This may or may not be an actual representation of your Yokels.
Y’all. We are a bit overwhelmed with the number of meetings and the OMGeeee number of candidates in this 2018 local election, so things are going to get quick and dirty here. We will do our best to keep on top of as much as humanly possible while still attending to our regular responsibilities such as work and parenting and whatnot. We do step out of our basements into the Vitamin D and seasonal allergens from time to time, actually. If you’re in need of a refresher on the tradition of anonymous writing in America, we have a whole think piece on that. It seems like some BOE candidates aren’t any better versed in history than they are in language arts…isn’t everyone shocked?
The agenda for Tuesday’s County Council meeting is here, and Billy Shreve may even attend, so just grab whatever you have handy and have at it. That said, guard you precious liver, because there is also a joint meeting of the Council and the Board of Education on Wednesday. Same “rules” apply. What have we done to deserve this?
There was an amusing discussion on our Facebook page yesterday regarding Billy’s bad habit of voting against the agenda. During our meeting coverages we have suggested if Billy insists on voting against the items on the agenda, he shouldn’t be allowed to vote on anything! Perhaps we should gather the necessary signatures so we can change the charter come next election! At this point, we don’t even believe that Billy knows why he votes against it anymore!
In this morning’s Political Notes, we are treated to some drama between Billy and the Frederick County Republican Central Committee (FCRCC). As we all know, Billy is running for Maryland State Senate. He’s also running for a seat on the FCRCC, which according to the by-laws in a no-no:
“Any FCRCC member who intends to run against another Republican (other than for Central Committee) should, upon filing, resign from his or her position on the FCRCC since such a candidacy creates a conflict of interest between the member’s personal interests and the interests of the FCRCC and/or Party.”
Billy, in a telephone interview with the FNP, stated the by-laws do not REQUIRE him to resign. You know because of the word “should”. And, we all know that Billy doesn’t do what he SHOULD! Well, Lois Gibson, who happens to be the treasurer of Greater Frederick Republican Women, thinks Billy behavior is unethical and was quoted as saying:
“If he has integrity he should, in fact, resign,” she said.
Your Lady Yokels will be chuckling about this all day!
Please, Ms. Gibson, read through our blog to learn all there is to know about Billy’s governing style. Integrity is not in his playbook!
You may have already seen this, but if not, we are very sorry, both for having to share this announcement with you, and for letting you know we did not come up with the Hate Slate moniker. But the moniker is so accurate. Let’s breakdown their announcement.
Anyone think the announcement looks like it is crying at the bottom?
Our first thoughts are, if you are running for the Board of Education, you should have someone proof read your announcement. We made a few comments and then had a teacher do it for them.
Just a few thoughts. And giggles.This is a revised version. They should have made more revisions before republishing. Our teacher said if this work was turned in by an 11th grade honors student it would get a D. We’ll assume the original would have received an F.
Next, let’s read between the lines. What is the unwritten message in each section?
So is Seth Eisenberg Frederick’s very own Paul Blart, Mall Cop? Retail security officers don’t usually carry firearms do they? Ok. So let’s assume his role is as security expert on the slate. Keeping students safe at school is very important. I’m sure his experience in detering shoplifters will be relevant. Edison’s role will be student expert since he has not yet graduated. We will have to see if his speech is more eloquent than his written words. Since Chaz is a Linganore graduate we are going to make a leap and assume the first amendment rights he is so concerned about involve a headdress. Anyone care to define alma matter for us?
Next section:
The Board of Education isn’t taking responsibility? This is Cindy’s jab at Teresa Alban whom she has shown to have a personal vendetta against. I’m not sure who the politicos and bureaucrats are supposed are supposed to be. The current board is comprised of parents and former teachers. They want to rid education of “politicos?” With highly politicized statements, highlighting they are conservatives? While name calling folks “liberal” like that’s a bad thing. And for ending the “press release” with a Trump-ism?
Who says other expenses = waste? Other Charges is one of six MSDE categories that the state mandates the BOE group expenses into so that when the state receives the budgets for all 24 school districts they can more easily compare and evaluate them. Of course our Board knows what is in these charges because they do not deliberate over our expenses and revenues using these 6 broad MSDE categories. They use an enormous book of hundreds of pages with line items by department. Broadly, that Other Charges include appx. $121 million of fixed charges (most of FCPS employee benefits such as tuition reimbursement, employer FICA taxes and employer premiums for health and dental), $14 million in utilities, $9.3 in non-public placements. And they want a scientically proven reading program? Since when is Cindy interested in science?
