Author: fclocalyokel

FACT letter debacle, part 2

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Your faithful local correspondent came to this party late, busting in at the “Tony Chmelik channeling Nancy Grace” point in the affair. He read aloud from the court transcript where it was decided to remand the matter back to the council. If you’re lost, the matter is to determine if the FACT (Frederick Area Committee for Transportation) letter influenced the vote or decision making process of the previous Board of County Commissioners in approving the Monrovia Town Center development. Sadly, Nancy Grace was the most charming person Councilman Chmelik managed to be possessed by. In short order it turned to a lot of babbling about not blaming people who were elected to do stuff for doing the stuff they said they were going to do. Does that sound at all familiar? Most people want their medium to communicate with their beloved departed, not the heinous jerk they just ousted. YARF already. Stop that noise.

Like Shreve a couple of meetings back, Chmelik spent a great deal of effort expressing how strenuously he would not like to be reelected to his seat. He talked about the traffic at length. Turns out it is only bad in the morning. Not when he’s driving back and forth all day. And how many people could you suppose care about the traffic all day, versus when they are mostly trying to get to work? We’d like a show of hands. When they add an enormous bedroom community probably traffic will still only be bad in the morning, so who cares. Plus, most awesomely, have you guys seen the RALE crew? They aren’t joking. And guess whose district a whole bunch of these people live in? It boggles the mind. Verily.

These guys are organized. District 2. Represent.
These guys are organized. District 2 Interests. Represent.

So the pivotal point in the argument over this letter is what influence it had. What is pretty much universally appreciated is that the people who aligned with the developers in all matters, all of the time were not swayed (who were elected to do a job for developers…with the added bonus of seeing how far they could disrespect the wishes of their constituents). Billy Shreve elbowed in to clarify that Blaine Young is a man you can pretty much always take at his word, and the entire peanut gallery erupted in laughter. This hurt his delicate feelings and he grumbled about the code of civility. Oh my goodness, what a toddler. Anywhoo, Former Commissioner David Gray said he was never going to vote for it, so he wasn’t swayed. This is also so not shocking. Presumably Former Commissioner Paul Smith already knew what he was going to do, since the letter was his sneaky ol’ handiwork, and that’s why we’re all here. So, yay, no minds were changed, whew wasn’t that simple? Nothing to see here, moving on…

AHEM, not so fast. Councilwoman Keegan-Ayer, Councilwoman Fitzwater, and Councilman Jerry Donald–who did an especially fine job of clarifying the distinction between voting and decision making as a process–seized on some critical nuance in all of this. What becomes clear as they tactfully avoid accusations is that if all along the goal was to reach a certain decision, that letter’s existence could easily be viewed as instrumental in influencing the decision making process.

The decision (did it or did it not influence) is still on hold, to be considered at a meeting later this month (June 30th).

Bud Otis sees both sides of this thing and commented that the only people making any money are lawyers. Yup.

Public comments got super lively and then procedurally tedious and confusing, and it’s really worth a watch, all this mess. If you need to catch up, check it out on FCG TV Archives.

The water vapors are weighing the council down

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mzv3a

I do declare the humidity must be affecting some members of our esteemed county council. Tis the time of year when it is common to fall out from the stickiness that surrounds us like mud on a hog. Mr. Shreve in particular was a tad testier than usual. Makes us want to pull him under the shade of an old Magnolia that our great grand pappy planted back in 1907 and give him a good talking to. Alas, what difference would it really make?

Our first point of bewilderment with Mr. Shreve is this:

Billy

Why every week, before the pledge, does he do this? And notice he’s the only one. Does he not want to face the public? Does he worship at the altar of the American flag? What in a donkey’s backside is the meaning of this?

Now particular to this week, Billy goes right in for the no when voting on whether or not to approve the consent agenda. On the consent agenda this week were various budget transfers for departments such as: The Child Advocacy Center, Agricultural Preservation, Housing and Community Services, Planning and Development, Fire and Rescue and Community Development. His particular beef, from what we could tell since we cannot fathom getting in that head of his, was he was really bitter about the council not approving Trout Run and still not getting his budget liaison. Logic of course dictates that he then mess with everyone else’s budget. Thankfully, Billy has no one else on board with his interesting style of governance and all budget transfers were passed 6-1.

Moving on to the approval of minutes for the last three meetings. A unanimous vote! Still Billy cannot bring himself to say Aye. Must be that oppositional disorder rearing its ugly head again. A note to be made about Kirby. He did not seem to want to turn on his microphone this evening. We later discover it’s working just fine. But through all the votes we can barely hear his little “aye”. What’s up with that?

