How are Shrelauter’s campaigns going? Not too good!

fclocalyokel3 Comments

Howdy folks! It’s that time of the month where we check out just how well Shrelauter’s campaigns for County Executive and Maryland State Senate are going. With just 6 months to the primary, we are getting into crunch time. Last week, the FNP did a story regarding the first financial reports of local campaigns, and we couldn’t help but chuckle at this:

Annual campaign finance reports filed this week show Giangrande with a cash balance of just over $100,000 in his campaign account while Shreve’s stood at $3,220.

Shreve said he was not concerned and hadn’t really begun fundraising. He planned to start in April, he said, adding that his focus now was on governing.

“I don’t need a lot of money to win this race,” he said.

AND:

Delauter’s spokesman, Cameron Harris, said Delauter was pleased by the number of small donors contributing to his campaign compared with the other candidates.

Harris noted that Delauter was the only one who hadn’t accepted a donation over $1,000. Harris said the campaign pledged not to do so. However, the campaign had accepted more than $1,000 — in separate checks — from at least one donor.

Delauter’s campaign clocked $12,000 in loans, coming from the candidate and some of his business interests.

LOL!!!! Well, lets take a look at Kirby and Billy’s “official” campaign Facebook pages to see how they are handling themselves!

Let’s begin with Kirby:

Screen Shot 2018-01-28 at 10.29.37 AM
So much about this is deceptive. First of all, there are no separate county and property taxes. They are one and the same. Secondly, the county tax rate has NOT been “hiked”. The state has raised some property owner’s assessments, which means they will pay more based on that assessment. However, the county tax rate was not raised. And, have we learned nothing from the first George Bush? You can’t make promises like this! You can’t predict the future!If we were the plagiarizing kind, like some people, we would give this post three thousand Pinocchio noses!

Next up:

Screen Shot 2018-01-28 at 10.29.58 AM
Okay then! Never forget that these two go hand-in-hand! Why is sanctuary in quotes? What does Kirby think that sanctuary represents here?

And we thought at one point Kirby was FOR “sanctuary counties”

Screenshot (104)

Screen Shot 2018-01-28 at 10.30.18 AM
A nice sentiment, but see below:

First of all, sorry Kirby, but there’s no way in hell you wrote a word of this. Secondly, this runs contrary to some other things that Kirby has posted:

12309361_10201357361214168_871027119_n

Screen Shot 2018-01-28 at 10.30.31 AM
Points to remember, he’s going to roll-back tax hikes that NEVER happened. He’s going to build the cheap schools that will end up costing us more money in the long run. He’s against “sanctuary county”. (Again with the quotes!) And, he wants to take money away from the public school system to create a voucher program. All of this is valuable information folks!

Now, Billy’s page is oh so very sad. So, we’ll just let it speak for itself:

Screen Shot 2018-01-28 at 10.33.08 AM
18 likes! #SAD!

Some good discussion and then a WTH is going on around here? Your January 23rd workshop in review!

fclocalyokel1 Comment

238hc5

Bud starts off the meeting reassuring us that he supports any actions the council can take to stop human trafficking, so he still has that going for him! County Executive candidate Kirby Delauter is absent…again. We have to say we were so impressed with the presentation this evening. Kudos must go out to Jessica Fitzwater for brining this to everyone’s attention. So many knowledgable, articulate folks came in front of the council to give us information about this sickening problem. You can read the entire report here or just look at our highlights:

Screen Shot 2018-01-23 at 4.41.44 PM
This is a heat map. What is shows are where the hotline calls regarding human trafficking are coming from. Notice that Frederick is in the red. That means there’s a lot of activity going on in our area.
Screen Shot 2018-01-23 at 4.48.00 PM
This nice lady works for the State Prosecutor’s Office. She made us aware of the fact that many agencies do not have good information to pass on to victims of human trafficking. Something that this task force wants to remedy.
Screen Shot 2018-01-23 at 4.53.16 PM
Oh, why oh why can’t our High Sheriff be more like Frederick Police Chief Hargis?(PSST, our High Sheriff was not in attendance this evening, probably because he was NOT in support of this task force, he believed that everything that could be done was already being done—VOTE KARL BICKEL!)

