frederick local yokel

What a week it’s been!!!

April 22, 2016April 22, 2016 fclocalyokel1 Comment

So much has happened this past week in Ye Olde Fredericktowne that your friendly Yokels have decided to do a weekly roundup. Let’s start with the County Council and happy budget fun time.

We’ve written two posts this week about budget talk. Read it here and here. However, we were very interested to find this in the Political Notes section of the paper this morning:

County Executive Jan Gardner’s budget announcement last Friday included a new little nugget. Well, five of them.

Gardner said she extended an invitation to all seven Frederick County Council members to talk about the budget, including a list of their priorities. Five members took her up on the offer: Democrats Jerry Donald, M.C. Keegan-Ayer and Jessica Fitzwater and Republicans Bud Otis and Tony Chmelik.

Gardner said she couldn’t meet all of their requests, but each was considered in her proposal.

Councilmen Billy Shreve and Kirby Delauter, also Republicans, didn’t take Gardner up on the offer, apparently.

It seems they have other plans.

Shreve, who is still upset the council doesn’t have a dedicated budget officer, gave handouts to his colleagues, showing that they are the only council in the state without such help. Nevertheless, Shreve said he was going to dig into the numbers.

“I’m going to work on this budget. Look at it. See if we can make some changes,” he said Tuesday. One major change he pitched included scrapping a plan to keep the county’s property tax rate steady — which will yield increased revenue — and instead lower the rate and cut spending.

“The easiest solution … is if you have the same amount of revenue as you did last year, you adopt the same budget you did last year,” Shreve said.

Kirby and Billy are fine sitting on the couch thank you very much!

So not only are they refusing the County Executive’s invitation to come discuss the budget, which really is a dereliction of their duty, but Billy is all fine and dandy with keeping everything the same. Why should we strive to improve? A real brain stumper!

Next on our wrap up is Sheriff Jenkins. As we are sure you all know our Sheriff testified in front of Congress this week about illegal immigration. Last night, Sean Hannity had the Sheriff and two other guests on for four minutes of the most exquisite fear mongering we have ever seen.

Look, we here at the Yokel do not want anyone, be it citizens, immigrants, or illegal immigrants, committing crimes. And if someone had hurt our kids, we cannot say that we wouldn’t feel the same way that poor woman who testified with the Sheriff does. However, this kind of sensational talk does nothing to bring about meaningful immigration change. What it does do is incite fear and discrimination against the Latino community. Not one of us wants criminals running around our community. Building a wall is not a realistic solution towards that goal. Also, it is a known truth that huge numbers of “illegals” arrive by plane and overstay an expired, once-valid visa, so wasteful government spending on a stupid wall is stupid and wasteful. But now we totally get why Fox News watchers are so angry and paranoid all the time. Jeeze O’Flip that channel! And we also didn’t realize how scary a place Frederick is to live, the internets must be wrong about us.

Who exactly is the beast in this scenario Gaston? — Who exactly is the beast in this scenario, Gaston?

Last on our roundup: You may have heard that a certain Presidential Contender was in town yesterday. Another nugget from the Political Notes section was this:

Apparently, that relationship stuck. Ahead of Cruz’s rally on Thursday, Hough picked Afzali to pick up the candidate from the airport. And if Cruz’s camp was impressed with Folden’s driving skills, they may have had a different review of the Afzali Cab Service. “My husband went slow, because I needed to talk to Ted,” Afzali said. “We had a lot to talk about.”

If Cruz wasn't so terrible we might have felt sorry for him. But since he is, we laughed and laughed. — If Cruz wasn’t so terrible we might have felt sorry for him. But since he is, we laughed and laughed.

If you missed our tweets about his speech head on over to @fclocalyokel and take a looky look. The most disturbing story to come out of that mess was the transgender student who was thrown out of rally. You can read the story here. But James, we would be remiss if we did not officially give you a Yokel tip of the hat:

Thank you for having the courage to stand up for what you believe in. Always be proud of who you are!