On to everyone’s favorite commission: Ethics. A motion is put forth to appoint four new members. Of course Billy isn’t going to let this go without making some kind of declaration. “It’s sad that 3 of the 5 members of the ethics commission resigned and we are in this position.” Really, really sad.

mzv1n

6-1 approved! Even Kirby. Billy seems to be losing all his playmates. On to Jessica and M.C.’s bill to repeal the English only ordinance. We heard some nonsense earlier in the week about Billy going on WFMD and saying this:

“You either have to stay all English or not all English. And as soon as you open up yourself, you have to provide absolutely everything.  If you have someone from the jungle of Brazil from some tribe of 20 people, and they come in and want a document translated, you have to be able to translate it for them.”

With great poise Councilwoman Fitzwater introduced the bill and we know, just know he’s going to say something and of course he does! He insisted that we don’t have to throw out old Blainey boy’s ordinance, we can just modify it. Jessica then snaps at him (Oh the humidity, but how can we blame her? I mean really.). If you have something in writing, she quipped, you can share it with me. Right now all we are doing is reading the bill. Properly chastised he shuts the microphone down.

The next order of business is something we have wanted to see happen for quite sometime. We here at the Local Yokel love our festivals. The 4th of July, In the Streets, special events at Rose Hill Manor count us in! What we do not love is seeing the mountains of trash that are full of recyclables. Our fair State passed a law requiring that all counties pass ordinances that require event organizers, within certain parameters, to provide recycling. Yay!!! Now keep in mind THIS HAS TO HAPPEN! It is a State law and Frederick County must comply. The Department of Solid Waste Management presented a lot of information to the council. And they underlined the fact that THIS HAS TO HAPPEN. Well, looky over to the left, who is going to make this difficult? That’s right Billy. He tries to make the poor solid waste people give him an estimate as to how much recyclables would be generated at a picnic or a soccer tournament. And these poor souls. Silence falls and then a response of, “There is really no way we can estimate that.” He then wants to know what private companies charge to haul this stuff away. They don’t know. His point, I suppose, is that he thinks this will put an unfair burden on people. But hey, this isn’t for little outings. It’s for events that are expecting over 200 people and take place on public property. Why can’t this man see the big picture on this or anything else for that matter? Thankfully passed 6-1.

Next oddity on the agenda. Kirby wants a lobbyist. What for? To send to Annapolis, because according to him we are missing out on millions of dollars that are either sitting in some secret bunker or being distributed to other counties. Bud rightfully asks if this is not the job of our elected delegates and state senators. Aren’t they not the ones elected to bring back money to the county? And if Kirby’s contention, for which he has no proof, is correct, then we have a problem. It was agreed that they would meet with the delegation to see if they were in fact missing out on this secret stash of cash.

It was within this conversation that our good buddy Bud almost gave us a fainting spell. He called Kirby Congressman Delauter! And oh my stars do not even joke about such a thing Bud! He quickly and quite loudly added: “Sorry about that”! Wouldn’t we all be sorry indeed?

Your June 16 County Council Drinking Game- It’s going to be a doozy

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This month’s council meeting agenda is three pages long! You heard us correctly, three pages!  So pace yourself, and remember no calls to Billy about your drunken behavior. As always, this game is for entertainment purposes only. Always drink responsibly. But have fun!

During public comments:

  • If someone calls Bud a turncoat or makes a Benedict Arnold reference take a sip of a Sam Adams brew.
  • Take another sip for each instance of flagrantly defying Roberts Rules of Order.
  • If someone is wearing a Kirby Delauter campaign shirt, tip back a fireball shot. We hear he’s a fan. Then shout, “FAHRBAWL!!!!!” like you are listening to that Pitbull song.
  • If someone tells Billy or Kirby to recuse themselves from the decision on Monrovia- a shot of Crown Royal, because this is a thing that happened:

image

  • If this agenda item:

Potential Retention of Legislative Consultant (Lobbyist) – Council Member Kirby Delauter (Council Decision)

turns out to be as seedy as it sounds like it could be, take between one and 42 drinks. You will have to be the judge of seedy, as well as severity of seediness. But, we trust you to get it done right.

  • If the whole meeting devolves into some sort of county-wide embarrassment tainting us all with xenophobia when the bill to repeal the official language is introduced, check yourself into rehab. It goes without saying, but just in case…NOT NARCONON.