Frederick mayor Michael O’Connor told us some of the recommendations of the committee:

  1. Mandatory training for lodging employees to help identify human trafficking victims.
  2. Making sure all bodyworks establishments are properly licensed. (This is the only time Billy pipes up this evening-he wants to have a definition of bodyworks, we can only imagine what must have been going through that mind of his.)
  3. Penalties for landlords and tenants who knowingly allow human traffickers to operate.
  4. The creation of a survivor services fund created from the confiscated property of the human trafficker(s).
  5. Creation of signs that alert the public to what human trafficking looks like, both sex and labor trafficking. In other words: “If you see something, say something”!

Chief Hargis likened this problem to domestic violence 30 years ago. 30 years ago (and this is really hard to stomach folks), domestic violence wasn’t on anyone’s radar. It wasn’t seen as a law enforcement problem. That’s how the issue of human trafficking has been treated..as someone else’s problem. But it isn’t, its a human problem that all humans should be concerned about. Contrary to what the High Sheriff or Billy or Kirby would lead us to believe, this isn’t just a problem for the federal government to solve. If a victim is found in Frederick County, and there have been numerous cases here, it’s a Frederick County problem.  If you want more information about human trafficking visit the Polaris site.  And after you read that, don’t ever, ever forget that Billy Shreve said that there are groups in favor of this.  We don’t need a voice like that representing us in Annapolis.

Late in the day, the council agenda was changed to reflect this addition:

Screen Shot 2018-01-23 at 4.31.28 PM

There was no clickable link, so we didn’t have any other information to go on. When it came time to vote we get this breakdown:

Yay-Jessica, M.C., Bud, Tony, Jerry

Abstain-Billy

Partying it up in Punta Cana-Kirby

Now, we have no idea what in the world is going on with this! Anyone who can enlighten us please send us a line!

Workshop on Human Trafficking AKA Billy gives reasons to tell us why people are for it!

fclocalyokel3 Comments

This afternoon the council will convene to discuss the final report from the Frederick County Human Trafficking Task Force. Billy has told us that there are groups for human trafficking, and we’ll just let Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo handle this one for us this time:

We’ll let you know how the discussion goes.

Afzali inspires us to marvel, “Who is going to win this primary?”

fclocalyokel5 Comments

We almost forgot about this dingbat, who is seemingly threatening would be donors to her county executive campaign. “I am a witch. Give me money, or I will torment you with evil conjurings!”

Kathy Afzali wants help
She really does need help.

What is with this clown show we are treated to by a too large number of local Republicans, anyway?

Bud Otis, for the love of Pete. Why, oh why, have you seemingly realigned with team dingleberry and the darlings of developers?

Aside Afzali we have a county executive candidate who hates free publicity–Kirby “don’t talk about me in the paper” Delauter, crafter of flowcharts, follower of none.

His sidekick DeploraBilly Shreve, who is consistently and appallingly incompetent on a vast range of subjects, and is running for Maryland Senate.

Plus, we will forever have Billy and Kirby’s fascinating friend who shall not be named (who we are worried/thrilled to consider, based upon rubbernecking over his not subtle enough Facebook musings, that he may be considering a don’t-call-it a-comeback return to public life with the launch of a sexxxpert advise [sic] podcast in honor of Human Trafficking Workshop Week next week). Gross. #partyoffamilyvalues

Added bonus. Also running for CE, we have Regina “The Bullshit Stops Here” Williams. We would tell you more, but her website reveals no official positions on anything. Gracious. Afzali has issues. Kirby has issues. We know you have issues, too. You sued the county.

It’s rather sad to note that Afzali seems like the most serious contender here, having at least had the forethought to think about the issues, and she really is a hot mess. Remember the time she had a spat with the sheriff, and was texting him that he was a wimp and a phony?

Go ahead, madam. Align yourself with the wicked witch. It’s a perfect accompaniment to your Pay No Attention to that Man Behind the Curtain president. This clownshow is a plague.

 

You’re sure no Ephelba. We’ll be over here defying gravity, thankyouverymuch.

 

Facts Matter!!! All the time!

fclocalyokel1 Comment

In a now deleted post on his public official Facebook page, Bud gave his reasoning as to why he removed M.C. from the MACO board. Thank goodness we have friends that have the foresight to use their screenshot option:

 

27047090_10215759086195278_684116518_o

27017011_10215759085275255_1951454649_o
Note: There was no Council vote taken in 2015, 2016, 2017!

