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The Prince George’s County Council held its annual gavel exchange meeting Tuesday with all the traditional ceremony — except an actual gavel exchange.
In three rounds of voting, no council member was able to get the six votes needed to win the chair for 2025, so the current chair, Council member Jolene Ivey, retains the seat by default.
After deadlocking on a vote to make Council member Krystal Oriadha the vice chair, with five members voting aye and five abstaining, the council finally agreed to make Council member Edward P. Burroughs III the vice chair, with the bare minimum of six ayes and four abstentions.
The stalemate was the latest drama for the 11-member council, which is operating with one less member after the abrupt resignation in June of At-large Council member Jamel “Mel” Franklin, who was charged a week later with embezzlement, perjury and stealing from his campaign account. Franklin reached a plea deal and was sentenced in November to five years in jail, with all but one year suspended.
That sparked a special election for Franklin’s seat that was won last month by Ivey, who is currently the District 5 representative on the council. A special election to fill her district seat will be necessary in early 2025.
But that may not be the last turn of the council carousel: County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) resigned on Monday ahead of her being sworn in to the U.S. Senate seat she won in the November election, which sparked the need for a special election in the coming months to fill her seat. Two council members have already said they plan to run in the special election — Ivey and the other at-large member of the council, Calvin Hawkins.
Hawkins and Ivey were in the same camp at Tuesday’s meeting, with five members on one side and five on the other in every vote but the final, successful, one for vice chair. On one side with Ivey and Hawkins were Council members Wanika Fisher, Sydney Harrison and Ingrid Watson; on the other side were Council members Burroughs, Oriadha, Wala Blegay, Thomas Dernoga and Eric Olson.
Blegay nominated Olson, who called the nomination “not entirely expected.” But Blegay said he would bring unity to the fractious council
“I don’t believe today, there are many people here … that can get fully six votes,” Blegay said. “And I would just say this — no one should be chair by default.”
Blegay was right on the ability of any one council member to get a majority: Olson’s nomination failed with five ayes, one no and four abstentions. That was followed by a vote for Ivey, which got five ayes, three nays and two abstentions, and a vote for Blegay, which failed on a five ayes, five abstentions roll call.
The nomination for Oriadha to be vice chair failed on the same 5-0-5 vote before Burroughs was elected vice chair in a 6-0-4 vote after Hawkins joined the other five to support him.
While Ivey retains the chairmanship by default, the council could elect a new chair if it calls another vote and can muster six votes for one candidate.
