Tonight’s the night! On the agenda: the vote on the repeal over whether or not our county will get with the times or continue down the redneck spiral of shame. Watch here to keep up!And, as always, this game is for entertainment purposes only. If you follow it tonight you will most likely die!
Let’s start with Billy’s habit of muttering to the flag. If he does so, and we know he will, slam back an American Slushie.
Budget Transfers in the house!!! There are 14 of them so we suggest picking every other one, or every third one. Whenever Billy abstains (sometimes he says no, just sometimes) shoot back a Brain Eraser.
Approval of Minutes. At this time you need a break. So when Billy decides not to approve the minutes just point your favorite finger towards the screen.
Confirmation of County Executive appointments. Since we have the utmost faith in the people she puts forth, toast each appointment with a very sophisticated Cosmopolitan.
If (when?) Billy renders Roger Wilson speechless with one of his inquiries take a sip of your Public Servant. We are really starting to feel sorry for these people.
Getting to the big drama. We will have to steer clear of hard liquor on these issues, in the interest of everyone’s health. If the English Only nonsense is repealed, toss back a Corona. If it remains on the books, suffer through a Crown Lager.
Henceforth we shall refer to the purchasing legislation as “Kirby’s Law”–if it passes, crack open a Jailhouse Ditch Digger.
Hey fellow Fredericktonians, guess who’s back for a visit? That’s right it’s our wonderfully articulate, sensible friends at ProEnglish. And they are so serious about our English Ordinance repeal vote that they’ve been forced to issue this:
Looks all grown uppy and official!
Wow a whole Action Alert for our little county!!! Aren’t we special? But all kidding aside, we are really teed off at these people because look at what they have done to Jerry and Bud:
So funny, I hope they didn’t hurt themselves coming up with this!Wait, do these people really take Trump seriously? Good Poseidon of the Sea people are dumb!
Look you ProEnglish carpetbaggers, Blaine & Co. are no longer in charge! We don’t want you here and we certainly do not want to see you organizing a phone campaign against two of our favorite fellas. (But Jerry and Bud can you tell us about some of the best ones? We can only imagine that it’s been a treasure trove of stupidity). One of the Facebook commentators on the above pic of Mr. Donald wrote:
Jerry Donald wants slaves.
Like wow! The caliber of people this group attracts is unreal! It’s really no surprise that Blaine invited them up here. They seem like his kind of people. But now it’s time for them to go! We are all rooting for a good result on August 18th! In fact to ensure that good result email the county council at: councilmembers@frederickcountymd.gov. Stay strong Jerry and Bud!
Oh brother. It seems lately that a lot of people are having a dang hard time understanding what history is. Let’s start with what it isn’t: the present.
As all the hoopla began, the supposed Confederate flag’s role in causing offense and confusion has set the stage for some local drama. To begin with, it is the battle flag of Northern Virginia. This makes it kinda weird and sad to have become so dimwittedly applied to everything. Last noted, Frederick is not in Northern Virginia, much to the delight of many Fredericktonians. After the war even Robert E. Confederacy Himself Lee called for it to be put away. It fell out of favor naturally. Probably because it is a symbol of the lost cause, losers. It also smacks of treason, patriots. Cognititve dissonance. ARGH. Pathetic, without even considering the feeble semantic gymnastics surrounding states’ rights to allow ownership of people as property. During the Civil Rights Era Dixiecrats started slapping the thing up left and right. Leaving it to you to speculate what kinship they found with the noble cause of states’ rights (hahahaha) at the same time people with higher concentrations of melanin in their skin worked to gain individual rights. Such a weird, weird coincidence.
“Maryland, My Maryland” has also been causing some Marylanders to feel ill-at-ease now that it is 2015, and this bit of crappy poesie is pretty gosh durn embarrassing. Our state delegate from District 3A in Frederick, Karen Young, has proposed possibly re-modernizing our state song again. Yep, again. It turns out this song was not handed down from the heavens on stone tablets when the state was first settled by the Euros, but was adopted in 1939. A smattering of rhyming secessionist sentiment set to German Christmas music urges the state to leave the union–which it did not in 1861 and most definitely not in 1939. It also quotes the words shouted by John Wilkes Booth immediately before assassinating Lincoln. Let’s let it be part of the past. History is historical. Duh. Pretty sure even Bill S. Preston, esq. and Ted Theodore Logan knew that much. This thing is barely even that, as weakly connected as it is to the state and reality.
Moving along with our local drama. At this late date it’s getting awkward to leave the bust of old dead dude Roger Brooke Taney in front of our nice city hall. Taney was a noteworthy racist. He didn’t just think slavery made good states’ rights kinda sense (whatevs; not a great argument in that dumb form either). He was disgraceful. Take the ugly bust, shove it in Roger Brooke Taney’s house that is rarely open, and have a conversation in front of him about how things change all the dang time, thank goodness.
Let’s explore the difference between changing history and changing what we respect, mmmmkay? Oh, and Bill and Ted have some hard earned wisdom about keeping track of keys that could be helpful to some doofus somewhere, too.