We really don’t get all this fervor over public bathrooms. Whether you like it or not transgender people have been using public bathrooms for years. And has society crumbled as a result? No! Because nothing bad has happened! You really should be more afraid of former Republican Speakers of the House and U.S. Senators. But if you can’t get past it, Kirby has a solution:

The budget stuff

April 20, 2016April 20, 2016 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

The second night of public hearings regarding the FY 2017 budget brought a lot of Frederick County citizens to speak on behalf of the intense need for a new library in Walkersville, which is a sentiment we are happy to agree with and wholeheartedly support.

A lovely lady came and spoke passionately about the need to take care of citizens living in poverty, and particularly the large number of students in FCPS experiencing homelessness. Bravo for being a voice for the most vulnerable in our community.

I bet you can guess who has some ideas about libraries. We’ve all been treated to his thinking on how they’re useless nowadays and whatnot. And he brought handouts, having a fondness such as he does for the visual aides. Got in a dig about the deemed unnecessary budget analyst, because what Chairman of the Republican Central Committee doesn’t love wasteful government spending? And don’t you just love it when he gets creative? I doubt he’s been in a library recently–certainly it took him years to realize when that bookstore went out of business. He’s floated the idea that they could repurpose the old Red Cross building. We’ll see if that proves to be useful thinking outside the box, but we won’t hold our breath.

Kirby had some bizarro land stuff to say about the fact that some things they need to spend money on come from lack of effort or understanding from previous boards. Things that make you go hmmmm. Yes, it is our understanding that the last BOCC bent the learning curve the wrong direction. And when you send everyone $100 and also fire a bunch of people, it screws everything up (speaking of things not turning on a dime, as he mused…turned on a Benjamin). Then the grown people who understand cause and effect have to come in and clean up your mess (thank you for your custodial service, Bud Otis). Kirby also outrageously touts some Mickey Mouse budget he proposed last year. It literally made no damn sense. Oh, also he thanked Sheriff ~~Arpaio~~ Jenkins for going down to D.C. and working on our immigrant issues. Because…well, who knows. Makes no sense.

Jerry Donald talked about how services and effective programs make us all wealthier because of property values, which sounded very mature and adult and realistic. Of course, this creates the enormous taxation problem that Tony Chmelik and Kirby both seem a tad obsessed with (Chmelik passed on his comment time, probably to avoid being lumped in with the goofballs, but if the shoe fits…) when your property value goes up, a static tax rate represents a tax increase. Jerry Donald highlighted that there are programs to mitigate the effects this has on people living on a fixed income. For our part we would just love to see the county maintaining a static amount of taxes collected in order to take care of all these budget needs. In this hypothetical situation lets please imagine if we capped the amount collected so that it had to use the assessed value of those properties at the time Frederick County was founded, in 1748. What sort of road would we have in 2016? Would it even be enough to maintain a horse and buggy on Old National Pike? Such visionaries, the fun trio.

Jessica Fitzwater talked of meeting and seeing what happens in the various county departments. So freaking productive and sensible!

And M.C. Keegan-Ayer took her time to highlight the number of outstanding high schools in Frederick County.

We love budget season in Frederick County! Let the tantrums commence!

Embarrassment of riches: BOE edition

April 20, 2016 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

We’ve had a lot of embarrassment of riches. The wrong kind. Typical shenanigans we get to mock, but this time…This time we are so fortunate.

The BOE race in Frederick County really only has one thorn. The rest of the candidates leave us feeling grateful for their talent, their engagement, and their commitment. They all bring a unique perspective to the table.

In no particular order:

Joy Schaefer and Zakir Bengali are respected incumbents on the board. They bring wisdom and experience to the table, they work well with others and have proven themselves good advocates for the needs of our students. They have performed their duties capably. Mrs. Schaefer speaks to an appreciation for different types of successful student outcomes, whether to learn a trade or continue on an academic path after graduation. Mr. Bengali, a retired scientist who advocates for celebrating the inherent strengths of an increasingly diverse community. Mr. Bengali has been unfortunately less visible in the campaign due to lack of presence on social media and a scheduling conflict with the FNP forum.

Ken Kerr introduced himself at the FNP forum as a teacher, administrator and businessman with the temperament to be a cooperative member of a team. The importance of these qualities really cannot be overstated. He has a doctorate in education and works at FCC, which gives him a great perspective on our community’s education needs.

