On two separate occasions these past few weeks, our frenemies Kathy Afzali and Kirby Delauter have benefited from your Lady Yokel’s proofreading skills. Let us lay the evidence before thee.
Let’s start with Kathy Afzali. You may remember the post we wrote about her very poorly done website we posted on September 15th. We pointed out these glaring mistakes:
Isn’t the heart sweet?Well, now look at her website!
Therefore, she gets one of these:
You may think that’s a little steep! And all we have to say is, “FREE MARKET, people!”Kirby is also receiving a bill. Just a few days ago we pointed out his egregious use of the Washington Post’s Fact Checker page’s Pinocchio icon. Not only the icon ,but also the fact that he spelled Pinocchio wrong.
We received some info about these claims. Here are the real facts:
The County received its first AAA bond rating from Fitch in March 2010 (Gardner BOCC)
The County received its second AAA bond rating from S & P in July 2014 (Young BOCC)
The triple AAA from Fitch was maintained in the interim period.
The County received its third AAA bond rating from Moody’s in June 2016 (Gardner CE)
The triple AAA ratings from Fitch and S & P maintained in interim period.
The first time the county had AAA bond ratings from all three agencies was in June 2016.
Now, we know he will keep getting the facts wrong, however, he did correct his misspelling. It’s still beyond us why he’s putting the puppet’s name in quotes.
Tonight we finally had a public commenter in the form of Friend of the Yokel (FotY) Patrick Schempp. Patrick made some really good points concerning proposed changes to the DRAAs.
Billy votes against the agenda, for the budget amendments, and abstains from the minutes. No rhyme or reason whatsoever. Kirby needs a clarification about one of the budget adjustments. Rick Harcum comes to the rescue to spell the language out for him.
There are various confirmation votes on county executive appointments. All received 7-0 votes, except for someone on the Transportation Advisory Board that Billy votes against. Wonder what that person did to him! And if they want to be our friend!
Back for public hearings at 7:00.
First public hearing is on a bill that restricts recreational facilities that are designed only to serve residents in a development, to exist only within the borders of that development. Basically, if a development has a pool that only serves the residents of that development, it must be IN the development. Billy wants to know where his aerial photo is. Mr. Horn tells him it’s available. But Billy wants to know when Mr. Horn is going to wrap it all up in pretty paper and deliver it to his front door! Because you really don’t expect Billy to do any legwork on his own, do you? Jeez!
Tony wants to know if amendments are going to be added. Because folks,Tony says the Planning Commission voted against this 7-0. Nope! It was really it 5-1-0, and he is told no. You see this bill had to come about because a development near Pinecliff had to run their water lines outside the development in to Ag land. For some reason both Billy and Kirby insist this incident has never happened in the county before. Staff want to make sure that running water lines through agricultural zones does not become a precedent just because it was allowed this one time.
Kirby says y’all are killing a fly with a sledgehammer and he’s totally against this bill. And man oh man, this guy wants to be county executive? I don’t think we are ready for over very own Ross Perot!
M.C. reminds everyone that this is not the time to be discussing amendments or changes of any kind. The point of a public hearing is to hear comment on the bill as written. The third reading is the time to discuss any changes. And man oh man, they’ve been doing this for almost three years now and she still has to remind them! Billy is rude as hell to the county lawyer when she tries to answer one of his questions by snapping, “I wasn’t talking to you!” Hard to believe he’s still single, isn’t it ladies?
Maury delivers the truth to Billy!
Staff remarks that even though the Planning Commission voted against this bill they made no specific recommendations. Billy blurts out, ” It was so bad they didn’t even want to talk about it!” Such insight!
No one from the public felt the need to speak on this.
The second hearing was on Tony’s version of the Bussard Brothers’ bill. Once again, no one from the public was moved to attend. Ray Barnes passes out a memo with the planning commission and staff recommended changes to this bill. Billy totally hijacked this moment by asking for another aerial photo, which is then displayed on the screen. Billy recounts the tale of the owner of this woodchipping business. And then admonishes us all with these words, ” This is the American dream and we are crushing it! This is as Unamerican as it gets!”
Kirby very boringly reads off the aforementioned memo that Mr. Barnes distributed. And then to the shock all of your Lady Yokels, he quotes an email from FotY Steve McKay. But, not before Kirby makes it very clear that he does not usually agree with Mr. McKay nor is he the type of person that he would usually align himself with! However, Kirby does respect him because he shows up and he made some good points in his email. Stil, Kirby thinks this business should just be grandfathered in.