We are also unsure why they are saying that 47% of students failed English PARCC. It isn’t a pass/fail test. There are levels of scores for PARCC – 1-5. 4-5 are “meets and exceeds expectations.” 1-2 are “did not meet” and “partially met.” A level three is defined as “approached expectations.” For each assessment there are components/skills that are measured, 4 or 5 for each assessment and students receive scores that indicate where they are on each component. FCPS PARCC assessments have increased in levels 3-5 over the last three administrations. She is correct that the 2017 results reflect that 53% of students overall received a 4 or 5. However, if you include students receiving a “3”, that number is 77.5%. We wouldn’t label students in that range failing. We would also remind folks that the equated levels for proficient and above in our past MSAs and HSAs would have likely equated to 2 and 3 on these current PARCC assessments as the rigor has been ratcheted up.
Last section:
Restorative justice does not restrict allowed discipline. In fact it has no bearing on what discipline may or may not be used. It is a method of creating a school community that seeks to have students and teachers better understand each other and how their individual actions affect themselves and others. It puts the ownership and responsibility of conduct on both the individual and on the community (so that everyone is helping everyone else be there best selves). That notion they are peddling is a scare tactic. There is indeed a school to prison pipeline. Just look at the disproportionate suspension and jail time students of color receive for the same offenses as their white peers. There is no arguing the numbers. It’s not about excusing behavior. It’s about seeing students for who they are, why they are behaving and providing them with tools to control their behavior and stay in school. We forget that the role of schools, in relation to discipline, is to teach appropriate behavior and self-control. It’s not just meant to punish.
This press release reveals an obviously shallow understanding of complex and nuanced issues. Did they make the decision to run based on their misunderstanding of the issues? Do we want our school system run by folks who make judgments on bullets, a sentence or two and a fraction of the information?
No Billy…again! Probably not the greatest idea for him to start skipping out on meetings when he’s trying to convince us all that he deserves higher office. But hey, who are we to complain about not having to put up with him?!
The only public commenter is Melanie Cox, speaking on behalf of the League of Women Voters. She’s here to promote the suffragist march that is happening this weekend. Bud remarks that he cannot imagine women not having the right to vote, and we cannot believe it took as long as it did! Just a short 100 years ago postcards such like this were still making the rounds:
How tragic that a father actually has to help out with the care of HIS very own child!
Since Billy is gone the agenda and minutes get passed with NO PROBLEMO!
Next is a vote on the compromised Forest Resource Ordinance bill. Jessica speaks to the beauty of compromise and then M.C. commends both Jessica and Tony for working together, even though she would have liked to see the one to one tree replacement. But, hey that’s what compromise is, not everyone gets what they want all the time. Kirby then chimes in that he has a different take. He starts talking about DRRAs and everyone is all WTH is going on here!? M.C. reminds him that we are talking about the Forest Ordinance bill and he quickly responds with a:
Pay attention Mr. Wannabe County Executive!
Bud then pulls the bill on the DRRAs because of the concerns that the county attorney brought up last night! So, that different take from Kirby will have to wait! At 7:00 everyone returns for the Land Grab Monocacy River Board hearing. We’ll let you know how that all plays out!
Your Yokel Ladies have been in and out of this meeting for the past couple of days. It’s a lot to contend with, so we are chunking it up and throwing it down, bit by bit.
No Shreve, what a relief! Meetings are always nicer without him!
Steve Horn and friend are in the house to present the Livable Frederick plan. You can go to this website to see all the details, plus the entire plan as it stands today. We say today, because there are still chances for change. If you read our drinking game, you saw that Kirby called this plan a POS. He doesn’t use exactly those words, but he does have things to say. For example, he wants Steve Horn and Co. to explain why the modeling software they use isn’t some kind of soothsayer. It is explained, ever so gently, that all modeling is, by definition, a guess. However, Mr. Horn also points out that the accuracy really isn’t the point here. The point is to see what different paths the county can take based on the possible outcomes that may occur. It’s called PLANNING. Well, Kirby isn’t done. He tells us that the market should decide where people live because the market is NEVER wrong. That’s right people: NEVER. Well, he is also very gently told why that isn’t true. Jerry clears up the erroneous notion going around that this plan is going to downzone properties. It is not. Tony complains some, but it’s pretty much nonsense. After an hour this discussion wraps up.
