Today the council council and the BOE are sitting down for a pow-wow. We don’t know who decided the day after the election was a good time to do this, but so be it! Here’s the agenda, we’ll let you know if when something happens!
You probably read this article in the FNP previously, but a recent comment caught our notice. It is a link to several email enquiries made by Cindy Rose, candidate for the Board of Education and self proclaimed education watch dog. Even after reading the article that alluded to many of the topics included in the link, it is still surprising and shocking to read these requests.
Ms. Rose wants to have her hand in every single aspect of FCPS. Every one! How does she keep track of all the witch hunts? Does she use excel? Does she have a ledger board? A notebook? Scrapbook? Spell book? A detective’s investigation board?
She has bristled at being labeled a book burner, but these emails show she has questions on several books as well as videos that FCPS uses. What seems nervy is that the books she is concerned about, she admits she has not actually read, just read the reviews. How can you complain about something for which you have only read a review? If you are going to complain, at least make sure you really, really know what you are complaining about.
She has questions specifically about Jessica Fitzwater’s employment status with FCPS.
She has lots of questions about why the school is sending out information on community events.
Why does FCPS spend money?
Read the attachments for yourself. We just keep getting angry as we read and re-read them.
In today’s Political Notes, Danielle Gaines, touches on the Kirby sign controversy. (Your Lady Yokels are mentioned!) What excuse does Kirby offer for his Mantrum Facebook post?
“I took a sign off my property that was not authorized to be there,” Delauter said.
As far as the “One shot one kill” statement, Delauter said it was intended only to tell Republicans to vote only for Rose in Tuesday’s election. (There are three open seats on the ballot.)
“It has nothing to do with harming anybody,” Delauter said. The reference refers to having one shot to place a Republican on the school board. If GOP voters also vote for a Democrat, it would “kill” their support for Rose.
First off, there’s three open seats on the board. So if every Republican voted for Cindy and one or two other Democrats it wouldn’t necessarily “kill” their support for Rose. This strategy of one vote is really myopic and prevents people from exploring candidates for the other two open seats. Essentially they are allowing everyone else to choose the two other candidates that will sit on the board by encouraging them to give up those votes. Now, as to whether or not either one of those signs was authorized to be there:
The Maryland State Highway Administration removes political and other temporary signs from state roads within a general right of way. The agency considers that area to be the space between utility poles on either side of a road, SHA spokesman David Buck said. The right of way could include private land.
“No non-approved signing is allowed in our roadways. Period,” Buck said.
SHA workers will pick up signs when they see them and take them back to local shops. The agency focuses particularly on areas where drivers should pay attention, such as ramps.
“The last thing we want people to do when they should be devoting their full attention to driving is … looking at a whole bunch of campaign signs,” Buck said.
And honestly, the point of all this wasn’t really about whether the signs should be there or not. It was about the way that Kirby handled the whole situation…on Facebook..like a petulant child.
Now that’s not the only goody in the Political Notes section this fine morning. Kirby wants to know who is behind ads in some local papers asking voters to support Yes on Questions A and B.
Well, the paper found out in two flashes of a kitten’s tail. County Executive Jan Gardner. After clearing it with the legal department and seeing that other jurisdictions have done the same, it was decided to run the ad in three local papers. What we love, love, love about this section the most is this quote:
In an interview, Laxton noted that the County Council voted 7-0 in support of the measure, and the ad was forwarded to the council’s leadership before it was approved for printing.
Which doesn’t exactly mesh with this quote from earlier in the article:
“I’m trying to figure out who authorized payment for that,” Delauter said in a phone interview.
Sigh. You voted for both of these charter amendments Kirby! And if you had bothered to ask just one person at Winchester Hall we bet you would have found the answer to your question. But that is not the # way is it?
Kirby please take a break this weekend. Back away from the computer, stay away from signs and just kick back and relax. We beg you!
We’ve been trying to get some answers to questions about what the real rules are regarding campaign signs. It is surprisingly confusing, and varies a lot. If the signs were on Kirby’s Kar Kleaners’ property, then he may have been infringed upon. And everyone knows that when someone does something such as put a temporary sign on a stick on your land, the first thing you should do is be klassy with a k, and the second thing you should do is react in anger, and the third thing you should do is make an angry post to your Facebook wall where the Local Yokel is going to get hold of it and bust a gut pointing and laughing at how the same guy did the same kind of dumb thing. Again!!! It’s true! We find this funny, this inability to learn from one’s own mistakes.
