Every few days we check the social media accounts of our favorite local characters. Not only Facebook, but Twitter as well. Boy did we find some jewels today. Lets’s begin with #kirbydelauter:
Isn’t it comforting to know Kirby is totally fine electing a man accused of assaulting and persuing underage girls, and who was dismissed from the Alabama Supreme Court TWICE to the U.S. Senate just so he can get a few thousand dollars back on his taxes? He is literally willing to have a sexual predator serve in the U.S. Senate as long as his wallet is a tad bit greener. What a peach!
The second retweet from Dan Bongino is also very interesting. Especially considering fellas like Kirby are always screaming about the overreach of the federal government. Guess all that federal overreach doesn’t apply when it comes to their precious guns. Pew! Pew!
Now onto Tweedle Dumb. We have no idea in the world what this is about:
If anyone can clear this up, please send us a line. And, it appears as though Shrelauter have started the Dan Bongino fan boyz club!
Not sure who thinks this guy is worthy of an award. Considering this is how he behaves. Plus, he can’t seem to win an election.
Finally, Mr. Ski Instructor is all fine and dandy with the President giving away public lands:
This all begs the question, is there anything that Trump can do that will turn Shrelauter against him? Sure seems as though they are drinking the kool aid to the very last drop.
This holiday season we are going to share some of our own Yokel family traditions to help you get in the holiday spirit. This will be an ongoing series of one special daily recipe. You may even want to pull some of these items out to help you get through a council meeting.
Our first tasty item is from the kitchen of Uncle Fred. Good ole Fred would make huge batches of this to send home with everyone every Christmas. He told us it was beef, but I’m not sure if that is what he used every year. We learned not to ask as Uncle Fred had a fondness for anything he could hunt for himself. One year, I accidently found out he used groundhog after being hired by several neighbors to help them with a groundhog infestation. Anyway, you can recognize Uncle Fred if you see him around town by his groundhog teeth necklace.
Here is the recipe. I had to promise to let Uncle Fred hunt squirrel on my property to get this from him. I later found out he got this off Pinterest so jokes on me.
The good part of the meeting concerned the Veterans Affairs Council. Many eloquent and distinguished people–most, if not all, of whom are veterans themselves–came to talk about the beneficial things such a council could accomplish for the many veterans in our community. It was truly a testament to the goodness of mankind in a week where most sane people have been wondering if and when we would see such benevolence again. (Guess who is going to harsh the vibe? You know, right? You do.)
The Ghost of General Burnside Judge Scott Rolle spoke of what he has witnessed firsthand in his courtroom to say that it would be good to have a centralized way to locate resources for veterans: help with jobs, housing, counseling, what have you. Awesome. And we’re just kidding about the facial hair. It looks cool.
The next speaker also spoke of the need to have something “be the connective tissue,” especially for those who are impacted by physical or mental costs from their service. We so agree. This seems very similar to the discussion with regard to the needs of human trafficking victims, but we realize this issue will receive uncontroversial support, whereas we have heard about how some people are not opposed to human trafficking, and yes we will keep bringing it up whenever we can tie anything at all to it, because there are also mental and physical costs to being enslaved and sold.
Anyway, we are getting persnickety again, and really it was a heartwarming discussion that (thank you Craig Tyler—tip of the tricorn here) also emphasized that some of us chose to settle here in Frederick County and make roots, and we do so because the community is engaged and caring, and has good governance as a result of an active community that sees a need and does something about it. Another speaker mentioned that government can do more than disjointed groups or individuals. Hallelujah. Some people do recognize the purpose of “we the people” promoting the general welfare and all of that Founding Fathers forming a more perfect union jazz.
We particularly appreciated the Retired Lieutenant Colonel and Iraq veteran from the Marine Corps who spoke specifically about not forgetting women veterans, who have higher rates of both homelessness and suicide, and people tend to think of the veterans as males.
Absolutely everyone who spoke made excellent points, and we appreciate your service to your country and your continued service in this community. This was an inspiring process to watch, and that was a true privilege today.
There was also a discussion on rezzzzzzzzzzzzzoning. We cannot promise we will revisit that, even though it looked as though it may have been one of the better such discussions you could want to hear.
Then the regular nice people were nice, although Bud was testy, which he has been lately…for some odd reason. And in honor of December 5th, nasty old Krampus Billy showed up at the end to get all cranky about commenters not being civil and say we should do away with the code of civility since no one cares about it. Newsflash: disagreeing with Billy is not uncivil. It’s a sign of sanity (that was uncivil, but we don’t even feel bad). Seriously, we assume he was referring to the public comments criticizing people who are rude to county employees, and if he took that is a personal attack, there must be some reason he might have thought it was directed at him.
The meeting starts off nice enough! Some recognition is given to those who collected coats for kids for an event called Operation Warm. With all the awful in the world, it’s nice to see people helping others.
For the first time in forever we have some public commenters. We love that the first lady speaker wore Patagonia while asking the council when they were going to start paying attention to climate change. This nice lady also gave Bud some praise recalling some words he said that indicated that we didn’t need science to tell climate change was real. Matt Seubert is up next, also talking about the environment and the importance of passing the county executive’s forest ordinance. Next, another friend of the Yokel, Patrick, admonishes “some” (wink, wink) members of the council for how they speak to government employees when they present information. We agree with this sentiment 100%, as we have often mentioned how much our county employees suffer at the hands of Shrelauter, and often Tony. Stan Mordensky rounds out the comments also talking about the forest ordinance.
