Bennett Argument Lacks Merit
The estranged County Councilman needs to choose between being a Councilman and being a teacher instead of pretending that the law shouldn't apply to him.
Since December, the Harford County Council has been working one man short. Jacob Bennett won election to the Harford County Council in November, however, he has not been sworn in due to questions about his eligibility to serve in the office.
The Harford County Charter lays out the qualifications for members fo serve on the Council.
Bennett is a Harford County Public School teacher.
Now one could argue that Republicans, primarily Bennett’s opponent and former now-County Councilman Curtis Beulah, should have been making this argument about Bennett’s eligibility before Bennett even scored his 92-vote upset victory last November. But there were no legal ramifications for Bennett’s status until he won and attempted to be sworn in; something that he is not eligible to be due to his employment status.
A Harford County Circuit Court Judge ruled against Bennett earlier this week:
Much of the argument between Bennett and the county focused on whether the Harford County Board of Education, Bennett’s employer, was a state or county government entity, which would prevent Bennett from serving on the council.
The county’s legal term said that the board was either a county or state government entity, while Bennett’s team argued that the board was a government entity, but not a state or county government entity.
Bennett expanded upon this argument on Facebook:
“We are incredibly disappointed by today’s ruling and are preparing our appeal to the Supreme Court of Maryland. It is shocking to hear the judge rule not just that he views me as a county employee and potentially also a state employee, but also that there is an inherent incompatibility of office by being a school teacher in the county I serve.
“It is our hope that the Supreme Court of Maryland recognizes the faults in this ruling and will recognize that school teachers are neither employees of the county or state government, but rather a separate body governed by the board of education.”
But Bennett’s argument doesn’t make any sense. The idea that “school teachers are neither employees of the county or state government, but rather a separate body governed by the board of education” ignores the fact that the Board of Education itself is a government body established by Section VIII of the Constitution of Maryland:
The General Assembly, at its First Session after the adoption of this Constitution, shall by Law establish throughout the State a thorough and efficient System of Free Public Schools; and shall provide by taxation, or otherwise, for their maintenance.
I’m willing to accept arguments either way that Maryland's public school systems are state or county entities. Yes, public school systems are administered on a county-by-county basis. But school boards are established by state law, the state licenses teachers, public schools receive the majority of their funding from the state, and teachers received state-funded pensions. The judge in this case even alludes to the fact that it could be one or the other.
But there is no doubt that county public school employees are either State Employees OR county employees. And that both are prohibited by the Harford County Charter.
Bennett’s argument that public schools are “a government entity, but not a state or county government entity” is illogical because there are two potential sources of authority for this government entity: the state or the county. It is not an independent school district with taxing authority as seen in other states. So if a school district isn’t a state entity or a county entity, what is it under state law? And that is the question that Bennett’s argument can’t answer.
Of course, Bennett’s lawsuit also avoids the simple solution to this issue: he can make a choice. The County Charter makes it clear that Bennett can be a public school employee or a County Councilman. He cannot be both. The fact that he thinks he can be both and that the Harford County Charter should not apply to him says more about Bennett’s ego and the Democratic Party’s insistence that they are above the law.