In case you are new here, every year Kirby comes up with “fat” that we can trim from the budget (also Tony and Billy, but mostly Kirby) in the form of unicorn and rainbows amendments. He proposes a bunch of stuff without knowing really what this money does or what happens when we take it away. Like today when we tried to cut the money for library staff at Walkersville and Myersville. Oopsie-daisy-dummy. (Failed) Sometimes he has to pull his own amendments because he didn’t know what they were. Weird how that happens.
Just as long as you don’t become the County Executive, do whatever.
We breezed onto the scene right about the time Billy tried to suspend the rules and let The Yellow T-Shirt Brigade take over. We expected shenanigans and malarkey, because Billy was involved, but in reality this was the Career Firefighters’ Association, and their presence there and contributions everywhere are very much appreciated by Local Yokels and all of our friends everywhere. We are very pleased that our assumptions are wrong, because they were somewhat dark, based upon Billy’s Twitter feed and the black hole of intellect that can drag a yokel into. On the upside, Billy Shreve’s State Senate page only has 35 likes, so we may be free of his torment soon.
Something like this scene occurred (text transcript)
Kirby just got petulant because they don’t want to cut $$ for MET to go do theater programs at schools with high percent FARM (that’s free and reduced meals, if you don’t know the lingo) lunch kids because they had no problem voting down a quarter mil for Classical Charter.
Man, oh man. Even the broken sidewalk budget cuts are part of the historical record! (Tonight Kirby explained that he had made a handshake deal with the mayor of Emmitsburg and he’s going to split the cost of the sidewalk repairs. M.C. was as uncomfortable as we would have been not knowing whether or not Mr. Mayor had agreed to this, but Jerry counseled that it was Kirby’s D and if he didn’t want to fix the sidewalks one way or the other, that would be his problem in the end. So fine. That all works out spiffy.)
But enough about Kirby, because Tony Chmelik got in a complete snit over $45,000 for an administration position in the Office of Economic Development. Since they’ve been doing a grand old job, even though they haven’t filled a position, but have needed to for four years, it’s obviously fine to continue overworking people there who are covering that shift, so to speak. Surely nobody who is doing extra work all the damn time will find a new job where they don’t have to put up with that. Right, Billy and Kirby? Suggestion: you volunteer your time, just like teachers do when they are grading and planning and documenting after school and on weekends, and sacrifice pay for being useless human bookends to the council since you apparently earn money for other things that you do in life. The pay of two marginally sentient council persons will cover one administrator in the OED. Problem solved! Also, tons of egregious mansplaining from Tony Chmelik here. The Lady Yokels felt that Helen Propheter was a particular heroine tonight, because who wants to be treated like that IN PUBLIC for their job? Nobody. Billy and Kirby also had “contributions” to this discussion in the form of: won’t we need to build all the houses you keep telling us to stop approving? NO. The answer is no. Some people already live here and could work closer to home, and would even like that. Question: what if we just made Jefferson TECH Park make the leap from fiction to nonfiction?
Jessica is a hero tonight, over and over again. Every time Kirby and Tony tried to snip, snap the budget she jumped in, diplomatically, like an excellent teacher, to guide them toward the information showing that they are so very, very wrong. For all her hard work this evening we present her the following award:
We are also happy to report that Bud landed on the side of county employees by helping to defeat Kirby and Tony’s austerity amendments. Nice to see you back on the team, Bud!
We aren’t going to recommend any kind of drinking game for the overview of budget amendments this year! In fact, we aren’t even sure we can sit through them all! So, give your liver a week off and we’ll try to catch up on it all after the fact!
Top of the morning to ya, Yokels! We are all so hopeful that we will only have to bring this nonsense to you for one more month, since we are super optimistic that the two we are about to discuss will lose their primaries and slink out of the public eye forever. Until that time we must point out how unqualified they are to hold public office in our fine county.
Let us begin with three-time school board contender Cindy Rose. If you go back a couple of years and look at the PIA dump someone published from the last election, you will see that she often laments that the school system doesn’t celebrate Constitution Day. In this post she equates the unfairness of celebrating Earth Day, but not the Constitution, while adding in an interesting twist:
UMMM, their Creator?!?! Does she think the U.S. Constitution was written by the Almighty himself? Sounds like someone could have used Constitution Day herself!! So, we are supposed to erroneously teach our students that “their Creator” bequeathed the Constitution to the American people, but celebrating Mother Earth is some kind of liberal social/environmental justice that needs to end? Was the Lord/Zeus/Allah partial to bicameral legislatures, checks and balances, the 3/5th’s clause? Who knew?!
Not one of them, including God!
Is this the kind of thinking we want on our school board?
We’re all going to die if the school system doesn’t teach the Constitution was written by the Almighty!
