Togetherness is called for amid budget season

Recently, Anthony Clarke of the Irish Restaurant Group asked Annapolis to waive liquor license fees for the 2021 renewal process at the end of this month.

All liquor licenses are renewed in the city at the same time, and the fees are quite expensive, with the average somewhere north of $6,000.

Without much public discussion, the City Council said no. Pressures on the budget made opening a revenue gap that large impossible to consider, council members said.

As Mayor Gavin Buckley introduces his budget on Monday, the council could discuss whether this kind of relief is possible. Buckley is unlikely to include the idea in his spending plan: he would personally benefit from it as the part-owner of a group of restaurants in the city.

The idea has merit but faces some problems. Annapolis’ restaurant was not as devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic as many feared, but it was certainly hurt by a year of lost revenues. City revenues are down because of the recession, but not as bad as feared because of federal aid and other factors.

This kind of creative thinking, however, isn’t encouraged during the Annapolis budget process. A major reason is the council’s arcane system of committees.

We want to offer a modest proposal: Suspend the rules for this budget season and have the council work through Buckley’s spending plan as a committee of the whole.

Finance normally leads the charge on considering the mayor’s budget proposal before forwarding it to the whole council. It’s a repetitive process that encourages grandstanding.

This year’s budget talks will already be less intensely public. The council and its committees are streaming their sessions but still holding them in closed rooms because of COVID restrictions.

That means anyone interested in this process will have to follow the committee’s deliberation and then the council discussions before a final vote.

This works pretty well over at the Anne Arundel County Council, which operates as a committee of the whole on almost everything.

While Annapolis council members spend time gnawing over the budget in committee, their peers at the Arundel Center consider the county budget as a single group.

Department heads troop in and explain. The auditor offers a report, and there’s debate. Amendments are proposed, debated and voted on. Public testimony is heard. The final votes come in a regular council session.

Of course, it’s not as simple as all that. But it is simpler than the process in Annapolis.

City Council committees are set up through the authority of the City Charter. But the charter is clear: the creation and use of committees are left to the discretion of the mayor and the council.

We think doing away with the committees is a good idea altogether. But this budget season offers a good test.

Would the council consider offering more assistance to hard-hit restaurant owners? Perhaps.

It’s a radical idea. We hope Buckley and his counterparts on the council will give it some thought.

But whatever they do, please, don’t send it to a committee.