Howdy Yokels! On this last meeting of the year things were going pretty smoothly. Agenda passed 6-1. Budget transfers 6, with one abstain. Approval to change the name from MedImmune to AstraZeneca, that’s right just a name change, was voted for by all except Billy. We don’t even know how to comment on an action so dumb. There was also a nice presentation on the audit that showed us that our government is doing a great job! You can read more about it here.
Then we get to council member comments. And guess who is going to muck it all up?
Sigh.
What’s got Kirby all hot and bothered? An LTE that ran in the paper this morning that’s what!!!! First of all, FOR SHAME, Frederick News Post for running such a biased Letter to the Editor! This, according to Billy, is why the public no longer has faith in the liberal media. We’ve tried before to explain to Shrelauter what the opinion section of the paper is for and how it’s different from other reporting. However, our patience is about all tapped out, so we’ll just leave it here and hope “someone” learns “something”:
Kirby thinks that it is very “unfortunate” that the letter writer decided to resort to name calling when it is simply a difference of opinion. Kirby then goes on for 10 minutes about this LTE and how very wrong it is. Even though no deer are mentioned in said letter, Kirby tells us they are doing fine because he sees dead ones scattered along Route 15. And there’s no science people, none! And don’t you know that the farmers are all so scared to speak out about this because they fear the wrath of the one called Jan! It’s true! Stop smirking!! And we can’t help but to see the thin skin similiarities between him and the President Elect. All that’s left for Kirby to do is to open @RealKirbyDelauter on Twitter to treat us to his daily outbursts.
The “unfortunate” comment about name calling was something Ye Olde Lady Yokels could not get beyond. You see, dear readers, we three have been paying attention to what goes around these here parts for quite sometime. Our memories are long and detailed. When Kirby said this we couldn’t help but remember all the times he has resorted to name calling. But, most specifically, how he did it in the very LTE section of the paper that he now laments!
Hypocrisy on parade that’s what!
Way back in 2014, Kirby had this to say about a middle school teacher who testified before the last BOCC:
“One speaker — Thurmont Middle School language arts teacher Adam Umak — earned my attention with his arrogance, self-serving and inaccurate “testimony,” and borderline circus act. He ended his theatrics by motioning to the BoCC with his hands and announcing “come on,” as if he was asking for a confrontation.”
And he had some nice adjectives to describe former FCTA President Gary Brennan:
“The FCTA (union) is led by the professional whiner and tax revenue gobbler Gary Brennan, who will stop at nothing to bankrupt the taxpaying citizens of Frederick County, even if that means riling up teachers to put on a show or dragging an 8-year-old child to the podium to recite the teachers-need-more-money mantra. It is disgusting for the FCTA to use children like that, but it’s become an annual tradition.”
There’s much more to be seen so please read it here. How “unfortunate” it is indeed when one cannot make their point without name calling.
Billy has some dead horse beating to do about Aurora and sorry we don’t have the energy to transcribe it.
All the other council members had nice comments wishing us all good tidings for the the New Year! We enjoyed hearing about all the meetings that Jessica, Bud and MC attended. It’s so nice how they are engaged in what’s happening around our fair county. So to those who ended tonight on a positive note: Happy Holidays and a Wonderful New Year!
Howdy Yokels! Can you believe another year has gone by!? We are going to end this year with a drinking buzzword bingo! Line up the drink of your choice. Every time you check off a box take a sip. When you get Bingo finish your drink! Grab your agenda here and be responsible! We need all of our Yokels around in 2017!
In yet another example of being out of synch with the rest of the county, and out of touch in general, Cindy Rose has filed an ethics complaint against Terry Alban FCPS Superintendent.
The FNP article covering this complaint can be read here.
Our superintendent was recently named Superintendent of the Year for the state of Maryland, so we don’t think we are the only ones who think she is doing more than an adequate job.
We can’t help but feel the only one politicizing the award her son received at school is Rose herself.
She wasn’t able to win a seat on the Board of Education so she is continuing her vendetta against the Superintendent by filing this bogus sounding complaint.
Stop pushing your personal agenda on the rest of the county. You have other options such as private or home school if you really are unhappy. Stop wasting all of our tax dollars with your thousands of PIA’s and complaints!!!
If you are new here you catch up on previous Cindy drama here, here, here, here, and oh, there are more but we are tired of linking.
