, all of which must have at least three members.

[edit] History

In 1729, the Maryland General Assembly authorized the erection of Baltimoretown on the north side of the Patapsco and appointed a group of commissioners to govern it. In 1797, the General Assembly granted a charter that created the office of Mayor and City Council. The Council was divided into 2 branches, and membership required heavy property qualifications. During its early history the council was composed exlcusivley of white, non-Jewish males.^[5] In 1890 Harry Sythe Cummings was elected to the council, becoming the first black elected official in the state of Maryland. For forty years after 1890, six different black Republicans won elections to the council. Before 1918, the General Assembly enacted all local laws affecting the city, since then the Mayor and City Council assumed those responsibilities. In the November election of 1922, the voters through petition replaced a two-branch council with a unicameral one and Baltimore abolished its old system of small wards, replacing them with much larger districts. In 1943, Ella Bailey became the first woman elected to the City Council.

In 2003, as a result of the ballot initiative, Question P, the Baltimore City Council went from six three-member districts to 14 single-member districts or from 18 members to 14 members. The council president continued to be elected at-large.

[edit] Current Members of the Baltimore City Council

District	Born	Member	Party	Elected	Primary Committee
1	Baltimore	James B. Kraft	Democratic		Judiciary and Legislative Investigations (Chair)
2	Baltimore	Nicholas D'Adamo, Jr.	Democratic	1987	Budget and Appropriations
3	Baltimore	Robert W. Curran	Democratic	1995	Executive Appointments (Chair)
4	Baltimore	Bill Henry	Democratic	2007	Education
5	Baltimore	Rochelle "Rikki" Spector	Democratic	1977	Land Use and Transportation
6	Baltimore	Sharon Green Middleton	Democratic		Urban Affairs and Aging
7	Baltimore	Belinda Conaway	Democratic	2004	Executive Appointments
8		Helen Holton	Democratic		Taxation and Finance
9		Agnes Welch	Democratic		Urban Affairs and Aging (Chair)
10	Baltimore	Edward Reisinger	Democratic		Land Use and Transportation (Chair)
11	Havre de Grace	William H. Cole	Democratic	2007	Taxation and Finance (Vice Chair)
12	Baltimore	Bernard "Jack" Young	Democratic	1996	Budget and Appropriations (Chair)
13		Warren Branch	Democratic	1994	Budget and Appropriations
14	Providence	Mary Pat Clarke	Democratic	1975	Education (Chair)
At-Large		Stephanie Rawlings Blake	Democratic		Council President

[edit] Notes

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