Unsurprisingly to anyone who pays attention around here, Tony was the council member contacted to introduce legislation having to do with Off Track Betting (OTB). He brings in four representatives, including local lawyer Rand Weinberg, to discuss this pending legislation. Essentially, they want to identify a local restaurant to set up OTB, kinda like Cracked Claw before it closed down. First reading of this bill will be soon.
The Veterans Affairs Council had a lovely professional presentation that introduced the panel of distinguished advocates. Please keep doing what you do. We are relieved to see this move forward. There isn’t a lot of new information to report. Well, other than that a miracle of trans-partisanship that occurred when Bud Otis (unaffiliated), M.C. Keegan-Ayer (D), and Tony Chmelik (R) pared down the originally proposed bill, which had “timed out,” and according to the knowledgeable panel this bill is a reasonable step forward in accomplishing the goal of having a “one stop shop” for veterans to get assistance in accessing the services that are available to them. We know this is a huge problem, and the point that it is unreasonable to expect a veteran with PTSD to sit on the phone through a menu of options for 13 minutes is absolutely true. There were other ghastly anecdotes, so please know that we thank you all for working on this, and we apologize that we aren’t giving this the focus that it is due. There is just so much to say about so much today (and another meeting tonight, people!).
There was the Interagency Internal Audit Authority thing: a panel of accountants working on a bill to codify the existence, charges, and governance of their authority (the interagency aspect is the county, FCPS, and FCC). Work on this bill began in 2014 with the transition to charter government, and they are doing the formal work to ensure that the appointments to the body will not be under the control of those being audited. In other words, a county executive should never be making those appointments, nor should FCPS or FCC be sending their people to do the work. They propose that the current members will nominate future members. Sounds good.
Then we reach the issue of the proposed pipeline under the Potomac River at Hancock. Some environmentalists (yay! go Sierra Club!) ask that a letter be drafted–ideally from the Council, but if not, by individuals on the Council– asking for Governor Hogan to withhold the 401 Water Quality Certificate and request a full environmental impact review of this project from the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE). This is requested because:
We are downstream from an 8 inch pipeline that would tunnel under the Potomac River to connect a proposed pipeline in West Virginia with an existing one in West Virginia
A bunch of municipal governments both up and downstream have already said, “Hey, let’s be careful!” and sent their own letters, including Hagerstown, Boonsboro, Washington County, Montgomery County and P.G. County. hm.
The geology (that’s rock formations, yo) of the land they will tunnel under is extra risky, because the Karst geology (science term) is Swiss-cheesey, so if a blowout occurred, the chemicals could be dispersed in any direction. Many pipelines already go under the river, but none through this type of geological formation.
Frederick County get lots of our drinking water from the Potomac (91%). And the City of Frederick also gets some of its water supply there, too, (17%) so we would theoretically not want to risk poisoning our water supply.
The Chesapeake Bay is also downstream (for good measure).
In case you were wondering where this thing is supposed to go. You can kind of see the Eastern Panhandle Expansion converging with the Potomac there, but unfortunately the County Seal and headings got in the way of some of the relevant details on a couple of these slides.
We nicked their slides. Hopefully they don’t mind. Here is the Karst Swiss Cheese. Get the idea?
This is all well and good for the reasonable, and even seems likely for the less reasonable eventually, reluctantly, however it pains them, to agree that we shouldn’t be reckless with our drinking water. However, it must be noted that we have two drilling savants, both Republican, on our esteemed County Council, so the curt reaction to the idea of a letter from Tony Chmelik was, “It depends on what the letter says.” Well, they only asked for a letter to exhibit caution and thorough review, not to declare pipeline construction forever abolished, so the hang up is hard to understand, but thank goodness we could be treated to some gassy emissions from these guys. We probably don’t even need a pipeline, since we create our own energy like that. Fun fact: one of your local ladies used to work in the gas pipeline accounting, so we know a thing or two round here, too. Gas is tricky to account for, as a matter of fact, due to particle dispersion. That and the Swiss-cheesy thing are a double tricky combo.
**Ten Minute Break because they’ve been there since 4:30; this is taking an eternity and there is a lot left.** Stay tuned. Holy moly, they’re trying to kill us, y’all. There’s another meeting tonight, you know.
