Lost in the Shuffle

While all eyes were focused on the crash of the high-profile electricty rates bill on the final night of the General Assembly, a bill critical to Prince George's County was literally lost in the shuffle in the rush to adjournment, according to sources tracking it.se of the ,

Around 9 p.m., the state Senate passed a bill to require district elections next fall instead of countywide voting for the county school board. The bill also would extend for two years the term of two appointed members, enlarging the board to 11 seats--a controversial provision.

The Senate bill apparently was sent to the waiting House for debate and possible action. But Dave Cahn of Citizens for an Elected Board, in an account corroborated by a lobbyist, said delegates told him they couldn't find the bill as critical minutes ticked away.

The bill was discovered shortly before midnight, Cahn said, too late to act. Delegates apparently received a promise from the House leadership to bring the school board bill up if and when a special session is called to deal with electricity rates.

So a legislative debate over the future leadership of the state's second-largest school system is now in limbo. "This is critical to nearly a million people," Cahn said this morning. "And it supposedly dies because somebody screwed up. Heads ought to be rolling on this thing."

Nick Anderson