 

FB_IMG_1516370639235
And it is!!!

Well, look at what Danielle Gaines found out in today’s Political Notes:

Keegan-Ayer’s appointment, along with others, was put to a council vote on Jan. 6, 2015, minutes show. The appointments were unanimously approved, with Councilman Billy Shreve (R) abstaining.

Who is telling Bud that he can override the legislative process and make monarchial appointments?

Xenu update!!!!

fclocalyokel1 Comment
i-am-lord-xenu-all-hail-me-baby.jpg
Not so fast, Xenu!

In today’s FNP, we are treated to a Trout Run/Scientology/Xenu update! Twelve times the judge has granted the Scientologists an extension. TWELVE! How long is this to go on for? Well, their attorney had this to say when asked that very question:

Frederick attorney Bruce Dean, one of the lawyers representing SBPI, declined to comment on why the company has prolonged the filing deadline.

“I can’t divulge our strategy and what’s going on,” Dean said. “There are things going on, but I can’t really talk about it.”

Oh, masters of psychology let’s see if we can guess the reason. Could it be that they are waiting out the election to see if they can get a council that is “friendlier” to their interests? I think we should all be checking the campaign contributions of everyone running for county council and county executive this year. For, if they have accepted money from Social Betterment Properties, we know where their loyalties lie.

We thought the meeting was canceled!

fclocalyokel3 Comments

 

22t7u5.jpg

As you probably already knew, the county council meeting was canceled this evening. At least we thought it was, but apparently there was one agenda item that Bud decided to go ahead and take care of on his own! You may remember from our drinking game earlier today that we called attention to this item that was to be discussed this evening:

 

Screen Shot 2018-01-13 at 11.09.50 AM

We not so wildly speculated that M.C. would be replaced as the representative on that board with Tony! Well, look what came upon the Yokel news desk this evening:

Screen Shot 2018-01-16 at 7.18.21 PMScreen Shot 2018-01-16 at 7.18.26 PM

22t8ss
We don’t know Slick!

So, is this where we are now? Agenda items that were supposed to be discussed in front of the public, with a council discussion and vote, can now be written into existence! By one person! What kind of government is this, we ask you?!

No good will come of this. Your January 16, just stay drunk in the ditch, drinking game.

fclocalyokel3 Comments

22meom

After last week’s complete turn about from Bud Otis, we don’t see much hope of things going well for the rest of the year. This week’s agenda sees the removal of two public hearings that were not given their time in the sun, and one for a very bad bill about MDX. It’s as though we’ve time warped back to the Young BOCC in the span of a week! We don’t have the spirit to go through the entire agenda this week, but we will call your attention to this item on the agenda (note: we are not the ones that highlighted it in yellow.):

Screen Shot 2018-01-13 at 11.09.50 AM.png

 

M.C. is currently the council’s representative on Maryland Association of Counties Legislative Committee, but expect to see that change this evening. Also, we’ll see what Forest Resource Ordinance Bill gets through. Expect it to be the one more favorable to developer interests, for that is where we are now.

So, be safe, but drink whatever you need to do calm your nerves this evening.

The part when Billy defies zero preconceived notions

fclocalyokel5 Comments

Remember when we said Billy would waste everyone’s time trying to look like he was doing something productive but really wasn’t? Well, mostly that’s what just happened, except when he was even worse than that.

Ironically, he started with the Council Education Bill, looking to bring everyone up to his level of expertise (pfffffft! wait for more on what exactly that level is) concerning zoning, or else have them penalized by losing their voting rights on the council for zoning matters. This is…unconstituational completely implausible. Billy, you diminutive and dimwitted Banana Republican. Shut up!

We then learn that M.C. Keegan-Ayer took a two hour course on this out of personal interest, bless her heart, of course she did, and that sounds awful. Also, we learn that Billy did an online 15 minute thing back in The Y2K. If you can begin to imagine feeling smug about 15 minutes worth of education you got off the internet 18 years in the past, that’s what just happened! Before Twitter, even! Billy has the bittiest button of all.

Moving along to the Veterans Tax Credit Bill, which is state legislation he is presenting to the county, whilst giving the absolute impression that he has never read it before in his life. Do you have questions? Maybe someone else can answer them. “Caroline?” Like we said, moving along…

You tried star with lyrics: you tried so hard and got so far and in the end it doesn't even matter
Just kidding. You didn’t get far.