Shirley McDonald moved from serving on the PTA in 1984 to president of the PTA, to a 21 year teaching career and has stayed active in education as a volunteer in the Citizens Advisory Panel. She wants to continue her advocacy for public education, and campaigning for BOE is a natural step in that direction. This evening at the budget hearing she stressed the need for Frederick County salaries to be competitive in order to attract and retain talented professionals.

Lois Jarman has already been on our radar for bravely coming forward to contest a situation where the Republican Central Committee intended to only allow the ideas of a single candidate for BOE, and we would be remiss if we didn’t again acknowledge the help of the Republican Women’s Club to do something to encourage a marketplace of ideas. One must presume as a Navy wife that she’s had good relationships with many a Republican woman over the years. She has run the gamut of roles at FCPS, from parent volunteer, substitute teacher, and 17 years in her own classroom. She emphasized that she would like to give back to the community that has done so much for her. Love this positivity.

Mike Bunitsky started his career in 1975 in PG County. He was most recently the Secondary Social Studies Curriculum Specialist for FCPS. He’s also held a range of roles. He says the two most pressing issues for FCPS are adequate funding and closing the achievement gap, and he thinks we need a lower student teacher ratio.

Jay Mason was raised in Lewistown, has a master’s degree in elementary ed, and has worked as president of Eliminating the Achievement Gap. At the FNP forum Mr. Mason expressed a desire to bring this into focus and to be a voice for the minority community on the Board of Education.

After poking around at these, we feel even more staunchly that we have a number of well respected, well qualified, and well meaning people running for the BOE. And that leaves only one we cannot advise voting for–silence speaks volumes here. You cannot go wrong with any of these other folks. This will be a tough decision. How lucky are we that the hard choice is how to narrow down a brilliant field of candidates? Thank you all for your candidacies.

How your options appear to compare 2 candidates on vote411.org.

Get your soup and grab your dildos! Ted Cruz is a comin’ to town!!!

April 20, 2016April 20, 2016 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

If you’ve got a hankering for some Campbell’s Chunky Soup you best haul your butt down to the store before Rafael gets here! We’ve heard he likes to buy it in bulk. (Seriously, what is wrong with him?)

Anyhoo, rumor has it that he’s going to make an appearance (taint) the Weinberg at 10 tomorrow. We want to encourage our fellow Yokels to show up at the Weinberg tomorrow with either a dildo, because Ted really hates them, or a can of soup if ya think the guy is hungry.

Here’s a hint as to which one we here at the Yokel have decided to bring:

Let’s give this charlatan a good old fashion Frederick welcome!

Billy says his world is great, and has Kirby been audited? Your April 19th roundup-Part 1!

April 19, 2016 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

Thank Zeus on his high mountain that tonight’s meeting has been divided into two parts! We need the break! Now on to our fine reporting.

Billy’s no where to be found, ran in late. So Kirby had the sole job of objecting to budget transfers. His issue? We have no proof that the bay can be saved by trees and stuff. We’ve heard this before. Science isn’t his thing. Passes and we moved on.

Installment Purchase Program Easements get no objections. Even talk to what a fine program it is. Protecting our agricultural land!

It seems like the budget season gets the tempers a flarin’! We are going to go back to our budget posts of a year ago to see how much of the rhetoric is the same. We predict A LOT. Tony, Billy and Kirby want the constant yield to be called a tax raise, all M.C. wants to do is take a vote to have a hearing on this issue so the public can discuss. How dare she interrupt their grandstanding? Billy informs us that we should all come into his world, it’s nice there he says.

Tony wants an answer as to whether or not the hearing equates to increasing the constant yield. Exasperated lawyer says this question should have been asked before the meeting so they could research the answer. Jerry then points out two of the members were on the BOCC, so shouldn’t they know the answer to that? What’s that Kirby and Billy?:

The hearing will be on May 3 for those of you who are interested.

Now, fellow Yokels, in all seriousness we are concerned about Kirby. Has he been audited? Because we remember commending him for voting against the Trout Run historical designation way back when. But tonight he’s singing a different tune. When the resolution, which is essentially the answer to Social Betterment’s lawsuit, was presented he voted no. No explanation just no. Billy wanted to know if he really had to vote for it at all since he was the lone wolf on the original vote, to which he was informed he in fact did.