M.C. asks staff to highlight what they put in the memo and for some reason causes all kinds of hullabaloo with Tony and Billy. Tony accuses M.C. of doing just what she was admonishing him for doing during the last hearing (not at all) and Billy complains that he asks for staff to come up all the time and is told that it’s inappropriate and now he has her on record! So there! Man, these dolts. But anyhoo, Mr. Horn returns to the desk in order to discuss what staff thinks.
We are thankfully spared the drama of council member comments because Tony, Kirby and Billy all decide to pass! Thank Zeus for small mercies!
Until next time, enjoy this beautiful Fall weather.
Well, well, well, do we ever have something for you today! Every week or so, we check up on our favorite local politicians’ Facebook pages to see what we can see. And boy, did we see something!
Let’s just put aside the misinformation for a moment and focus on the “Pinnochio” (sp) rating at the bottom. Besides spelling the beloved character’s name all wrong, we couldn’t help but notice we’ve seen the same exact icons somewhere else. Where you ask?
We couldn’t find Kirby giving the liberal rag any props on any of these slides. Perhaps he thought if he spelled the name wrong he was okay. Nevertheless, to rip their icon off, and so poorly we may add, shows what a second rate operation this campaign really is.
If you want to see a true situation in which a Pinocchio nose would apply take a gander at this little jewel:
Oh my! They really think they did a good job!That’s more like it!
Tonight could be a real doozy for us! The bill that Tony wrote to replace Billy’s no good, very bad one is up for a public hearing this evening. We joked when Tony introduced it, speculating if Billy would be magnanimous when the time to discuss came around, and BAAHAAHAA!!!! who the hell are we kidding? Tonight, we suggest that you choose your favorite Fall brew beer or pumpkin spiced spiked whatever and follow along. Don’t forget your trusty agenda, and remember to take care, because now that Billy is running for statewide office, there’s no way he’s taking your calls!
We begin, as always, with public comment, approval of the agenda, and budget adjustments. No matter what happens, just smile and nod and sip daintily from your drink of choice.
There’s one county executive appointment to approve, and then there’s a break until 7:00. When Billy throws his predictable fit about Bud not being about to look into his crystal ball to predict the length of the first half of the meeting, let’s just say this may be a good time to run to the liquor store for fortifications.
The first 1/2 of the meeting will take exactly 43 minutes and 6.4 seconds.
There are two public hearings. The first one is on recreational facilities being required to be located within the development they are meant to serve. Billy and Tony both threw fits the first time this was discussed. The second one is Tony’s wood chip bill. Just last week the Planning Commission voted against approving this bill as written. (They did suggest some amendments.) So, when things get a little cray cray, break out that beer bong from college and do whatever you need to do to feel better.
We don’t know when that will be Muffin! Hopefully 2018.
There is so much swirling in your Lady Yokel’s heads at the moment. If you are so inclined, you can suck two hours out of your life and watch the meeting here. First, let us point out that this is the second workshop in a row that Kirby couldn’t bother to attend. If he wants to be the next county executive, he probably shouldn’t develop an attendance problem during the campaign! And secondly, we should all send our thank yous and perhaps treats to our poor county employees that had to put up with the insults and badgering that Billy and Tony subjected them to this evening.
Of course we knew that a discussion of Development Rights and Responsibilities Agreement (DRRA) wasn’t going to be pretty. Let us point out that tonight was a workshop. What occurs during a workshop is you listen and discuss. There’s no voting, it’s not a hearing. It’s supposed to be a productive discussion on how to move forward. However, we cannot move FORWARD if SOME people come into a discussion with guns blazing! Billy and Tony don’t want this bill to pass. So instead of allowing anyone else on the council to listen to the explanation of the bill, they interject (VERY RUDELY) with questions, which are really more like accusations. For example, Billy, asks Steve Horn how long the comprehensive plan is. Steve says it is 10 years, but can be renewed. Billy says it’s 20. Steve says he isn’t sure what the exact length is, to which Billy tells him that he knows it’s 20 years but just doesn’t want to answer the question. He goes on to tell Mr. Horn that he’s smarter than that!
Tony, instead of letting these poor employees go through the actual proposed bill, wants to go through an actual DRRA and have the staff tell him what is wrong with it! It is at this point that we hear a tone of voice come out of M.C. that we have never heard before. She is very angry that Tony is discussing a DRRA that no one else has in front of them!!! Especially since this isn’t even the point of the meeting. The point is to review the proposed bill that is in front of them, not to argue the merits of an already passed DRRA. M.C. also admonishes Tony for the way he is speaking to the staff this evening. At first, Tony is all: oh well, this is the job they signed up for. Then, he thinks better of it and apologizes. We are not sure why he takes all this developer stuff so personally. (When are they going to invent that font for sarcasm?) Bud tells Tony that if he doesn’t like the bill then he needs to propose an amendment to it.