This morning’s Political News is chock full of good info. First of all, over the weekend, your Lady Yokels were alerted to the fact that Delegate Kathy Afzali shut the doors during the beginning part of the Delegation’s public hearing. When County Executive Gardner arrived at Winchester Hall and saw about 50 people outside the closed doors, she let them in. By that time, it appears, the part of the meeting Delegate Afzali didn’t want out in the open was over. What was the secret part of the meeting about you ask? It was to select a Chairperson and Vice Chairperson for the Frederick County Delegation. Typically, this is a Republican and a Democrat and one delegate and one senator. This time, however, two Republican delegates were chosen. The paper quoted Delegate Karen Lewis Young’s reaction:
“I think the public should have seen what transpired before that meeting. Because that election was determined in advance,” Lewis Young said. “And there were several arguments that the minority brought forward that should have been public.”
Those arguments included an appeal that the delegation’s leadership has a tradition of being bipartisan (one Democrat, one Republican) and bicameral (one senator, one delegate), neither of which will continue for the 2017 session.
Delegate Afzali says that if she gave the security guard the impression that the public was to be locked out it was just a “misunderstanding.”
Secondly, the Political Notes alerts us to what we knew all along. Billy’s sexual harassment claim was found to be “without merit.” Just like him!!!
This People’s Court is NOT impressed Billy!
Seriously Billy, you need to turn over a new leaf in 2017. Find something constructive to do on the council. Stop being rude,stop grandstanding, start reading and do the job you were elected to do! Now that you won’t be distracted by the election or the central committee you have lots of time to improve yourself! The citizens of Frederick County deserve better.
Hard to believe 2016 is almost gone! John Oliver has perfectly articulated how we feel about this year. If you haven’t seen his piece about what an abysmal yearthis has been, (NSFW!) you really should. Now here’s our top 10 most read posts of 2016:
You idiots. Really. So stupid.
10. Remember when Billy so proudly bought the “Deplorable And Proud of It!” sign? If not, read all about it here. It’s nice when people see themselves for what they really are.
5. A Yokel top ten list would not be complete without an outburst from our very own #! Last year he with held money from the Catoctin Football team because reasons. This year he took his anger out on poorinnocent signs.
Our number one post became so popular because it was attached to the comment section of a George Takei post. It is certainly timely in our current national political climate. Planned Parenthood–from a local’s perspective.
What does 2017 have in store for us? At least one more full year of Shrelauter’s antics, that’s what!
We previously postedwho will be the president and vice president of the county council for the next two years. In case you missed it, Bud will remain president and M.C. will keep her position as vice president. Now, we will we recount the severe pain that it took to get us to this result.
When nominations were first called we had this slate:
M.C. nominates Bud
Tony nominates M.C.
Kirby nominates Billy
If only these three names could have just gone to a vote. Maybe then a little piece of our faith in humankind would still be intact. But the world is a topsy turvy place and things are often out of control. So in that spirit; Enter Tony stage right!
Tony wants M.C. to explain her nomination of Bud. She replies that while she appreciates Tony’s nomination, issues in her personal life would keep her from performing the job in the manner she believes it should be performed. Tony, oh so sensitively, lets her know that since she was elected she should be able to give the time. He presses her to justify her nomination which results in her stating that Bud has the patience, tenacity and skills necessary for this job. Well, this was all a big set up for some “prepared” remarks that Tony has about Bud.
We wish we had some warning beforehand!
Tony recites a list of all his grievances with the way the council works and Bud himself. He accuses the others on the council of having back door meetings with the County Executive. But what’s the prob guys, Tony also said he doesn’t mean any disrespect. He’ll just accuse away and then say please don’t take that the wrong way. So it’s all good right?
Jessica alerts us to the fact that all these “back door ” meetings have the Chief of Staff present whom kindly takes notes that everyone can read. Then Shreve chimes in. Whines about Bud telling him to get on his knees. States that if this kind of language is appropriate for our children to see then he is going to start (!) using it on the dais. And we would be remiss if we didn’t point out that Billy was Trump’s #1 fan! So it’s clear that saying terrible things does not bother Billy one little bit. We are then informed that because of everything Bud has done Trump won! There is an absolute direct correlation between these two things! Billy’s just spewing them facts!
Kirby also wants us to know that no one in the leadership called or emailed him except when they threatened his business. Wonder why that could be? Tis truly baffling. Also, shouts out one of his many trademark phrases: “We are just a rubber stamp to the County Executive!”
M.C. addresses this rubber stamp claim quite succinctly. She explains to Kirby that the council pushes back on the County Executive plenty. When meetings take place concerning bills to be introduced they compromise and collaborate. Therefore, by the time the bill reaches the council many of the issues have already been hashed out. But what’s that worth if you don’t get to do it publicly? How’s an idiot to grandstand ?
Anyhoo, votes are cast and Bud is the winner. Bud then nominates M.C. for VP and Kirby nominates Tony and thankfully M.C. emerges the winner with no more drama. We must apologize for our drinking game this evening. For if you followed it you probably were not conscious for the remainder of the meeting.