Be a locavore: subscribe to local media

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Frederick is a small city with great entrepreneurial spirit. The mutually supportive vibe going on in the community among the residents and the small business owners is one of the things that makes it a pleasure to live here. We have to stress the importance of including our media resources on the pedestal of local esteem, particularly on this solemn occasion. The Gazette will cease publication at their remaining Montgomery County facility this week. The Gaithersburg Gazette started in 1959; Frederick’s version was discontinued in 2013.

Rosebud

Imagine for a moment what we would do here without a local paper at all. Son of a corn nut! What corruption could be possible with no real journalists reporting on it?

“For the moment, nobody does what we do. Nobody covers these communities,” Lyons said in 2011. “If we went away tomorrow, there’d be a heck of a lot of news go away. If The New York Times stopped covering Washington, D.C., tomorrow, there’d be other people to cover Washington, D.C.” (Bethesda Magazine, July 12, 2015)

Local journalism can be a peculiar beast. Many entry-level reporters cut their teeth at small local papers. Young reporters can have a steep learning curve with the pertinent issues, which are almost always a densely packed snoozefest of taxes, budgets, land use, property values, and school politics. It’s hard enough to get adult homeowners with children to engage with these issues, much as we try to insist on the importance (and honest-to-Thor, a council meeting can be entertaining as all get out). It creates a new challenge for a reporter who has no first hand experience with their reader’s perspective on what information is prioritized, and may be discouraged to discover that readers mostly like dumb stuff. Papers and online media are full of the junk that sells, at the expense of the stuff that matters.

Local papers are expensive. They don’t have the advertising reach of larger ones, so subscribing costs more, and people complain about that (heck, The Gazette was free, and it still didn’t stay afloat). The expectation is that journalists and the media do it all, with less and less in terms of resources. Much like it is with teachers. They are held to a standard of perfection, and frequently not enabled to achieve it. 10 ugly truths about modern journalism addresses more than one of these, but the most important here:

In the age of layoffs and buyouts, many of the first people to go in the newsroom are the copy editors, the people ensure that published stories are accurate and well-written. Without copy editors, many stories, especially those that appear online, are being published without first being checked for spelling and grammar. These errors are becoming even more frequent and are a mark of credibility against the news outlet.

We local yokels are random mommies who think community engagement will help the place we are raising young people. We can only do so much; we can do a lot less without a true outlet working their beats. Teachers and journalists share some other common ground with regard to a volatile and demanding profession that is not well compensated (you know when they increase class size, they decrease staff size, right?):

In the golden age of journalism, reporters could dedicate themselves exclusively to their work in the newsroom when there was no fear of being sudden layoffs [sic]. But when a pink slip could come at a moment’s notice and paychecks are becoming increasingly smaller, many more journalists are writing books, creating blogs, consulting, and anything that can build their personal brand or bring in a few extra dollars.

*Recycling a paper does not help their bottom line. It’s important to your community that you become a paying customer. How important? Well…

Journalism is the only media enterprise that democracy absolutely requires—and it is the only media practice and actual business that is specifically mentioned and protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Reality argues against Narconon

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“Do not believe everyone else in the world! I and only I am the answer to your problems”!

It wasn’t enough that the county council voted 6-1 not to change the designation of the Trout Run property. It also wasn’t enough that the community rallied around this decision and gave many, many instances of what is wrong with Narconon and why we do not want it in our community. You know why it wasn’t enough? Because all you people are wrong!!! Don’t believe me? Then just take a gander at Sylvia Stanard’s LTE in today’s Frederick News Post.

Just kidding folks! It’s a bunch of lies. Where shall we start? The beginning sounds very reasonable. It’s an emotional appeal to those suffering through a drug addiction. After just attending a funeral of a family member who succumbed to their addiction I can see how this could appeal to those who have lost all hope. In reality, though, it’s a huge manipulation to get you into their facility.  And manipulating people who are at the lowest point in their lives has got to land in one of Dante’s circles of hell.

Yep right there! Numbers 8 and 9!
Yep right there! Numbers 8 and 9!

Now for the blatant falsehoods in this piece of propaganda. This is Sylvia’s claim about the origin of Narconon:

It is based on the writings, procedures and techniques of L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Scientology religion. Hubbard conducted extensive research into drug abuse during the 1960s and ’70s when recreational drug use had reached epidemic proportions. He developed techniques to overcome the effects of virtually every type of drug. Wanting to help those thought lost to addiction, Hubbard made his discoveries broadly available. The result was the establishment of Narconon.