We do really hope this hasn’t happened to Kirby:

We end with a nice presentation on a Maryland Development Block Grant. Meeting reconvenes at 7:00 for a public hearing on the budget.

New fun time: Council meeting bingo

April 19, 2016 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

We thought we’d mix it up a little this week. Here’s your agenda. In case you do feel compelled to drink at any point, we’ll recommend you toss back an Alien Secretion and encourage Xenu to scamper on outta here.

Screen Shot 2016-04-18 at 10.41.11 PM — Click on image to open in a separate tab for printing!

Let’s fight for the money! Our schools are worth it honey!

April 18, 2016April 18, 2016 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

Kudos again to County Executive Gardner for adding $10.5 million above the maintenance of effort (MOE) for our schools. Tonight there’s a hearing about the budget:

Our kids certainly can’t wait. The old BOCC’s policy of funding the public schools at MOE funding has made Frederick County dead last in the State for spending per pupil. That’s right people, dead last.

Read the whole article here: http://www.npr.org/2016/04/18/474256366/why-americas-schools-have-a-money-problem?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20160418

And we came across this disturbing article yesterday outlining how there has been a coordinated effort to decimate public schools. If you value education in our community you have some options to have your voice heard:

Show up and testify at tonight’s hearing.
Email your county council members at: councilmembers@frederickcountymd.gov and tell them that you support the County Executive’s budget.
Vote for three of these articulate, caring and educated candidates for our Board of Education:

Let’s make sure that education is a priority here in Frederick County!

Let’s end this week on a high note!!!

April 15, 2016April 15, 2016 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

With all our talk of untucked craziness and hissy fits this week, it’s been really easy to lose sight of the good happening in our county government. Today, County Executive Jan Gardner held a press conference to highlight her budget for the Fiscal Year 2017. Now this isn’t a done deal, there’ s still a bunch of hearings and county council meetings to be held, but oh how wonderful it is to have an executive who knows how important it is to invest in our community services. Here’s some of our faves:

The budget provides $10.5 million in funding to the Frederick County Public Schools above the minimum required Maintenance of Effort (MOE) level and an additional $500,000 in one-time funding for school technology.

Frederick Community College (FCC) plays an important role in lifelong learning and training adults of all ages for the workplace. The budget reflects an investment of $700,000 to help keep community college affordable and accessible. This investment will provide salary improvements for staff and make improvements to campus security.

The budget proposes adding three librarians to restore operating hours at our regional libraries – C. Burr Artz, Urbana and Thurmont. This will allow expanded hours until 9 p.m. during the week at these locations, facilitate greater use of the community rooms, and accommodate the needs of our library patrons.  The long-awaited Walkersville Branch Library will move forward with construction. A significant portion of this project is funded by library impact fees and state funding.

The budget meets increasing demand for early childhood intervention services providing for two Occupational Therapists, a Speech Language Pathologist and funding for substitute therapists.

CREST is Frederick County’s first higher education center. It is uniquely designed to provide higher education in science and technology fields specifically to provide advanced degrees to meet workforce needs for local biotech and life science companies. The budget proposes $40,000 in annual funding to match city and state funds.

This budget provides for a new pay scale for both deputies and corrections staff. It is critically important that we pay competitive wages to value our existing employees and attract the best and brightest to work in our community. In addition, the budget provides for two new deputies for courthouse security, one new deputy for narcotics, and a fiscal services director. Division of Fire and Rescue Service.

The top priority in Fire and Rescue is to improve staffing levels to staff equipment and meet growing call volume. To achieve this goal, the budget adds 12 new firefighter positions. The budget also funds a firefighter/EMT recruit class, supports the fireparamedic conversion approved in the current fiscal year, and provides equipment and training support.

9-1-1 communications is a busy place and our call takers are on the front line of almost every emergency. On average, a call taker handles 50 calls per hour. The budget provides for four new call takers to meet growing call volume. These positions are part of a three year plan to increase current capabilities and to staff closer to industry standards.