So it seems kind of like Billy’s blissful absence and Kirby “#ImReallyRunning4CountyExecutive” Delauter’s recently located partial degree of restraint (NB: we didn’t watch Council Member Comments, so we could be wrong about that) freed the air for Tony Chmelik to fill the role of council insurgent. At this point we are losing all the patience that we never had, but Ray Barnes and the legal advice come with him, and also Steve McKay, think that the move to ax the section of the code pertaining to DRRAs entirely is no bueno and will cause a bunch of legal problems and their advice is to not move forward with that. They have other ideas. And obviously Tony has a problem with them going before Dog and Everyone implying that he meant to do away with DRRAs forever (“What would the developers think???” <<clutches pearls>>) when he would NEVER. He and Jerry Donald have a back and forth that is pretty priceless, wherein Jerry admits that was his goal, and he also thought that was what Tony wanted. We are pleased with Jerry Donald. He is funny but not mean. We have a hard time with that. Then Jessica Fitzwater asks the question we are wondering too, which was, to paraphrase in LocalYokel jargon, “WTF were we trying to do for real then?”
We have finally thought to ourselves somewhere in the midst of the MXD discussion: we do not like this bill either. We would all be pissed if we bought a house and then they changed the zoning and we lived next to a warehouse now. We aren’t going to listen to this anymore. We. Are. So. Done.
As you may have heard, Cindy Rose is (unsurprisingly) running for Board of Education. Cindy Rose thinks up crazy things, sometimes with the help of Rush Limbaugh. Election 2018 is cranked, and ugh, please make it stop. Presumably this guy in his MAGA cap (yeah we Snopsed it for ya!) is the reason we are seeing this effort to somehow make it the fault of progressives that this human waste became a monster. According to Lady Rose this murderer who shot up his school is the real victim here. Oh, the poor Rosemary’s Baby. #PartyOfPersonalResponsibility much?
Do you see that snowflake b.s. up there? This woman is like Donald Trump. She does not have the appropriate temperament to hold the office she seeks, and yet she will try it anyway. Be vigilant, folks. You know what could happen. Heed the cautionary tale.
We’ve taken up the cause of warning her to keep her crazy tucked in previously, but it is an uphill battle, as evidenced by her blaming it upon the evils of progressivism that kept his access to that weapon legal, and ensured that laws to take guns from people who everyone in the community is already terrified of do not exist. Is that what we are to understand? Color us skeptical, maybe. She bangs out this hate fueled and twisted excuse for this psycho, extends all the empathy to him as the real victim in the situation, and then has the audacity to ask how the kids of conservative parents got so liberal. Go figure, lady.
Also, apologies for our elitism, but Mrs. Rose’s post would fail as an elementary school writing assignment, so is she really the right person to take up the mantle of improving education? There’s no citation for or even explanation of her dubious claims, and as a person who is constantly e-mail blasting the school system she should know that the written constructed response is a typical third grade curriculum item, covering along with it the “cite and explain” portion of the rubric. Is she agreeing with us that we have been bombarded with apocalyptic climate change and systemic racism? She hurls hatred at the liberals and, to read her words, would appear simultaneously gravely concerned about liberal issues. (The irony that she was all over the inter webs favoring English-Only legislation when she is not exactly demonstrating mastery of the native tongue is aggravating, in retrospect.) Sigh. Please don’t elect this woman. We have a whole catalogof reasons why, even when we have sometimes agreed with her.
This is from a July 12, 2015 “discussion” of the English Only Ordinance on the Frederick County Council Watch Facebook Page. One of the premium services this online community provides is self-cataloguing their bad ideas, illogical thinking, and personal insults in a forum where you can just bang some search terms in and find evidence to cite.
In conclusion, let’s ponder what Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the namesake of the high school where some very inspiring young activists have given us the first reason in quite awhile to be optimistic about the direction this country is headed, and who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work to protect the environment (and because of that was in the White House the same day to witness the signing of The Brady Bill), would think of Cindy Rose’s nonsense up there. She said:
Be a nuisance where it counts. Do your part to inform and stimulate the public to join your action. Be depressed, discouraged, and disappointed at failure and the disheartening effects of ignorance, greed, corruption and bad politics—but never give up.
The council has saddled us with two meetings this week. The first one, scheduled for this evening at 4:30, has some interesting items. Steve Horn, who seems to be Billy’s mortal enemy as of late, is in the house to present the Livable Frederick plan. Here’s how Kirby feels about it:
NICE!
Next, it appears that Tony wants to bring Off Track Betting to Frederick County. There’s also some discussion of some other bills and the gas pipeline that Potomac Edison wants to run under the Potomac River so they can pump fracked gas down from Pennsylvania! What could go wrong?! We end Tuesday’s meeting with two public hearings on the MDX bill and DRRAs.