There’s also some back and forth between Billy and Jerry. Billy wants to know what county Jerry would like to model Frederick County after. Jerry answers: Pre-2011 Frederick County. This causes Billy to stew in his seat for a few moments before “trying” to stick it to Jerry again. He tells Jerry that he needs to stop his snarky comments, because he never in his entire life had anything to do with a DRRA! He continues his remarks by saying that it is so great that Jerry wants to go backwards in time, because you know that Billy is all about moving forward. At this point Bud closes down the discussion by saying, “Elections have consequences!”
Now it’s time to talk about a bill that will allow a change to the Adequate Public Facilities ordinance. More specifically the School Construction fees. It’s no secret that we need more money for school construction. Therefore, for future developments that will be built where the schools are already overcrowded, the county would like to raise the fees. Blah, blah, blah. You can guess who is going be against this. After the first part of the workshop we really don’t have the energy to go into the weeds with this one.
The meeting is coming to a close, but Billy feels like he hasn’t had a chance to speak. So these words come out of his mouth:
“It’s okay, I always get overlooked. No one ever wants to provide me with information, I don’t know why. ”
This evening there is a county council workshop on two very important issues. First on the agenda is a discussion on Development Rights and Responsibilities. This was somewhat of a joke during the last administration. And boy are we paying the price! Secondly, there will be a discussion on school construction fees. Both of these issues have a direct and lasting impact on the quality of life in our county. Hopefully our representatives can come to a good resolution so we not only have adequate roads and facilities, but so also the citizens of this fine county aren’t on the hook for millions of dollars.
Or let Kirby write about it!We don’t like going over to the noodley appendage. Well, that’s not entirely true. It is a lot of fun to point and laugh at the hodge podge of cray cray they print over there. We still want them to tell us what happened to our friend Galahad Sweetbottom! After a few weeks avoidance, we sauntered on over to the other side and saw that our very own county executive candidate, #kirbydelauter, had penned another post! Oh man, wait until you see this.
That is an understatement, dear readers!Of course we want you to make up your minds for yourself, so click here when you need a good headache. To save you the time and pain we’ll point out the best parts.
Kirby was not a fan of Jan running around telling everyone that the Jefferson Tech Park was the worst financial deal in the history of forever. So, in his jumbled mess entitled “The Perception of Deception” (no, we didn’t make that up), he’s going to lay the situation out in “layman” terms for all us dummies:
Let’s say the new bridge built by and paid for the developer is a brand new Cadillac. The 3.8 miles of existing 40-year-old state roadways are let’s say, a 1977 AMC Gremlin. In order to get the Gremlin to run, you have to put “X” amount of dollars into it, then in order to keep it running, you need to maintain it at a cost of “X.
These roads are no different. They’re 40 years old plus or minus. So they need to be brought up to current standards which is not cheap. Also, every year now we have 3.8 miles more of roadway to maintain and remove snow, year-after-year-after-year. Whereas the new Cadillac you would spend zero dollars on repairs and maintenance is minimal year-after-year.
Great question Jackie Chan!He continues along with some more numbers, but none of this makes any damn sense no matter how many times we read it. So, to illustrate his point further, he goes off on a tangent to let us know–once again–what kind of elitist he really is:
When I was a county commissioner I voted to cease giving elected officials pensions as well as cut the taxpayer-funded expense accounts from $2,500 per commissioner to $250. Ask the county executive today how much she has awarded herself in the way of an expense account, including the taxpayer-funded vehicle used daily.
If you want to run for office you better make sure you can afford it y’all!
And, we are all so sure that whatever expense account Jan may have comes nowhere near the amount of money the citizens of this county will have to shell out over this deal!
Your Lady Yokels have had quite the week, so please accept our apologies for the lateness of this post. This is, however, a hobby. And as important as we believe it is to keep informed on what our locals are up to, sometimes life gets in the way!
Meeting starts off very nicely by recognizing the awesome science award that Oakdale Middle School teacher, April Clark, received. Many nice words about educators and the importance of what they do are said. And we are very pleased. We learned later that Kirby told her this joke as she walked along shaking everyone’s hands:
Two chemists walk into a bar. The first one says, “I’ll have H2O”. The second one says,
“I’ll have H2O too.” The second one dies. He claims she got a kick out of it, and maybe she did! But man, what a dad joke!
Any hoo! Off to the meeting. Our favorite curb guy is back for public comments. He wants salaries raised for both the county council and the county executive because we are now living in the 21st century! And we agree! Only those who make a pretty significant outside salary can afford to serve on the council. Kirby later disagrees with this request. Says he isn’t in it for the money. Which kinda misses the whole point.
We are super confused because Billy votes FOR the budget adjustment and approves the meeting minutes. Guess he no longer wants a budget analyst for the council.