Fulfilling a campaign promise to restore the county’s longstanding productive partnership with our non-profit human service agencies, the budget provides a modest increase of $250,000 to Community Partnership Grants. Grants awarded this year went to over 20 human service non-profit agencies in the county to provide for basic human needs, such as food, housing, medical care, car repair so people can get to work, and other basic needs.

The capital improvement program for FY 17 includes funding for the first phase of construction of the Othello Park near Rosemont and Brunswick, which will add needed sports fields and recreational opportunities in this area of the county. The capital budget also provides for planned upgrades to the Kemptown Park near Mount Airy/Monrovia. The Point of Rocks Commons Park also will move forward in the upcoming year.

In the face of a dramatic rise in overdoses and fatalities stemming from heroin and opiod abuse, the State of Maryland has decided to transition Health Departments away from providing direct substance abuse treatment to an oversight role. Treatment programs will shift to private sector providers. The Frederick County Health Department has been approved to continue the substance abuse program in the detention center as well as the methadone treatment program. Because the state will no longer directly support these programs, the budget provides gap funding to continue these critical substance abuse treatment and prevention programs.

There’s much more so read the entire proposal here.

The future is looking great for our county!

Scientology is not going to bully our county council!!!

April 14, 2016 fclocalyokel1 Comment

At the April 19th meeting the county council is going to present their findings in response to yet another lawsuit brought forth by Social Betterment Properties (AKA Scientology, Narconon, Xenu’s leftovers). Read the whole resolution here if you please, or just read through our highlights:

First off, many structures on the property are not that old. (That’s right young’un’s the 1960’s was not that long ago.)

Anecdotal information does not meet the standard of proving whether or not something is historic. You will have to do better than that!

The structures on this property are neither unique nor rare.

The criteria was not met and this decision was NOT based on religious discrimination of any individual, group or person. (Tangent-What’s the difference between an individual and a person?)

Billy is still the only hold out. But to the rest of our council members: We here at the Yokel salute you! Thank you for sticking to your guns and not allowing litigation to bully you into changing your minds.

Workshops shouldn’t be this painful-April 12 County Council edition

April 13, 2016 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

As we let you know yesterday there was a county council workshop to discuss two land use issues. We can say this: Billy and Kirby do not like it when old BOCC business is criticized. Even when given something like a million explanations as to why something should go they steadfastly refuse to do so. Have to admire their tenacity. Or not.

First off, kudos once again to our county workers. It must be the bane of their existence to have to come before the council and try to explain things to a couple of these fellas. A few of the presenters tonight seem to have had it with Billy and Kirby, as has the FNP. In the article describing yesterday’s meeting there was no mention of their behavior. How dare the FNP not report upon their hissy fits? This upset Billy and Kirby so much that this had to happen:

Not at all accurate people! — Not at all accurate, people!

Oh don't worry Billy. We watched and we decided. — Oh don’t worry Billy. We watched and we decided.

So let’s deal with the Agricultural bit first. County staff has met with the State over the issue concerning our lost Tier IV Exemption status. The State, in turn, gave four options the county could utilize to remedy the situation. County staff has weighed the pros and cons of each option and decided the best one one was to repeal the ARTO. Here’s the rationale:

Well, Kirby, Billy and Tony want to have their own meeting with the State. Some nonsense about how “they can work things out”. Isn’t that what the staff’s job is? Not one of them gives any good reason as to why this ordinance should stand. Not a one. Kirby, at one point, concedes that he is not an expert on this subject. However, its not enough to make him stop arguing.

Sorry, Marmalade, we need a better reason that that.

Then it was off to the second item of business. Reinstating the old APFO process. Our poor, downtrodden county employee, Jim, explained very thoroughly how this new process , passed in 2012, helped no one in any way shape or form. Jim even went as far to suggest that perhaps the BOCC made this change because they were concerned that the make up of the Planning Commission at that time would not be friendly to some of the projects that were proposed. Billy had some sarcastic comments, but as usual, nothing of substance to back his arguments.

Being a workshop, there’s still more discussion to be had. One final question though: If Billy votes no to going into a closed session does that mean the rest of the council can lock him out? Please say yes!

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