So most of the evening was tame. We smirked at the fact that no one showed up for the before meeting public comment. Billy couldn’t round up just one of the watchers? Lots of presentations tonight. Maryland Association of Counties, Solid Waste Commission and the Agricultural Preservation all expanded our knowledge of our fine county. We are breezing through all this, however, because the meat of the meeting, the crazy of the crazy was in the council member amendments.

We will try to walk you down the path of what happened. But it’s confusing, so don’t feel bad if you get lost. Yesterday we posted about Tony’s amendment to increase the County Executive’s pay. Kirby had a Facebook fit over it and Tony decided to say a few things about it. However, he decided to pull that amendment. Now, remember that readers. He PULLED the amendment. Well, now Billy was not having any of that. He wants to talk about an amendment that is not going to be put forth and he’s going to talk about it real good. So Tony puts the amendment back on, even though he doesn’t want it anymore, and Billy goes on this whole cray cray time discussion. He finds it funny that people are upset that the teachers are the lowest paid in the State but no one is lamenting the fact that they are the lowest paid officials.

Kirby then goes on to say that if you are getting into politics for money then you aren’t doing it for the right reasons.(We know people, we know). But the gold star of the evening  goes to M.C.. She asks Tony if he asked the County Executive about this before proposing this amendment. He gives a snarky, “Why should I?” Uh, we don’t know, because she would be the only person thus far that would have an opinion as to whether or not the salary matches the expectations and skills required of the job? But no, Tony accuses M.C. of playing politics. So for keeping your cool in an unbelievably difficult situation, Council woman Keegan-Ayer, you deserve a Yokel tip of the hat:

And, in the end, Tony pulls the amendment…again. Incidentally, just like he pulled his first and sixth amendments, which concerned compensation for council members. Let’s reflect a moment on his desire for minimal government–as far as he is concerned, he would do his job for nothing. Yet, somehow if you care to step through the looking glass with him, he will go to bat for a concept he would ordinarily want to dismantle.

It’s time for Kirby’s amendments. Jerry’s face kinda sums up this section of the evening:

Kirby plagiarized one of his amendments from Cecil county. And then couldn’t remember his reasoning behind proposing three members of the council be able to make budget decisions (oh we are so sure). Weird. There are three in a group of stooges. We thought three was the magic number. Since memory failed when he was pressed to defend these shenanigans, he decided to pull the amendment. Whew!

Now Billy wants to make it clear that if a council member changes their political affiliation and then leaves the council, the central committee of the party that the elected official ran under should be allowed to choose their replacement. How timely. And we must ask here, why is an elected official allowed to be the chairperson of the central committee. Wouldn’t it be a total conflict of interest for Billy to appoint someone to sit up there with him?

To go back to our title, during council member comments, M.C. hands out summer reading pamphlets to all of the council members. Well, one of the pamphlets fights tooth and nail to prevent itself from landing in Billy’s hand. We understand, summer reading pamphlet, we understand.