Next up is council member comments. But before we get there, we feel the need to share what the editorial page of the newspaper is for. It is not reporting in the sense that one needs to be objective. It is the OPINION page of the newspaper. The place where readers and the editorial board can post their OPINIONS. In case that isn’t clear here’s an article from How Stuff Works that may explain it better than we can. The reason we need to clear that up is that three of our council members are truly confused about the function of the Editorial Page.
Tony is flabbergasted that the FNP would lump him in with Shrelauter. He takes special exception over an online comment posted by a READER of the paper:
“Chmelik is just as bad as Shreve and Delauter. He is with them plotting and planning in secret with Blaine Young behind the scenes on how best to obstruct any progress at all.”
Now Tony wants to the FNP to investigate before they print stuff like this! Hear that FNP ?You have now been tasked with the responsibility to investigate all online comments. Good luck! Tony also wants to know how the FNP would know that he meets in secret with the fellas. This is then followed by some nervous laughter because he probably just realized he invited a Gary Hartlike challenge to the press.
Kirby starts normal style. Talks about a road meeting he attended, offers condolences to the loved ones of someone he knew, but it’s not to last. There’s some talk in the county about taking some easements around the Monocacy River in order to clean the river up. You know the dreaded water buffers. About 300 homeowners will be affected in Frederick and Carroll counties. Now mind you, this is only a recommendation. No legislation has been proposed, no hearings held, just a group of people thinking of solutions to the river’s pollution. Well, its enough for Kirby to shout out:
“Environmentalism is the new Socialism”
Tell him Harry!
Then to prove that Bud’s comment about constituency services is all wrong,Kirby is going to read on and on and on and on and on and on from a list that the council uses to record when a citizen calls in, what the problem is and how that problem was addressed. Curiously, he focuses on Jerry’s calls with one of Bud’s thrown in. He wants to know why Jerry has special privileges (more on that soon) that he doesn’t seem to have. Assures us that he’s going to try his best for the next two years to tell us all what is correct!
Jerry let’s us know the source of his magical powers that allow him to get information from county staff. He simply uses the words please and thank you.
That’s P-L-E-A-S-E and T-H-A-N-K_Y-O-U Kirby!
It really is astounding how much you can get done when you are nice to people.
Billy is threatening to actually write legislation to establish a People’s Court. But does remind us that it will take quite some time before such magical legislation appears. He also goes off on the Editorial Board of the FNP. Shreve claims that he had a meeting with the new Editorial Editor (because you know what a big meanie Cliff Cumber was to him) and he was assured that he would be treated fairly. (Man, to be a fly on the wall during that meeting!) And now the new meanie Editor is still saying horrible things too! Why does the conspiracy to point out all the stupid things that Billy does continue?
Jessica talks about hosting some Boy Scouts at Winchester Hall (and we saw some pics, curiously enough no political signs were involved). She also brings up the list Kirby was reading off of. You know the one that PROVED that Jerry got all this special treatment. Well lo and behold guess who else’s name is on said list? That’s right, Old Hashtag himself! With his very own problems and resolutions. Good gravy this guy!
M.C. reminds “someone” that you get more flies with honey than vinegar. And also , that sometimes it’s better to bite your tongue and not say anything. Wink, nudge Billy.
Bud clears up his comment about the council not being a constituency service. He explains that when he worked in Congress they had all of the government organizations open to them in order to help people resolve issues. However, the way the charter is written, all citizen concerns need to go through the County Executive’s office. The council can of course hear the complaints, but aside of writing legislation to fix grievances, it is the charter mandated responsibility of the County Executive to handle constituent problems.
Now back to the rubber stamp comment that Kirby made earlier. Bud has some numbers about all that. In 2015, 11 bills were passed 9 of which passed with a super majority. Only 2 were passed with the 4-3 breakdown. So far this year, 14 bills were passed with 11 passing with a super majority and only 3 with the 4-3 breakdown that Kirby so laments. But don’t let numbers get in the way of your complaining.
Next meeting is Tuesday, December 13th. Same bat time, same bat channel.
If you had a chance to see last Sunday’s paper, you would have noticed a front page story and an editorial about the dysfunction Kirby and Billy cause on our beloved county council. The big story this evening is the election of a county council president and vice president. No one seems to know which way the wind is blowing on this one, so your Lady Yokels are very, very nervous. Not because Kirby and/or Billy could obtain either one of those positions, but because of the potential for some flinging o’ the insults. Grab your agenda and let’s start from the beginning.
If there is any drama during the public comments, budget transfers, approval of minutes or confirmation of the County Executive appointment, take really big gulps of your Failure cocktail.
Now for the drama of the evening. Straight from the Charter here are the steps necessary to vote for the president and vice president:
We are nervous too Pancakes!
