There is so much swirling in your Lady Yokel’s heads at the moment. If you are so inclined, you can suck two hours out of your life and watch the meeting here. First, let us point out that this is the second workshop in a row that Kirby couldn’t bother to attend. If he wants to be the next county executive, he probably shouldn’t develop an attendance problem during the campaign! And secondly, we should all send our thank yous and perhaps treats to our poor county employees that had to put up with the insults and badgering that Billy and Tony subjected them to this evening.
Of course we knew that a discussion of Development Rights and Responsibilities Agreement (DRRA) wasn’t going to be pretty. Let us point out that tonight was a workshop. What occurs during a workshop is you listen and discuss. There’s no voting, it’s not a hearing. It’s supposed to be a productive discussion on how to move forward. However, we cannot move FORWARD if SOME people come into a discussion with guns blazing! Billy and Tony don’t want this bill to pass. So instead of allowing anyone else on the council to listen to the explanation of the bill, they interject (VERY RUDELY) with questions, which are really more like accusations. For example, Billy, asks Steve Horn how long the comprehensive plan is. Steve says it is 10 years, but can be renewed. Billy says it’s 20. Steve says he isn’t sure what the exact length is, to which Billy tells him that he knows it’s 20 years but just doesn’t want to answer the question. He goes on to tell Mr. Horn that he’s smarter than that!
Tony, instead of letting these poor employees go through the actual proposed bill, wants to go through an actual DRRA and have the staff tell him what is wrong with it! It is at this point that we hear a tone of voice come out of M.C. that we have never heard before. She is very angry that Tony is discussing a DRRA that no one else has in front of them!!! Especially since this isn’t even the point of the meeting. The point is to review the proposed bill that is in front of them, not to argue the merits of an already passed DRRA. M.C. also admonishes Tony for the way he is speaking to the staff this evening. At first, Tony is all: oh well, this is the job they signed up for. Then, he thinks better of it and apologizes. We are not sure why he takes all this developer stuff so personally. (When are they going to invent that font for sarcasm?) Bud tells Tony that if he doesn’t like the bill then he needs to propose an amendment to it.
There’s also some back and forth between Billy and Jerry. Billy wants to know what county Jerry would like to model Frederick County after. Jerry answers: Pre-2011 Frederick County. This causes Billy to stew in his seat for a few moments before “trying” to stick it to Jerry again. He tells Jerry that he needs to stop his snarky comments, because he never in his entire life had anything to do with a DRRA! He continues his remarks by saying that it is so great that Jerry wants to go backwards in time, because you know that Billy is all about moving forward. At this point Bud closes down the discussion by saying, “Elections have consequences!”
Now it’s time to talk about a bill that will allow a change to the Adequate Public Facilities ordinance. More specifically the School Construction fees. It’s no secret that we need more money for school construction. Therefore, for future developments that will be built where the schools are already overcrowded, the county would like to raise the fees. Blah, blah, blah. You can guess who is going be against this. After the first part of the workshop we really don’t have the energy to go into the weeds with this one.
The meeting is coming to a close, but Billy feels like he hasn’t had a chance to speak. So these words come out of his mouth:
“It’s okay, I always get overlooked. No one ever wants to provide me with information, I don’t know why. ”
Until next time folks!
frederick local yokel 
(When are they going to invent that font for sarcasm?)
Until they do, Comic Sans is the best choice for the sensible-challenged.
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Tony’s rant was to make himself look like he was knowledgeable about what is acceptable to the constituents in his district. Since I have never seen him have meetings with us, he must be using a crystal ball. He’s a hand puppet for Kirby by the list of issues he is currently talking about. Kirby’s absence from the meetings, seems to me, is to distance himself from Tony’ talking points that will be the 2018 issues for Kirby’s run for FC CE. It keeps any criticism of Kirby using these council meetings as a platform for his campaign. But like the old BOCC, our leaders shouldn’t be orchestrating the discussion and outcome of issues by coordinating their votes to be cast in favor of what they want to the exclusion of the public interest of the citizens of FC. All of the road improvements he claims the magnanimous developers are paying for, is a good example of what he thinks is acceptable. The only reason that they have to do these is for the benefit of their developments. What good is a mile long 4 lane road when the road is connected to two lanes to get to the end of 75 in Hyattstown? Then, patiently taking turns with Urbana residents to get onto 355 since there is no signal to manage the traffic. The MTC would have contributed $ to the infrastructure on the 300th permit issued. Since market forces are always fluid as Tony claims they are, who knows when we would see the permit for the 300th home occur? His failure to get the FCPC to recommend allowing a wood waste recycling business in an area that isn’t zoned for that type of business shows his limited perspective on his constituent’s desires. His recent “suck the air” out of the room at County meetings is annoying as well as nonproductive, and attacking government employees shows why he will be voted out in 2018. Just one man’s opinion.
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