A few friends of the Yokel posted this YouTube video of Frederick High School teacher Matthew Johnston speaking before the Frederick County BOE. Mr. Johnston is very upset that students who don’t pass the PARCC exam will have these words emblazoned upon their transcript:
“The student is not college and career ready.”
What the what? So, let’s work this out. Let’s say a student gets good grades, hell even all C’s, but does not pass this exam. Perhaps they don’t test well, or perhaps the test is a piece of crap. Now they are saddled with the modern day equivalent of the Scarlet Letter upon their future prospects. Not to mention what that does to one’s self confidence.
We don’t give out tips of the hat willy nilly around here. For your years of service to our children and your bravery in bringing this issue to light….
For you, Matthew Johnston, the most deserving honoree to date!
To those who thought this was a good idea, we here at the Yokel want to know what rock you are living under! If you have something to say to the Maryland State Board of Education email them at this address: msde@maryland.gov. This is not a done deal so there’s still time to make your voice heard!
Xenu have mercy the Scientologists are back!! And they are suing everyone in this county!!! According to that good old Maryland Case Search site, Social betterment has filed a:
Complaint for Injunctive and Declaratory Relief and Request for Expedited Relief with Exhibits
Now our lawyerly friends are going to have to help us with what exactly this is. It is a civil suit so it sounds like they want some moolah. The list of defendants is longer than a life of a Thetan:
Frederick County
Frederick County Department of Development and Review
Frederick County Zoning Administration
Frederick County Planning and Permitting Division
Those well versed in Scientology, as many of us have become over the last year, know this is their M.O. Sue, sue , and sue some more until they get their way. Things haven’t worked out so far for them in our fine county. Let’s hope that trend continues.
Faithful readers know that Billy loves to taunt his fellow council members with his abstentions, voting against his own motions, and asking inane questions. Now we can add voicing opposition to a project that he voted for while he was a member of the BOCC.
In today’s Political Notes, Danielle Gaines writes of the letter that Bud Otis wrote on behalf of the county council asking that the hotel tax be increased from 3% to 5%. Now Billy and Kirby were not happy about this. They countered with their own letter:
In short, it said, “Please let it be known that Council Members Billy Shreve and Kirby Delauter are not in agreement” with Otis’ letter.
“Kirby and I were like, absolutely not, we don’t support that,” Shreve said later in the week. He said the original letter gave the false impression the entire council agreed with it.
Like no way man! Like we can’t support anything that Bud does. No way no how!
Well folks, that part was predictable wasn’t it? What wasn’t was this:
Also this week, Shreve is facing questions about his apparent former support for a downtown hotel and conference center proposal that also contemplated city, county and state tax-increment financing bonds.
The Board of County Commissioners, which included Shreve and Delauter, voted unanimously on Sept. 25, 2014, to support a joint resolution with the city of Frederick in favor of the project.
What’s that now, Billy? So he was for the project knowing that public funding was on the table when he was commissioner, but now he’s against it.
His excuse:
“Blaine said it would be awesome”
Just kidding, kinda. Here’s what he really said:
Shreve said he had an incomplete picture of the project’s budget at the time. “The funding sources were not put together back then,” he said.
Some good news in the county today. County Executive Jan Gardner announced that the county has teamed with two developers in a $27 million deal to get Butterfly Ridge and Sugar Loaf Elementary built. Kirby was not in attendance and for some reason we don’t believe that either one of these developers were the “secret developer” that he had in mind.
In the same news release we learn of the formation of a round table to discuss building schools more cost effectively and a task force that Kirby and Tony wanted to talk about leasing school buildings. A round table sounds like a reasonable adult discussion may take place. On the other hand, a task force has connotations of a brawl waiting to happen. See the press release for yourself:
Our faithful readers know we like to stick to the local. There’s so much going on in these here parts that we don’t usually stray beyond our borders. However, we feel the need to expand our net in order to help explain something that happened in our fine county yesterday.
We’ve heard that a group of fellas took to their truck, finely decorated with that symbol of Southern lost causes, and yelled obscenities at people of color who were walking down Market Street. We are smart enough to know that this could happen for a variety of reasons: drunkenness, stupidity, feeling they are entitled to their hateful opinions because someone running for our highest political office gives them the cover to do so.
It’s the latter we are going to focus on.
When Donald Trump first ran for office, it seemed like a gimmick. Some rich, bored, former reality show star just trying to get attention. It has evolved, over the last few months, into something decidedly less optimistic. Mr. Trump’s “politically incorrect” campaign has given license to those with awful viewpoints to sing them loud and unashamed. By saying the truly awful things that he does, Trump is taking us on a backwards train towards bigotry.
I am sure most of us have lamented the term “political correctness” at one time or another. One thing that we seem to forget are the reasons why we changed the way we talk. For one, we cleaned up our act so one group of people would not be made to feel inferior to another. Let’s not kid ourselves. Language matters. A lot. For a moment stop and think of all of the horrible words used to describe and address African Americans, Women, Asians and Latinos over the course of the 20th century. Pretty terrible aren’t they? There are good reasons as to why its not okay to speak that way anymore. Then along comes Donald Trump who tells people that its okay to express their bigotry. More than that really, he’s made people feel as though they are the ones who are oppressed when they can’t “tell it like it is.”