Do you see why your Lady Yokels are nervous?! There is no way in Hades’ cold underworld that this is going to go well. Every single time one of the three potential trouble makers (that’s right we said three!) cause some drama guzzle down your Jack Frost. Things are about to get super icy in Winchester Hall!
Believe it or not they are going to try and do some more work after this! There’s the first reading of a bill to give small businesses a real property tax credit. Now, Billy and Kirby commonly lament the plight of the small business owner. But alas, a Democrat has introduced it so there’s no way they can support it now! If any objections are made, and none should be made during a first reading, slam back a Fall of Rome.
Motion to go into closed session will be voted against by the resident fool. And onto public comment we go.
If you are still looking for that perfect gift for your Local Yokel reader, visit our store on Zazzle!
Cindy Rose was recently defeated in the most significant loss in our BoE history, but like Jason Voorhees, she is back. Today the FNP published her LTE rehashing some issues seen in that Google Drive thingamabob with her communications to FCPS in it. As Constitution Day’s biggest fan, she is upset over the change to Citizenship Day. In her LTE she appears to be perplexed over why FCPS won’t spend all day every day discussing the Constitution. (Because they are not the ACLU? Because you have to learn to read *and* comprehend before you read the Constitution? It could be anything, really…).
Woven in is some irrelevant claim about Common Core being about feelings (whut? thank goodness she did not win! You deserve a gold star, Frederick County!). As long as you get your talking points in, that’s what matters.
This same person who says that learning about our Constitution helps you understand that opinions of others are going to make you uncomfortable also has written to the school to tell them that she didn’t like books she hadn’t read, and expected them to stop teaching them. Hellooooooooo. Is anyone home? First Amendment. You’re doing it wrong. Reading comprehension, as well. What were we saying before about starting with the skills before leaping ahead to the content?
Have a participation trophy.
She makes a seemingly irrelevant dig at people unable to accept the results of an election. Honestly, anyone who isn’t concerned has obviously had their history, economics, government, and/or spiritual eduction fail them at some point. So, cough cough, if the shoe fits… The best part, though, is how this line of upset creates a beautiful backdrop for another bit of fun from the Frederick News Post today about Our Very Own Shrelauter being unable to cope with the results of a local election that occurred two stinking years ago! Fun times, Frednecks!
She goes on to criticize Dr. Alban for a statement about our rights as citizens being guaranteed by the Constitution, saying Dr. Alban doesn’t know where our rights come from. Odd for someone so obsessed with the document to be so confused by it.
Yesterday the Frederick Extra brought you a rumor that Frederick County’s very own failed candidate for County Executive believes it’s a fine and dandy idea to seek the office of Frederick City mayor. We jumped on the baa haa haa bandwagon with our post pointing out that Blaine will not have the crutch of the Electoral College to sail him into office. With more collaboration of this ridiculous rumor making its way into our inbox this morning, we want to do an analysis of this whole situation. Because really…WTF?
Two thirds of your Lady Yokels live within the great City of Frederick’s borders. So we are very much invested and interested in next year’s race. Republican or Democrat we want an intelligent, thoughtful, well qualified person who would steer our city in the right direction. We don’t want a law breaking, kid-cussing, First Lady ogling, person in that office! I mean really people, what else does he have to do?!
Also, why the city? It’s so perplexing to us why he thinks that’s going to work out for him. District 5? Maybe. But the City of Frederick? This is where we think Blaine could benefit from learning and applying the Scientific Method.
Wash, rinse, repeat!
In case you are thinking: Hey politics doesn’t have anything to do with science. Take a moment and read thisarticle and this one. We Lady Yokels have, in our elitist coffee chats, discussed the many benefits of applying the Scientific Method when making life decisions. Now let us break down the process that Blaine should use before deciding to run for mayor:(Pretend this is Blaine talking to himself.)
Identify the Problem: I really want to get back into politics. Is the City of Frederick a race I can win?
Hypothesis: I think I should run for the office of Mayor of Frederick.
Test the hypothesis: Well, since I cannot force the Board of Elections to make the election today, what other information can I use? I can analyze the political demographics of the city, look at this year’s Presidential election results and my performance in the 2014 election.
Analyze the data: Well let’s see here. In the City of Frederick, as of 2013, there are10,352 Republicans Vs. 16,884 Democrats . There’s little chance of many of those Democrats crossing the line to vote for me and a HUGE chance, given my past behavior, that many of those Republicans will vote for someone else. In the last Presidential Election, Donald Trump lost the city by almost4, 000 votes(He only won the county by 3,000). And the last time I ran, in a county wide election with more Republicans than Democrats, I lost by a whooping 6, 313 votes!
Conclusion: Well, crap.
Durh!
Spare us all please!! We don’t want to have to pull these out of our garage, but we will:
frederick local yokel 