The next part is the best, because he is trying to get rid of anonymous reporting of zoning violations and guess why! Because he can cite two examples of businesses, both of which were actually violating the law, and someone ratted them out, and that person…might not even live here…? One time a letter came from Baltimore. Little known and possibly fake news: all us supposed local yokels all actually live in Baltimore and just follow Frederick county politics because it is theater of the absurd, and oh so fun to incite discord down the road. Like Russians, but more neighborly.

Come on. If another wedding venue owner wants to complain that the side hustle at the tree farm over yonder is cheating by breaking all the rules, what kind of sense does it make to hinder the person reporting on the problem? There are many reasons to guarantee that a complaint may be filed without knowing who is filing it or where they live or the names of their children and their pets. For the most obvious available example, not everyone is mentally stable. Also sometimes an employee may have to report their employer, or some other health or safety reason may be relevant. Just. Gah. Enough. Obviously we shall be the patron saints of anonymity.

The Public Safety Facilities Exemption Bill means Billy wants the volunteer fire company not to need permits for events. Jerry wisely points out that the social halls shouldn’t be exempted, and as someone who annually attends a big event at the one in Walkersville, that sounds copacetic.

Voila, Billy’s participation trophy awaits. We do hope he will continue to remind us of his “greatest hits” as election season nears.

pls stop trying star
Seriously. Enough now. Time for the grownups to take over. 2018 cannot get her fast enough.

 

Oh my dear Zeus, Mary Posey (aka plant lady) was right!

fclocalyokel4 Comments

Remember a few months back when we published this story about Bud receiving a potted plant and yellow tie from a very angry member of the public? We took offense because, at the time, we believed that Bud was simply acting in the best interests of the county.  But we Yokel gals can admit when we are wrong! We may not agree with this lady on much else, but in this instance Ms. Posey, it appears you may have had a point.

22elmy.jpg

It’s been no secret that we’ve been big Bud Otis fans. We sincerely believed that he was an old time Republican that didn’t subscribe to the Trumpery that Shrelauter likes to spew forth. Well, a few weeks ago we started to get suspicious that things were going to go South. We have lots of connected friends here at the Yokel, and many of those friends were telling us that Bud wants to be county executive. And, since he has his eye on that particular prize, we were going to see some changes.  Changes we wouldn’t like. The first evidence of this occurred when Bud refused to explained his competing Forest Ordinance Bill. In fact, he got quite snippy with M.C. when she asked for an explanation. As we said in that post, we hoped that Bud was just having a bad night. Now, we can no longer delude ourselves into thinking that’s the case.

Here’s what happened tonight folks. On this evening’s workshop agenda was the following item:

Screen Shot 2018-01-09 at 6.07.42 PM

Jessica asks Bud what this item means since the council, at least not her, M.C., and Jerry, were given any explanation on this very ambiguous item. Which we now know was purposely ambiguous because it was nothing but an organized coup!

Bud doesn’t respond but instead defers to Tony. Tony then picks up a piece of paper that appears to have been collaborated upon by the R’s on the council. In his distinct grandstanding way Tony goes on about the “far-reaching” legislation that the county executive has put forth and how he now wishes to put forth a motion to table Jan’s DRAA and school construction fee bills! We don’t think much of this motion because we are sure it will be defeated, and are only half listening really when we shockingly hear Bud’s aye. That’s right folks, Bud voted to table the bills on these two items! Even though, it’s evident to all that the policies of the Young BOCC have gotten us into a huge financial mess with all of their hand outs to developers, he voted to table! We cannot imagine there is an explanation satisfactory enough to explain why he did this! Therefore, we can only conclude that we  are in for a very rough year in this county, and that Bud is only thinking of his political future.  We don’t hold out much hope for Jan’s Forest Ordinance passing, and we truly question the political future of someone who is burning bridges with people on both sides of the aisle. If we agree with Mary Posey, who has had it in for us for a good spell here, that’s potentially problematic, dontchathink?

Im+_78158500d6b3a043331dae37d5a6ff0c.jpg
We all do now Muffin! Sigh.

The 2018 elections cannot get here fast enough peeps!