We get that people feel insecure when economic and educational opportunities are scarce. It’s scary that we live in a unpredictable world where people can shoot or blow you up because of their extreme religious viewpoints. And like the old plantation owners of the failed Confederate republic, Trump feeds into those insecurities and prejudices by turning attention and blame away from where it really belongs…people just like him. Trump, and other greedy fear mongers, are responsible for middle class jobs being shipped overseas. They are responsible for driving people of different backgrounds further apart. All Mr. Trump has offered us is a blame game and false solutions that will only tear this country further apart.
Now back to the local. Frederick, like anywhere else, has always had its racists. And only those people in the truck yesterday can attest to their motivations. One thing is clear though; Trump has paved the way for these kinds of people to feel comfortable in spewing their truly disgusting thoughts. There’s still time to stop this trend. Who is with us?
Pay attention to who liked this as the person who posted it is no longer relevant in Frederick County politics.
So the meat of that meeting on Tuesday was the Medical Cannabis legislation, which would seek to allow special zoning exceptions that would permit medical cannabis to be grown in agricultural zones rather than exclusively in industrial zones. Lots of people said lots of stuff, mostly good points both for and against, with a sprinkling on top of those trembling in fear of the slippery slope that descends into Reefer Madness.
We’d like to extend a shout out to Kevin Kennedy of Kojak Industries in Mt. Airy for really distilling the essence of this legislation. He stood (March 8th, around the 42″ mark) to say that this is purely a zoning issue. Of 23 counties in Maryland, 15 licenses for the cultivation of medical cannabis will be approved. So to begin with there is no certainty that any of the applicants in Frederick County will receive a license. Passing this legislation only means there would be an opportunity for the community to consider a zoning exception within an agricultural area for a specific applicant, so it responsibly retains careful review and community feedback for each individual possible instance. Allowing the possibility means that should the community choose to grant such an exception, knowing all the details beforehand, there may be economic opportunity available to a grower’s business and that opportunity would extend other opportunities to any support service businesses in the local area. One reason this may be a better opportunity is the less expensive price of real estate in an agricultural zone as compared to an industrial zone. That is all.
Thanks for summing all that up, good sir. This structure of logical argument was darned refreshing. If only Kirby D. could, like, have a main idea and move in some sort of order when he has something to say. If you all understood what Kirby was rambling about during his Council Member Comments, that would have been a miracle. “Legislation thats getting people in the business of where the sheriff should be driving these negotiations…” Clear as mud. If you would like to look at House Bill 1556 or Senate Bill 1128, which he declined to give any context concerning (other than usurping local authority, which still failed to elucidate anything, because that’s a pure bred talking point), there’s a cool tool for that. Click on those links for a brief summary, or to read the whole bills if you so desire.
Whew! With all of the meetings lately and St. Patrick’s Day coming up,we are going to go with an non-alcoholic version this week. Before you revolt, remember you can always add some Fireball, Vodka or whatever your poison happens to be. We’re just trying to look out for y’all. Grab youragenda and follow along.
This is soooo boring we know. But if Billy abstains from the consent agenda, again, mix yourself up a Banana Bonkers.
The next item is to just change around some dates for the bargaining for the Fire and Rescue union. Our First Responders’ unions are rarely met with the same vitriol that other unions face. But if someone uses this as an opportunity to go all anti-union on us slam back The Ghoul’s Green Drink.
Now it’s time for the public hearing on medical cannabis. We here at the yokel are for this. If there’s any talk about everyone turning into pot heads, sip gently on your Lean Green Smoothie.
All that’s left is public and council member comments. It’s the part of the evening where we usually get into trouble. So if you feel the need to pull out the booze we won’t judge.
Now, we will allow that maybe Kirby thought he was being funny. However, it is in no way, shape, or form ironic that the county passed an ethics ordinance. Even if he didn’t like it it doesn’t mean it’s corrupt. And this certainly was NOT the opposite of what everyone expected. When can we move on?
It’s hard to muster any sense of urgency here, folks. Like congress, thanks to the local obstruction, we remain mired in the same ol’, same ol’.
Tony Chmelik (R-odeo Clown) showed up last evening with a series of just in under the wire amendments to put forth on behalf of his buddy #KirbyDelauter, likely meant to turn the evening’s process to quicksand and possibly drum up some loopholes for the developer class that he represents. His latest hand wringing by proxy over the ethics ordinance (which passed, by the way) on top of his constant agonizing over the alleged persecution of builders who only want to build where schools are too crowded are awfully revealing. Obviously if a mitigation fee that may add $3 a month to a mortgage of several hundred thousand is such a burden, he could not make it more obvious that he is not representing his constituents. At least, not any who have school kids or drive on roads. It seems logical that six amendments should not be randomly appearing moments before third readings instead of during legislative workshops. We’ve been (as we have bored ourselves to tears saying) beating this same dead horse for a year now. sheesh.
Where’s Kirby?
Last minute shenanigans. We hope this is not going to be the new normal round these parts. At the last of these bake sales it was Kirby Delauter with his constitutional law farce. Kirby, as previously noted by your Local Yokel correspondents, was nowhere to be seen yestereve, in spite of us listening to him bellyache about the ethics ordinance for the past year. He’s busy vacationing in Floriduh. Let’s hope he is house hunting. Maybe they want him.
Indulge the local ladies in a moment of sheer fantasy; please let Kirby be moving to Florida to see if he can get equal protection under the law (hahaha) er, uh, county contracts in a county far, far away from here.
We will have more to say on tonight’s meeting in a later post. We just couldn’t wait to ask: Where the hell is Kirby? How could he not show up on Ethics night? Why would he bail on the impact fees? Should we be worried? If you would like to speculate as to his whereabouts, feel free to leave a comment.
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