And here’s what it says on Narconon’s own website:

William Benitez, an inmate of Arizona State Prison, founded the Narconon program in 1966. Benitez came upon a book in the prison library by American author L. Ron Hubbard, and after reading this book and applying the principles it contained on increasing one’s abilities, he and dozens of other inmates were able to permanently end their addictions to heroin. The Narconon program has evolved from that simple beginning to a worldwide network of over 120 drug prevention and drug-free social education rehabilitation centers. Through the tireless work of dedicated staff and volunteers, we have rehabilitated tens of thousands of addicts and brought the truth about drugs to millions of individuals.

So either the Deputy Director of the Church of Scientology’s National Affairs Office is misinformed, confused, or a liar. I would love to see this extensive research that L.Ron conducted. But alas, it’s nowhere to be found. All I could find was that he talked about it,and came up with some theory that drugs reside in fatty tissues and can only be sweated out. A claim that has been disputed by numerous real scientists as not only wrong but potentially fatal.

Studies about the effectiveness of the Narconon program on their own website are also flawed. All they present are case studies done by their own people and entities. In other words,they have zero proof that it works. And let us not forget about the numerous lawsuits filed because people have died in these facilities.

Now after talking about Scientology and Narconon’s partnership:

The Church of Scientology and Scientologists are proud to help support the Narconon program as part of our social and humanitarian mission. Scientology churches and their parishioners have provided assistance to Narconons since their inception. Narconon is one of the most successful drug-rehabilitation programs in the world, and a vital player in helping those with addiction problems.

We get:

Nevertheless, Narconon is not part of the Church of Scientology, and one does not have to become a member of the religion to do the program.

Very confused…again. So this program is completely based on the works of Scientology’s guru, Mr. Hubbard, and we are all so proud to sponsor, fund, buy real estate, etc. But don’t worry! You are in no danger of becoming one of us! We just want to help! Really?!

It’s not over yet, oh how we wish it was, but no. Now for all of you who have “misconceptions” about Scientology:

The Church of Scientology is a newer religion and perhaps not as well-known. Scientology deals with man as a spiritual being. Part of the religious philosophy of Scientology is that one cannot survive on his or her own. Scientologists have a religious commitment to helping take responsibility for their fellow-man, families and the environment. The Church of Scientology and individual Scientology’s are active in humanitarian initiatives and social betterment activities in the fields of drug-abuse prevention, human rights, education, criminal reform and disaster relief. I would suggest starting at the church’s website at www.scientology.org.

Yes, let’s take a look. And then OH NO! Why did I do that? On the very first page there is a video entitled: “The Age of Answers” in which they show people participating in high level science and mathematics. Then comes a picture of the e-meter and a voice telling us that this is where the predictability of science and religion come together. And holy hell, is this for reals?

Yours for only thousands and thousands of dollars.
Yours for only thousands and thousands of dollars.

And no, Ms. Stanard it’s not because yours is a newer religion or not well-known. It’s very well-known. In fact it’s well-known because there are endless stories of people who have escaped your cult and have shared their stories with the world. Including the niece of the current head of Scientology. Who, through her own book and website, has given us a crystal clear picture of what it was like to grow up within the barbed wired fences of Scientology. And I don’t think we need to mention the movie Going Clear again. But we will anyway. We are not afraid of Narconon and Scientology because we are misinformed, it is because we are all too well-informed.

Scrooge-ing the BOE, time and again.

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End of 9th grade sports got you in a tizzy? What about textbooks, academic after school programs and summer school?
End of 9th grade sports got you in a tizzy? What about textbooks, academic after school programs and summer school?

Well, we hear that last evening’s Board of Ed meeting was quite the affair. For a few weeks we have seen the anger over the possible elimination of 9th grade sports. We even signed the petition, because hey we love any and all opportunities for kids to showcase their unique talents. However, there were other things on the chopping block besides the $60,000 for the 9th grade sports program.  We have to say we agree with this excerpt from the Frederick News Post:

“Board members had expressed bewilderment that more attention was not called to the academic programs the board was forced to cut. These encompass not only the class-size increase and a slash to class sections, but also a $204,000 reduction to summer school, $350,000 less for after-school or “extended learning” programs and $500,000 taken away for new textbooks.”

Seriously, this is what gets you people riled up? Photo by Graham Cullen Frederick News Post
Seriously, this is what gets you people riled up?
Photo by Graham Cullen
Frederick News Post

We here at Local Yokel appreciate our Board of Ed members and have to say we don’t envy their position. After all, they have no control of how much money is given to them. They are reliant on the State and Local governments to fund them. They then have to take that money and allocate it in a way that makes it impossible to make everyone happy. The county, under the new leadership of Jan Gardner, did fund the schools above the MOE level for the first time in years. Then the new state administration under Governor Hogan pulled back state funding. So, all in all, not a great year to be a BOE member.