At no point should you call someone and alert them to a potential problem. Then they may apologize for how egregiously you were wronged, make amends, and educate whomever may have been misinformed about where they may or may not place those hideous signs. Then you might live happily ever after without having “yer prawperty” besmirched by the names of qualified adults. That would just be ridiculous!
Here. Have an MVP award:
This is so much more fun than his dead horse talking points, because even if he is right!!!! (wouldn’t’ THAT be a gas) he is only shooting himself in the foot. And maybe it ricochets over to Cindy Rose’s foot, too, since she has a reputation for a short fuse and birds of a feather and whatnot. Such a shame.
An alert reader provided us with the final resting place of the unfortunate sign. As you can see, it was carefully relocated by a steward of the county’s natural resources.
EDIT: Oh, oops, per real journalist Katherine Heerbrandt:
EDIT AGAIN: Kirby still says it’s his land. Like we said, this is all very unclear. But whatever. He still acted proud to be a giant man baby.
Ni hao! So a clue appeared in our inbox aujourd’hui. Let’s take a look. Vamanos. (We’re trying out all of the languages, in case we have to move after the election…j/k…ish). What were we saying, oh yes. Tomorrow, Thursday the Third of Noviembre Tony Chmelik is hosting a private meeting in Winchester Hall (no, it is not a campaign event for Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Comacho! Who do you think he is, Billy Shreve?).
It’s a roundtable to discuss concerns raised by the winery/brewery/distillery industry about overregulation. Now far be it from your Local Yokels to begrudge these savvy business people the production of intoxicants, especially at this point in 2016, but this does sound a bit goofy. Why is this just for Tony and the brewers and vintners and distillers, but the county agencies who might be able to help out are seemingly not included or invited…
These meddlesome kids are just asking questions. Anyone (else) care to speculate wildly?
In his grand tradition of posting his trangressions on social media, Kirby shared this today:
One shot one kill? What is that supposed to mean? Oh, Kirby you really should close your account. Have you learned nothing from the whole hashtag incident? Or from your friend Blaine? For your own good, shut your account down!
Is there a Yokel legal expert in the house who can explain the penalty if a current office holder were to be found stealing or destroying campaign signs?
Why didn’t the charter amendments on the ballot include one for recalls?
In order to get to the reason as to why our gaskets have been blown to high heaven and beyond, we’ll quickly breeze through the beginning of the meeting.
Agenda-passed except for Deplorable Billy.
Public comment centered on anti-fracking in Frederick and Maryland and one gentleman who is upset about ADA violations with curbs in Urbana.
Budget adjustment- 1 abstainer. Minutes are approved unanimously as is the County Executive appointment to the Fire and Rescue Board.
Roger Wilson comes to present the legislative bills and position statements. Tony doesn’t like the part about fracking because he doesn’t know how Garrett, Alleghany and Washington counties feel about it. And Good Zeus on Mt. Olympus who cares? It is an undeniably destructive practice that has no business in our State. We really don’t give a good two cents what their elected boards think about it. His motion is not seconded. So the vote to send the priorities to our State legislators is passed 4-3.
The new Nuisance Ordinance is up for a final vote. High Sheriff is in the house again. Billy doesn’t want to vote until the Sheriff’s office rewrites their procedures for using the noise meters. Jenkins says they are in the process of doing so, which is good enough for everyone else. Passes 6-1. So it appears that Billy and the Sheriff have broken up!
Now this is the part of the evening we knew was going to go badly. However, predicting that things will go south and then actually watching them go south are two very different things indeed. The proposed task force on human trafficking will study how we can coordinate agencies so we, as a county, can better help vulnerable populations and prosecute traffickers. It will study how law enforcement, FMH, FCPS and other agencies can come together to to eradicate this problem within our borders. We saw some very brave women share their very personal and heartbreaking stories. We heard from people who run committees and agencies who gave examples of human trafficking in our county. We heard from the Frederick Chief of Police and his chief criminal investigator. Both of whom are in very much in favor of this task force. It’s looking as though everyone sees the value of studying this problem and then getting a plan in place so maybe we can eradicate it from our borders and maybe as an added bonus other local jurisdictions can see what we have done and apply it within their area. Then the Sheriff comes to the podium. He begins by saying that we will want to stone him for saying this but he is oh so skeptical of this task force. Homeland Security is taking care of the problem when necessary and there’s no need for y’all locals to get involved. While he thinks it’s a “great idea” he doesn’t know what the end result will be. So let’s not do anything people!!!! Kirby and Billy then chime in that they don’t know what the goal is (even though it is specifically laid out right here) and yeah what the Sheriff said! Billy goes on to say why can’t we have a representative from the State Human Trafficking commission come to talk to us first. And Jessica very patiently informs him that the representative talked right to his very face during the workshop they had on this issue!