Wednesday’s meeting, scheduled to begin at 6:00, has two third readings and a public hearing on the Monocacy Scenic River plan. We cannot possibly commit to making two drinking games in a week! Therefore, we are leaving you with this handy bingo drinking game that can be used for both nights! Pick your poison, mind your liver, and drink whenever you get a bingo! Good luck!
Update: According to Mark Long Shannon Bohrer, a Democrat who lives on a farm in the Emmitsburg area, filed to run in District 5 this morning. He writes a column for the Emmitsburg Journal, “Words From Winterbilt”, and is a retired police officer. He will be at [Mark’s] Meet and Greet this evening in Emmitsburg. Woohoo!
Right now there are no Democrats are running to take over Kirby’s current seat on the county council. Deadline to file is tomorrow. Spread the word. We need a good yokel to run.
We need you!
From what we hear, there are lots of folks ready to help with the campaign. Let’s get someone filed!
Perpetual BOE Candidate You Know Who is planning an “education townhall” on Feb 27th from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at the C. Burr Artz public library. Since it’s at the library it’s required to be open to anyone who wants to attend, so please share widely. Surely it will be… uh…educational. It is worth noting that Cindy Rose filed today to run again for the Board of Education. I guess her previous losses left her wanting more of the same so let’s make sure she finally gets the message that we don’t want her on our board.
Topics to discuss are a bullet list of how to feel aggrieved. This means you are in luck if you hate those people who have a great idea that they will volunteer anyone but themselves to do the legwork on. This is an exclusive event for the airing of grievances, entirely free of action items.
– Do you or did you feel left out of your child’s education? (Would you still feel left out of it if you weren’t involved in litigation/exchanging eleventy bazillion emails with the FCPS Administration and BOE during times that other people are at PTA meetings or assisting in classrooms?)
– Are you currently disappointed in what your child is learning? Were you disappointed in what your child was learning? (Do you think it unnecessary and frightening to learn facts about things that have vast geopolitical ramifications, such as the world’s largest religion? Does learning a different way than you were taught 40 years ago frighten and disgust you?)
– Do you or did you feel you were not a partner in your child’s education? (If you did feel that you were a partner in education, on a scale of 1 to 10 how frightened were you of the school restrooms?)
Please come out and share your thoughts and concerns with local community members and education activists, whether or not you received the personalized pitchfork and tiki torch invite.
Local Yokel suggested items to discuss:
How about brainstorming on ideas that will make you a real partner in education instead of an adversary?
What can the community do to help alleviate over-testing?
What can I do to help advocate for more education budget dollars to attract and keep the best teachers in Frederick County?
How can I make sure that all kids have access to the appropriate learning level?
How can I contribute to ensuring we have adequate schools for our growing county?
If you have your own wishlist of items, please plan to attend. We’d love to hear how your feedback at the meeting is received.
Our frenemies over at Red Maryland posted a story a few weeks back claiming that Billy is going to back out of the Maryland Senate Race. Go ahead and read their claims, we wouldn’t be one bit surprised if they are right. But, until he does officially bow out we should treat him as a serious candidate! We decided to hop on over to his website to see what B.S. Billy Shreve is trying to sell us.
We highly recommend that you go on over to believeinshreve.com and click on through! Just don’t drink anything while doing so, because you are super likely to destroy your device. Here’s some highlights!
From his vision link: a study in contradictions! Notice at the top he says that the primary focus of education should not be to build buildings, then at the bottom: “Schools will be built in a timely manner, not “Backwards”, after we need them.” We aren’t even sure what that is supposed to mean, but pick a message, Billy! We are also really curious about this magical “loop road” and not surprised at all about the Chuck Jenkins comment.
Hubble Telescope and the Space Shuttle? OUR BILLY?! You know what? If Billy is some kind of secret genius that’s been holding out on us since 2010, we have some words to say to him!
Umm, why didn’t he list being elected to an At-Large seat on the county council as one of his Present Personal Accomplishments? Does Billy think he is still a commissioner? Is he not proud of his work on the county council? I mean, he really shouldn’t be, but is he aware of that?
Now it’s time for the creme de la creme:
What is that?! An homage to his idol, Donald Trump? Is he warning us that we need to take a detour and not vote for him? And LOLOLOL, ending with just the word Orange? Man, this is the strangest thing we’ve seen on a political website in quite some time! Billy, you are really making this way too easy for us!
And one more thing for Billy to take note of. This is how you host Boy Scouts at Winchester Hall:
Where’s the political signs? Oh that’s right, that’s not how grown ups behave!
frederick local yokel 