Yesterday we shared the story the FNP wrote on Kirby’s gun raffle on our Facebook page. He broke the record for using the term “2nd amendment” in a sentence! Then, his campaign manager took to Facebook to lament that anyone had the nerve to ask him about this gun raffle to begin with!
How dare Kirby be asked his personal opinion! What’s wrong with all you liberal reporters expecting Kirby to explain something he’s actually doing? Oh, and love the old NRA car analogy. What’s the purpose of a car again? What’s the purpose of a gun? How are they the same?
Don’t forget to vote in the primary June 26th! #localelectionsmatter!
We brought you a report of the first part of last night’s meeting, but there’s no way we can sit through three hours of public hearings. We’ll point you in the right direction if you wish to keep informed.
First, for a good old chuckle, go to 4:15:08 of last night’s meeting and prepare to have an F bomb dropped on you by Tom Natelli. Accidentally of course, but still hilarious. (We did feel a little bad for him because he turned a bright shade of red and commented that he knew that was going to be played over and over again.)
Due to the craziness of the evening, your Lady Yokels joined the meeting seven minutes late. There was a nice gentlemen from Middletown giving some public comment. Apparently, Kirby contacted the Middletown city manager and constructed some budget amendment that has everyone believing that he wants to cut funding from the new library. After three years of sitting through Kirby’s amendments we are very sympathetic to anyone who has to try and parse them out.
#TRUTH
After M.C. suggests that Kirby go back and look at his 39th amendment (and my God people are we going to have to sit through HOURS of his amendments again!!!), which he does. He then insists that this amendment only applies to 2019. And look people he’s just trying to look out for the taxpayer!
There is a First Reading on the Frederick County Sustainability Commission that you can read about here.
Then we have three Third Readings to get through. First off is Billy’s bill concerning the Senior/Retired Military tax credit. You know, the one that Tony had to practically re-write for him. Well, Jerry, M.C., and Jessica want an income cap added to this bill. Because not every retired military person is in need of a tax break! Added to that is the fact that every other tax credit has an income cap, but for some reason this one sailed through without one. Probably because there were so many other problems with it! Anyhoo, Billy predictably says that Jerry doesn’t like veterans and old people. To which Jerry replies, “I knew you were going to say something like that!”
And not in a good way Billy!
Jerry wants the cap to be $80,000, but the bill passes with Bud being the deciding vote, 4-3.
Next up is Tony’s off-track gambling bill. Tony thinks allowing this will help tourism and that horse gambling is different from different kinds of gambling. M.C. is the only one who disagrees and this bill passes 6-1.
The last third reader is the Veteran’s Advisory Council bill and that passes with little fanfare, 7-0.
Now, there are three public hearings. We kind of space out on some of these issues, so you can go ahead and look at these slides regarding the FY 2018 Installment Purchase Application Farm/Land Preservation Program:
The top ten applications were approved 7-0.
Next we have a public hearing on the City of Frederick Enterprise Zone on the Golden Mile. The city is the main entity affected by this, but the county plays a part and must also vote for it. The Golden Mile qualifies for this tax program because of the poverty and vacant buildings in that area Anyone who lives here wants to see that strip do well again. Especially since they are going to lose Toys R Us soon. Well, there’s lots of questions from the peanut gallery, but nothing too bad or out of the ordinary. Until Billy…. He ‘finds it interesting” that those who voted against his tax credit bill are for giving ‘Wall Street corporations” tax welfare. But get this people, Billy is also for this credit. Jerry points out that these bills are “different animals altogether” and Jessica points out these are small businesses not Wall Street corporations. Billy tries again to make his point to which Jessica snaps and tells him to keep on with his talking points, maybe one day it will work out for ya!
Passes 7-0.
The last hearing, before the break, concerns a Petition to Alter County Roads in the Frederick City Watershed. The City of Frederick is trying to alter roads and put up gates in an effort to stop all the illegal dumping that goes on back there. We couldn’t watch the rest of this, so we’ll have to check back on it tomorrow.
Meeting reconvenes at 7:00 for a bunch of public hearings. We predict a big crowd in the house tonight!
We saw this articleand guess what? A study has found that one fifth of human trafficking victims are homeless youth. Please read the article, and remember that our very own Billy Shreve once said there are people for human trafficking as if both sides was a valid arguement. If you don’t remember, it is a good thing we are here and we will #neverforget. Read about it here and here.
Guess what else this research found?
The research also highlights the connection between sex trafficking and online advertising, including Backpage.com, which has recently been shut down by the FBI with federal indictments against the online marketplace. Researchers found that 44 percent of the sex trafficking victims were subjects of an online ad, with half of them reporting that they were advertised on Backpage.