So Tweedledeplorable and Tweedlemoredeplorable follow Tweedlemostdeplorable’s lead and they decide not to support the formation of this task force. So they basically stuck their middle fingers up at all the women who shared their stories about being trafficked. And you know why we study these issues you most deplorable of the deplorables? So we can make things better! If Homeland Security had such a handle on things and if the Sheriff’s office knew all they needed to know then why is this still happening? STOP BEING SO AWFUL ALL THE TIME!!!!
Passes 5-2 with Tony saying he has no problem with agencies figuring out a way to coordinate with one another. Yeah, tell that to the bookends up there with ya!
Phew! Break until 7:00.
Billy comes back complaining about the break being too long. And blah, blah, boooorrring!
Second hearing on establishing a program for Clean Energy for Commercial Properties. No speakers.
Our one public commenter leads to our council member comments. There is a gentleman who has been dealing with a neighbor for a number of years. This neighbor is allegedly not keeping up with his property and therefore his neighbors are frustrated. So, he has decided to come to the council to get some relief. You would think this would be a simple case of referring him to the appropriate department or directing him to some steps he needs to take, but oh rational human being you would be so very wrong indeed!
Kirby wants details about this homeowner’s issues. Most specifcally he wants details as to how the County Executive has failed this man so he can grandstand about it. And this poor man did not know what he was walking into. Bud tries to shut it down, because first of all it isn’t a council issue and second of all it’s obvious to anyone with half a brain that this is a witch hunt! So Kirby continues along this way for a little while until the gentleman is kindly directed to the oh so calm Chief of Staff whom we are sure will lead him down the correct path.
But old # isn’t done. He is going to drone on about some numbers he’s found in the Citizens and Montevue packet. He’s cherry picking like crazy and boring the hell out of everyone and their mother. When he’s finally done, Jerry steps up and makes us feel all warm and fuzzy.
After addressing the same gentleman about dilapidated properties and how he is trying to pass a bill to deal with them, he speaks of a certain council member and his Tentacle article. Kirby quickly pipes up, “That was me!” Jerry informs us all that said article had the numbers concerning the hotel TIF off by 44%. So Jerry asks why should we believe any numbers that come out of Councilman Delauter’s mouth. Why indeed?
The worst of the worst is up next. He’s complaining about his uncle’s property. And get this people, he thinks it’s a fine idea to establish a People’s Court before the council. He thinks it’s an appropriate venue for neighbors to be able to air their grievances. Shocking that Billy never learned the difference between Executive, Legislative and Judicial powers. Didn’t he ever catch an episode of Schoolhouse Rock?
Jessica thanks those who supported the human trafficking commission. She also tells Kirby that she agrees that he is not an accountant when it comes to his recitation of the nursing home numbers. And guess what, she and some other members of the council are going to the nursing homes tomorrow to talk with Aurora and see how things are going. Imagine that. She also wants to know why the outrage over the public commenter’s petition with 39 neighbor signatures but no similar reaction when the public came to them with a petition against fracking with over 1,000? Well, durh, how could they embarrass Jan with that? And get this, that petition with the 39 signatures was submitted in the summer of 2014. You know before the creation of the county council when both Billy and Kirby were on the BOCC. Where was the outrage then?
M.C. says she is going to keep her comments brief and we swear we heard Billy utter good. She laments the fact that some members of the council don’t know the function of a legislative body and really how dumb the People’s Court suggestion is. Twice during her comments Billy interupts and twice she needs to shut him down.
Really, it seems as though Jerry, Jessica, M.C. and Bud have it with with them. We suspect Tony is pulling back as well. Maybe we should ask for a bill for the five of them to get some extra hazard pay for having to deal with these two. Tis a dangerous job indeed.
Hello faithful readers, we hope you had a very Happy Halloween. In this last week leading up to the election, we thought y’all could use some comic relief. An alert Facebook reader sent this down the ole Yokel line today:
Can you imagine if he were our County Executive! We know, Halloween is over and we shouldn’t be scaring you any longer. I think we are oh so glad and relieved that we managed to sidestep having our very own John Leopold in Frederick. We’ve also been made aware that some of the more…how shall we say…”sophisticated” among us have advocated writing Blaine’s name in for the BOE race. Because sure! What better role model for our kids and school system than that guy! How many sex scandals until you are ineligible for the school board? We forget.