The bulk of the meeting was about what initiatives the council should send to our Maryland delegation. Tony starts off by carefully wording his motion to allow homeschool students participate in extracurricular activities by stating that he was only looking for a vote to allow the motion to go to public hearing. It didn’t mean that they would actually send it off to the delegation. On that point the council agreed.
Then it’s Billy’s turn. He wants to take RV’s out of the personal property category and place them into real property category. Says he wants to do this so people can have other ways to finance an RV. M.C. says that in order for an RV to be considered a house it has to meet HUD guidelines. For example, it can’t have wheels, must be on a piece of land that the owner either owns or rents, and has to be hooked up to the electrical grid. Well, since Billy’s very lazy bill doesn’t say anything about what would constitute an RV, M.C. doesn’t believe that they can make a law that will be potentially be in violation of federal guidelines. You know Federalism. Billy’s standard line with all his suggestions tonight are, “We should move it to a public hearing to see what the public says.” Translation: “I am not going to make this bill any clearer, or do any research. Let’s see if someone else can do that for me.” Billy has another initiative, this time he wants to exempt affordable housing from the forest ordinance. Billy couldn’t answer Jessica’s question about whether this should be done at the county or state level and also avoids M.C.’s questions by saying, you guessed it: “I just want to take it to a public hearing.” (See above translation).
Jessica has an initiative about the Safe Harbor policy concerning youth victims of human trafficking. Thankfully Billy did not take this opportunity to speak up for those in favor of exploiting our fellow humans. Kirby wants to give his tax credit to first year teachers and first responders and police in their first or second year on the job. This honestly doesn’t make a whole lot of sense since this is a real estate credit and how many of these folks own homes? There is talk about how it isn’t fair to only reward one segment of society. Motion fails.
The next part of the meeting concerns the $400,000 block grant given to the county to make curbs ADA accessible. One concerned citizen, who took his complaints about the curbs all the way to the Justice Department, is here to speak. We do admire his passion and are glad things are getting fixed. Here’s some slides from the presentation in case you are interested:
Billy uses this chance to admonish the department for underestimating the amount of money it would take to fix all the curbs. So, we apologize if you were playing our Bingo game, because you would have a raging headache today for the amount of times you had to fill in the block about a county employee being put out. Billy thinks they should send someone out to re-do the estimates, which would cost even more money. As usual, he knows not of what he speaks!
Off to comments. Tony tells the story of how his employee’s daughter was at the concert in Las Vegas. We were not only saddened but very angry over what occurred Sunday evening. For how many times are we going to sit around and allow this type of thing to occur? When a mass shooting occurred in Australia in 1996, they acted immediately. And while we sympathize with Tony’s employee and every single concert goer and family member that has had to live through this nightmare, we will not tolerate the old hopes and prayers line. This is the time for action, and if you are only willing to say really sucky things like this:
Then you can kiss our Yokel butts! This IS absolutely the time to talk about gun control. We reject the notion that it is disrespectful! If anything, it’s really disrespectful to talk of anything else when fifty eight people’s lives ended too soon. While we are not hopeful that our legislators will do anything of substance, we wholeheartedly reject the notion that this is not the time to talk about gun restrictions.
Billy informs us that the county gets bad legal advice. And he sees it everyday and all of us are at risk under this administration. And we are too angry after reading Kirby’s twitter feed to comment any more on his nonsense, so:
If you win, it means we all lose!It’s that time of the month again! The county council will convene to discuss items that are important to the functional running of our local government. Today we leave you with a very special bingo game that you can use any which way you please. So grab your favorite pumpkin spiced whatever, read over your agenda, and fire up the live feed.
Billy Shreve has been using his social media vocally to criticize the NFL over the past few days. What’s that about? Most likely he’s upset that players are getting horrible degenerative brain diseases caused by repeated concussions. Or maybe this story about the Seahawks’ Michael Bennett chapped his hide and he wants to see some action. Surely it couldn’t have anything to do with peaceful protests or the national anthem. And now, this:
Surely he means to publicly criticize China for curtailing the free exercise of religion.
In case a refresher is needed, the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution reads:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Since his other half is famous from sea to shining sea for threatening to sue a reporter who used his name–the name of an elected public official–in the newspaper without his permission, we are beginning to wonder what parts of the Bill of Rights they like. Is it just the shoot ’em up part that the NRA likes to quote, but also leaves out some of the words when they do? Aren’t the conservatives the constitutional “originalists?” Which unsurprisingly seems like it’s only a concept held dearly to people who have always been considered 5/5ths of a person.
We would like to leave you with a little music to enjoy on this fine fall day. May we all remember that America means we pledge daily to the ideals of liberty and justice for all.
frederick local yokel 