It would be wonderful to see the BOE receive funding that would allow us to adequately fund arts and athletics and educational programs of all stripes. We would also like the teachers to be respected and fairly compensated for their time. A few of us here have experience in the education world, and people who express what they think they understand teachers do frequently underestimate the demands of the career and envision a professional situation very different from reality. In a perfect world, we would all value education enough to make sure it is successful.

The angry climate makes us fear that the teachers will be blamed for advocating for their own interests, and we have to believe that having them happy in their profession also benefits their students. We tire of disingenuous claims that COLA and step increases are raises. They are not, and the fact that these salary adjustments are made does not change the relative pay compared to neighboring counties, which makes Frederick County fall behind. We cannot continue to undervalue our teachers and recruit and retain talented educators.

We are speaking to all stakeholders when we make the following observations about education and extra curricular funding. Starving the BOE budget for years jeopardizes our school system. Schools can have effects on things such as crime and teen birth rates. Both things that drain financial resources from communities. In short, well-funded education is fiscally responsible.

Salary is not the only thing that makes teachers’ lives stressful, and in the current politicized climate surrounding education, teachers are being beaten down too harshly in many ways. Some states have already seen shortages of teachers. Maryland is not there yet, but the counties that do not stay competitive will clearly be the first to suffer.

Mad Props to David Gray

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Last night’s county council meeting considered the influence of the infamous FACT Letter on the Monrovia Town Center development and zoning. A lot of people came to speak. Almost all of the speakers who do not stand to profit from the development are varying degrees of furious. The council will set a course of action on next Tuesday, June 16th at 4:30.

During public comments David Gray stood up and explained what we have all long suspected. He observed as a member of the previous (and final) Board of County Commissioners that they just did whatever Blaine Young wanted, with no consideration given to anything. It’s pretty easy to see the evidence supporting that. We’ve said before that it is awwwwwfully curious, what with all the newcomers to the county government, somehow the veterans of the previous board seem so often to be the ones lost by things like how a budget works. Thank you, David Gray, man of integrity.

We will now steel ourselves for nastiness toward what some call Turncoat Republicans. We call them independent thinkers, and we adore them. Hopefully Bud Otis will work diligently to return to the top slot in our listicle of beloved turncoats, but today our hearts sing for David Gray.

Especially fine work emphasizing the council's role as a contemplative body. Way to put a fine point on it! Sad that it is such a novel concept that it requires highlighting.
Especially fine work emphasizing the council’s role as a contemplative body. Way to put a fine point on it! Sad that it is such a novel concept that it requires highlighting.

Some speakers, including former Commissioner Gray, said the letter was a political move to justify the board’s approval of the development.

“It seemed very obvious to me, to tell you the truth, that this was to pad the record,” Gray said.

Frederick News Post, Tuesday, June 9, 2015.

Last week’s poll results and this week’s happy fun time!

fclocalyokel3 Comments
Wow! Thank you very much looking forward to seeing y'all out in the field.
Wow! Thank you very much looking forward to seeing y’all out in the field.
Ha ha! But seriously, who voted for Blaine?!
Ha ha! But seriously, who voted for Blaine?!

So for this week we want to imagine that you are going to attend a lecture series. Which one of the following would you like to attend for the purpose of heckling?

It’s Groundhog Day Folks!

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Over and over and over again.
Over and over and over again.

 

We have only been at this blogging thing for less than two months. And in that short period of time we have written three separate posts about Billy going on the radio “updating the facts” ( Read #1, #2 and #3 by clicking on the numbers) concerning Aurora and Jan not paying their bill. So we are so very sorry to have to bring this to you…again:

We swear this is a new one!
We swear this is a new one!

Please don’t kill the messenger folks! We know it’s frustrating. At least he’s tagging fewer people. So what is it now you may be screaming!? Curiously Aurora has decided to slap the county with a $3.25 million lawsuit. Even though they are scheduled to sit down with the county on June 10 for a mediation session. Makes no sense to us either! What makes even less sense, however, is why Billy is posting the letter from the lawyers on his website, why he keeps going on WFMD (!@#?) to “update the facts”, why he is acting as an agent for Aurora rather than one for the county. But these are questions we have asked in our last THREE posts  and  lo and behold we haven’t received any answers. At this point we are losing hope.

Come on Billy don't drive us into the ditch!
Come on Billy don’t drive us into the ditch!