Who could be better? Oh yeah! These three:
Hopefully you are all recovered from your Halloween celebrations and ready to tune into your favorite reality show. There’s a goodly amount on the agenda and we are oh so sure that Billy is going to find himself on the wrong side of some issues ce soir. It’s only one week until the General Election and the closer we get the more unhinged Shrelauter becomes. So do try to remember this game isn’t meant to be taken for reals. Even though we understand the urge to drink away the idiocracy.
As always the night begins with public comment and budget adjustments. We are too bored by Billy’s ever changing nays and abstains to even a look up a drink for this portion.
Next we have a County Executive appointment, if Kirby accuses Jan of having a private chauffeur (something he did on Facebook this week ) slam back a Ms. Daisy, since that’s who she was accused of behaving like. (And of course, it isn’t true. She just happened to be in a car as a passenger. The horror!)
Roger Wilson is in the house to present the final legislative package for the 2017 session. Flipping through the pages, we don’t see too many Shrelauter suggestions. Wonder why that is? Nevertheless, there’s lots of good stuff so take a look! When Kirby objects to something have a Mad Russian, since we hear Kirby’s a great admirer of Putin.
It’s time to vote on the Noise Ordinance. Billy wanted some “unreasonable amendments” according to the High Sheriff, so we may hear some grumblings from that corner. When he cries over not be allowing to shriek loudly through the streets sip on your Screaming Banana Banshee.
We’ve written here and there about human trafficking. Billy was against having a work shop on this issue because there are groups for human trafficking.
However, more intelligent heads prevailed, and tonight there is a public hearing on this issue. If either one of our least favorite council members say anything stupid, save up your money so you can drink some Unicorn Tears.
Council will go into closed session, to which Billy will object, and then reconvene at 7:00.
There’s a second reading on a bill to create a program for clean energy for commercial properties. If we hear any talk at all about how global warming isn’t a thing, set up some shots of Kahula Earthquakes and slam away!
We end, as always, with public and council member comments. Let’s hope for the best. Don’t forget, if you haven’t voted already, please do so on the 8th. We are sure we will be reporting on some of our elected official’s reactions on the 9th! Sure of it!
After reading the title we are sure you have at least two possibilities in mind! Billy got a lot of attention last week and apparently #kirbydelauter is jealous. So, in an effort to make sure both halves of Shrelauter get enough attention we bring you this:
Now, is he being ironic or has there been a change of heart? Because if he read the entire paragraph he would have noticed that 50 years ago (you know the good ol’ days) our local officials were in favor of funding teacher salaries and backed plans for home rule!! Two issues that Kirby has been on the other side of! So when will we fix it ole #? When you and your little comrade and others like you stop being so terrible!! That’s when!
We wish that was all we had to share, but it isn’t. In the comments our most honorable District 5 representative was NOT done:
So readers, any guesses why we don’t have a League of Male Voters? Maybe, just maybe, it has something do with the fact that every single white male has had the right to vote since 1856. That’s right people, in 1856 North Carolina was the last State to remove property qualifications as a prerequisite to vote. Therefore, since before the Civil War there have not been any barriers for a white male to vote in this country. NONE. Women and minorities, however, were imprisoned, killed, threatened and intimidated in an attempt to keep them from the ballot box well into the 20th century. In case this is new to you Councilman Delauter , you can listen to this song that will give you a nice little introduction to what women went through in order to secure our right to be a citizen of this great country.
So when we see someone joking about there needing to be a League of Male Voters it makes us a little cray cray. The League of Women Voters was established to get women the vote and then continued on as an organization to help women advocate for policy issues. They are non partisan, and if you have ever seen their members at our local council members you know how articulate these ladies are. Stating that there needs to be a League of Male Voters is akin to advocating for a White Men’s History Month. Every month, until we gals and minority groups decided not to stand for it anymore, was White Men’s History Month! And you would be hard pressed to convince anyone that white men’s contributions don’t figure largely in today’s history curriculum.
Tired of saying this…Kirby stop being awful on Facebook. And everywhere else for that matter! We sure hope he isn’t on the side of some Trump voters who want to repeal the 19th amendment.
PSA- Don’t forget early voting started yesterday. If you aren’t registered to vote you can still register during the early voting period. Make sure you get out and act like the good American citizen we know you are!
frederick local yokel 