Why is Backpage so familiar??? Have we heard about that website in Frederick for some local reason? Hmmm. Oh, yeah. We read about when abastion scourge of our community was arrested. Human trafficking is a real issue. Neither Frederick, nor Maryland needs leaders who are unwilling and unable to understand there are no pros to this issue.
Use your vote wisely and we can make sure Billy Shreve is not elected. Tell your friends.
Here is your agenda for May Day’s Sobriety Challenge. There are budget adjustments, and since this is like Cheers, “where everybody knows your name,” we all know who will be oppositional during the regular scheduled business portion up top. It is not worth endangering our blessed livers to drink for this anymore. We will need these in working order just so we can get through the next election.
The first new business pertains to a bill regarding the Frederick County Sustainability Commission. Sustainability sounds like socialism (not really, but whatever certain people don’t like is “the socialist agenda”) so…queue up the histrionics? Take your mayday swig of whatever you have handy if any related slippery slope variety nonsense comes up. Cheap wine straight from a bottle (box/spigot?) seems fitting.
Council decisions will be required for three separate items.
Elderly Individual and Retired Military Tax Credit: if Billy Shreve finally accomplishes something…Well, lets not go overboard. This is a good bill, we should make a nice toast, take a sip, and carry on under the informed hypothesis that it will be back to the regularly scheduled B.S.B.S.
Off Track Betting: prediction–this will pass easily, based on the prior discussions. Giddy Up! Maybe have a Black-Eyed Susan, which seems hella elitist for video gambling, but we have to spruce things up on occasion, don’t we?
Veterans Advisory Council: this better pass, and there’s no reason to think it wouldn’t. Unanimously. Another toast for what happens when government functions cooperatively. If something goes horribly awry, chug the bottle.
Public hearings are scheduled before the break, and after, and this is going to be a lot to digest. We have Installment Purchase Programs, City Enterprise Zone for the Golden Mile, and a Petition to alter county roads in the city watershed. Definitely have some bread and pasta during the break if you’re going to keep up with this game after the break, because first up is Constant Yield, and you must know we are going to get another lesson on how keeping the property tax rate the same is a tax increase because the county will get more money, which one would imagine may make a certain amount of sense, since if they have to purchase any land or anything it is at today’s prices and not yesteryear’s. Suggested solution: finish your glass.
Mayday! Mayday! Math, how does it work?
Thankfully (and miraculously) Kirby and Jerry have done the magical bipartisan duo thing to craft a relief bill to supplement seniors, because their property values are going up, and consequently their tax bill is higher. This is the right idea for legislation, because this is also important for people on fixed incomes. If Kirby toots his own horn for his very lately discovered election season cooperative sensibility…what do we mean, “if…”? When Kirby pats himself on the back, finish that bottle.
Switch to rosé. Gag. Also up for discussion is that whole thing about whether your neighborhood pool/tennis court/community center has to actually be in your neighborhood, if it is to be exclusive to your neighborhood. What kind of special mediocre elite nonsense is this meant to address anyway, anyway? If you want a country club, go join one. FFS. Your bottle was empty after Kirby’s issue above anyway, right? Now you will definitely have a headache in the morning.
And that brings us to Adequate Public Facilities. Rest In Peace.
You may have seen multiple posts from different sources like Stand Up Frederick and Steve McKay 4 Frederick County about tomorrow night’s County Council meeting. If you haven’t check them out. We are going to share this one.
From Oakdale Tomorrow:
ACTION ALERT ON MITIGATION BILL:
Please attend the TUESDAY MAY 1st hearing at 7 pm at Winchester Hall wearing your Oakdale Tomorrow shirts or any green shirt. If you plan to attend please leave a comment below so we can keep track. We need numbers.
If you cannot attend, please email comments to the County Council prior to that date at: Councilmembers@FrederickCountyMD.gov. Please also copy their Chief of Staff, Ragen Cherney, at RCherney@FrederickCountyMD.gov so he can add all comments to the record and copy jspiegel@frederickcountymd.gov, CE Gardner’s Education Liaison.
WHAT DO YOU SAY? Ask the County Council members to support the Mitigation Fee bill because every kid deserves a seat in school and it’s not their job to subsidize developers but rather to make sure that residential growth takes place at the pace of schools, roads, etc. Tell them you want principled leadership that isn’t influenced by special interests. Tell them this is not a party issue but a common sense one. Tell them that for the 15 developments still affected by this fee, they need to pay what it actually costs the county to build a seat for a child, not some imaginary cost of what they or we think it should be. Tell them that despite others’ best efforts to drag this out, play games, spin this as a “job killer” issue, you’re not stupid and you REFUSE TO BE APATHETIC. That if you can manage your job, your kids, your life, they can get this ONE THING RIGHT. And don’t forget to tell them they you’ll remember how they voted when it’s your turn to vote this November.