Billy refuses to vote on the agenda and is a bit of a jerk about the budget adjustments, but yawn, what else is new? During the county executive appointments, Billy wants to split the vote between the two appointees to the Monocacy River Board. Very jerkily tells M.C. to just do it the way he wants her to do it. The reason? He wants to vote against Stan Mordensky’s appointment to the board, but not the other fella. Unsurprisingly, the coup fails and Stan’s appointment went through.
In case you were wondering how Trump and the Congressional Republicans have screwed us today, look no further than your county government. You see folks, if the new tax bill goes through bonds made to local governments will lose their tax exempt status. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to this provision, the financial people testifying were at a loss as to why this was included in the proposed tax bill. Nevertheless, the county must stay ahead and refund some bonds before the new law goes into effect and screws everyone. We didn’t even hear Shrelauter trying to defend this provision.
Everything is terrible every day!
Both bond refunds pass 7-0.
Next on the agenda are four first readings. Bud goes through them quickly, too quickly we think! The first and last one are interesting and need to be addressed. The first reading is the county executive’s Forest Ordinance bill that our public commenters came out to support. The last one, is a bill put forth by Bud that alters said Forest Ordinance. After Bud finishes reading off the list, M.C. asks him to explain his alterations to the bill. She said she had a few calls from people because they were confused as to why there were two first readings on the same issue. Instead of answering her, Bud very curtly says, “I am not going to get into that right now. ”
That’s what we want to know Bandit!
Now, we don’t care for that one bit! We hope that Mr. Otis is just having one of those nights that we all have from time to time. Because, we do not see how it is unreasonable to be asked to explain the rationale behind a bill you are presenting!
We close out the first half with a public hearing that really isn’t a public hearing on some bonds concerning Mt. St. Mary’s University. No one shows up to speak and it’s passed 7-0.
Tony is pulling his wood chipping bill and starting over with planning commission recommendations. Billy is outraged because this process has now taken 7 months and we have this business that is NOT being fined and was breaking zoning ordiances and you know what Billy?…
You better Jenkins, or you may end up in the hospital!
Lots of items on the agenda for tonight’s meeting so please make sure you are properly prepared with a comfy seat. As always, take care not to overindulge. The Yokels are not responsible for any damage you may do to your livers and we really do need you to be back again for the next meeting.
First up public comments. If no one shows up, drink some ginger ale. You are going to want to coat your stomach with a preventative liner.
Next are a bunch of budget amendments. When Billy complains that he still doesn’t have a budget analyst to help him read, throw back a flaming asshole. You know why.
Business items are up next. Three meetings worth of minutes need to be approved plus confirmations, bond authorizations and new workshop items. Someone is going to abstain so get ready to drink a mojito mocktail.
Next up are first readings of four different items. Forest resources, DRRA, APF for school construction are going to be discussed. We predict tempers will flair (the 3 usual suspects). This could go long, so pick your own personal favorite beverage to slowly sip during this portion of the meeting. We still have more to get through and you will want your wits about you.
A public hearing on bonds for Mount St. Mary’s University is up next. Mix up an Irish Catholic to set the mood.
Next a third reading on the Wood Waste Recycling bill. Are you still upright??? Time for a boozy affagato. You’ll need that espresso to help you stay awake for the rest of the meeting.
Take a break until 7. If the meeting ran until 7, and you don’t get a break, grab a glass of good old fashioned water. Your liver needs a break.
Next up a second reading on the Veteran’s Advisory Council. You’ll want to mix up an American Spirit for this one. Just drink it because we all support veterans.
I can’t believe there is still more, but next comes a public hearing on rezoning the Ballenger PUD. Throw back a I’m Ya Huckleberry when Billy asks a question someone has already answered.
We are almost done. We just have to get through public and council member comments. Time to throw back a shot of C. This one is for your health. Right????
In this morning’s Political Notes report, Danielle Gaines informs of of what our local characters are up to. The first part of her column tells us Jan Gardner and Michael Hough have come together to merge their ethics bills into one piece of legislation. Now, we appreciate when our politicians on both sides of the aisle come together, since that is a rarity in these here times. However, we cannot help but think that Hough may be doing this to take away one of #kirbydelauter’s favorite talking points! For whenever Jan’s ethics bill enters the conversation Kirby immediately responds by pointing out that Hough’s bill was so much better and comprehensive. And, we all know that Hough would prefer Afzali in the County Executive seat.
Don’t ask questions you may not want the answer to Mr. Patches!
It also appears that Billy’s suggestion that motor homes be taxed as real estate property instead of as a motor vehicle didn’t gain any supporters as the final agenda, as reported by Ms. Gaines, for the county delegation looks like this:
A final agenda was set this week and includes six main items:
A legislative priorities presentation from the Frederick County Liquor Board;
a discussion of ethics legislation from Hough;
potential requests for state bond funding;
discussion of the opioid epidemic;
potential legislation from the delegation; and
public comment.
And speaking of Billy. Remember his fit about how he didn’t get all the information he needed (like he ever reads!) and how he was forced to PIA the county government to get what he needed?
In November, I wrote that discussions among County Executive Jan Gardner (D) and the county’s legal team resulted in a decision to revisit the request Shreve said was not completed.
County spokeswoman Vivian Laxton said on Thursday that an expanded packet of information was delivered to Shreve’s office this Tuesday.
Oh dear, with all their talking points slowly disappearing with the wind, what will they barrage us with now?
frederick local yokel 