If you can make it to Winchester Hall tomorrow night at 7, please do. If not, please send an email to let the council know your thoughts on making sure our schools don’t continue on to be overcrowded. The developer will be self advocating. Let’s make sure we do too!
Oh gentle readers, do we have a bunch to catch y’all up on! We are very sorry to tell you that the #HATESLATE, which continues to insist that they are not a slate, has slated together to form a new Facebook page! Take a look at this diverse artwork they chose for their cover photo:
And the slogan!!! Lord, you can’t make this stuff up!
Next, let’s look at the first post on this newly formed page:
Uhhh, the first thing we have to say is that pointing out that you are fear-mongering is not a personal attack. It is a fact that everyone needs to know about. Secondly, what is the message exactly? We hear lots of complaints and Chicken Little proclamations, but not one solid proposal on how to fix all that they say is wrong with the school system. Unless, of course, this meme that Seth posted is actually under consideration:
Thirdly, there have been PLENTY of people in the community, ourselves included, who have specifically pointed out (USING ACTUAL FACTS) how wrong the #HATESLATE is!
If you missed our two most recent posts about their claims, go ahead and read them here and here. Also, new blogger “The Rank Stranger” took the time to go through their claims and made two excellent posts (WITH DATA), here and here.
It is amazing the low opinion the #HATESLATE has of the kids within our school system.
And, because you are running for the Board of EDUCATION, you should have a basic understanding of how the English language works! That is not an unreasonable expectation! Therefore, we enlisted a teacher friend to show ya’ll your mistakes:
Grammarly is an excellent resource folks!
Anyone in the mood for a pre-Mother’s Day fundraiser?
Let’s get a close up of that MAGA themed Kel Tec shotgun, shall we?
Do we have to point out all the negative connotations this decorating of the weapon entails? How are we to make America great again? By shooting everyone up? For freedom? We hope that Kirby realizes that his position as County Executive doesn’t entail writing gun legislation.
And last, but certainly not least, we have yet another county council man delinquent on his county taxes! How is this possible?! Mr. Frederick County First:
Owes over $3000!!!!
It’s almost May, so the countdown to June 26 is quickly approaching! Make good decisions for the future of both our school board and our county government. #Localelectionsmatter!
It seems as though Billy’s only function is to cause strife on the council. You would think as a lame-duck council member he would just sit back and enjoy the rest of his ride. Or, at the very least, stay as quiet as a dormouse as to not give the likes of us more things to write about! But alas! Woe unto us all that we must continue down this path.
The first bill to be discussed is the nice cooperative Donald/Delauter bill concerning the Senior Tax Credit. For every amendment that Jerry put forth, Kirby seconded! Staff wants an effective date for next year, to which Billy says that bills already have an effective date (60 days if not noted in the legislation), everyone ignores him and adds the July 2019 date. Goes back to a public hearing. Bud commends them both on their cooperation.
There’s much hoopla from both Tony and Billy over M.C.’s bill to make sure that future housing developments keep any amenities they offer within their borders. There was a development that built a pool outside the approved zoning area and wound up building on Ag land! Billy thinks it’s exclusionary. And Tony wants to know what would happen if an HOA wants to buy land outside of the community to build a pool. He also doesn’t understand why we are making legislation because this happened one time. COUGH, COUGH, WOODCHIPPING BILL?!
Next we are onto some changes to council rules. Read all about them here. Billy doesn’t write any of his down and keeps arguing about giving people a 20 minute limit to present at public hearings and wants to allow public comment to be allowed at workshops. Bud tells him that, just like everyone else, he needs to write his suggestions down! How many times has he been told to write his ideas down? Your Yokel Girls are thinking of starting a Sign-Up Genius to have y’all take turns at public comment to tell Billy what we all think of him.
Charter amendments are last. You can peruse them here. Tony lets his 120 day bill extension die after listening to Jessica and M.C.’s concerns. So miracles still happen. Some language is changed on the others. Kirby, who seems to have all kinds of problems with how things work around here, doesn’t put forth any amendments. And is, in fact, super quiet tonight. Perhaps he’s brooding over the lack of love in the comment sections on the two articles about him in the paper today. (Read the articles here and here.)
UMMM, their Creator?!?! Does she think the U.S. Constitution was written by the Almighty himself? Sounds like someone could have used Constitution Day herself!! So, we are supposed to erroneously teach our students that “their Creator” bequeathed the Constitution to the American people, but celebrating Mother Earth is some kind of liberal social/environmental justice that needs to end? Was the Lord/Zeus/Allah partial to bicameral legislatures, checks and balances, the 3/5th’s clause? Who knew?!
frederick local yokel 