Germany does not fly old flags with swastikas (anywhere, that’s illegal, even on Josef Blow’s truck) or have bronze lumps of Hitler seated in front of their municipal structures. Still, through some mysterious force (books, television, museums, podcasts, and websites–did it come up already that it is 2015???) that part of history remains well documented. We can remember without putting people who have advocated for atrocities in positions typically reserved for those we seek to honor. As a society we reevaluate what is respectable, while also considering the context of those times. Move it, don’t melt the bronze down and make something else. THAT would be destroying history.
Like sands of the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.
The never-ending saga of the Aurora take over of our county nursing home has taken a new turn. In today’s Frederick News Post we are alerted to a new lawsuit filed by the county:
Instead, the county stated in its counterclaim that Aurora broke its contract with the county by failing to pay several employees for unused annual leave, paid time off and sick leave, up to a total of 96 hours, when the employees resigned.
Aurora took ownership of the operations of the centers on May 1, 2014.
The contract stated that Aurora was to allow all county employees to continue working at the center but didn’t guarantee any length of employment.
To recognize the unused leave that the employees had built up over the course of their employment with the county, the county agreed to give Aurora a payment equivalent to what it would cost to pay out the employees for this time.
The county determined this amount was about $367,500 and paid Aurora, the counterclaim stated. The employees were entitled to a cash payment under the contract if they left the company and hadn’t used their time off, the counterclaim stated.
But when Aurora terminated the workers’ employment with the company, the counterclaim stated, Aurora refused to pay the employees for their unused leave.
Gardner said she was displeased when she heard this.
We are displeased as well! We thought a nursing home akin to Disney World would be a little more on the up and up. So what happened to this $367,500? And did anyone do any research, beyond a visit, as to how this company functioned? One click to the website Glassdoor, and we found a ton of people complaining about the low wages. But I guess that really didn’t matter to the last BOCC. Because if it’s in the Yellow Pages, well you know.…
Another part of this story bothered us. The contract that the BOCC signed with Aurora guaranteed county employees a job. And there was a bunch of talk about how this supposed fact made this a good deal for everyone. However, there was no time limit mandated as to how long Aurora had to keep the former county employees. So this brings into question the sincerity of the claims that were made to us when this whole deal was going down. This piece of information also brings back memories of another storyin which we uncovered that the contract stipulated Aurora had to cover the current indigent patients. However, they were under no obligation to do so in the future. Not that this is news or anything, but this contract served no benefit to the residents or employees of Montevue and Citizens. And, if you think for one minute that low wages and high turnover are a good recipe for running a nursing home, then we have some swamp land in Florida we would like to sell you.
Keep up this fight Jan! Who wants to take bets on how quickly Billy will be on WFMD?
It’s summertime. Many of us have been relaxing on beaches, seeing the roadside sights, dining al fresco on fresh and abundant summer veggies. BAM: Farrell Keough dumps all the logic you would find in a lumpy bowl of split pea soup into this LTE about the get rich quick schemes of our educators on the county council. It’s like he has no idea how the budget to the BOE even works.
Do you suppose they might see 12 more cents through some happy accident if they expanded the budget allocated to the Board of Ed, and after buildings and buses and divvying up of money for everyone from crossing guards to cafeteria ladies, it magically trickled down out of all the other stuff they need to pay for? Luckily, we have a handy dandy visual guide all ready to recycle. This easy-to-understand matter should have been filed away as DONE and WELL DONE months ago.
Imagine if you had to be Farell Keough’s teacher. Does that illustrate how hard this job is? (Click to enlarge image).
Return to your happy place everyone, lest you find yourselves in a picked over Target trying to find a purple folder WITH BRADS (or, in the case of our teachers, spending countless dollars from your own bank account to prepare your workplace for the commencement of the school year). Our thoughts are with ya, teachers.
Last week we asked you to imagine what a reality show starring Kirby and Billy would be called. Here’s the result:
In the spirit of last week’s Republican debacle, whoops I mean debate, let’s play a match up game. Which one of these local Republican candidates could be mistaken for their corresponding Presidential candidate?
We really cannot wait until August 18th when we can put the hot mess known officially as The English Only Ordinance behind us. Until then, we will bring you any and all updates concerning it. In today’s FNP there’s a front page storyconcerning the fiscal impact of the ordinance. Now, we are really confused. BecauseBilly insisted, absolutely insisted that the only reason he voted for this was because of the dollars.
Fiscal Year
Interpretation Costs
Difference from previous year
Percent Change
2006
$8,183.26
n/a
n/a
2007
$13,406.64
$5,223.38
63.83%
2008
$34,360.14
$20,953.50
156.29%
2009
$52,249.81
$17,889.67
52.07%
2010
$53,832.18
$1,582.37
3.03%
2011
$38,139.37
-$15,692.81
-29.15%
2012
$52,848.96
$14,709.59
38.57%
2013
$42,489.21
-$10,359.75
-19.60%
2014
$48,445.68
$5,956.47
14.02%
2015
$59,084.79
$10,639.11
21.96%
Courtesy: Frederick News Post, August 8, 2015.
But huh, we don’t see it. There was a little dip in 2013. Then it went right back up again. Does this have anything to do with the fact that the county still has to translate documents so we aren’t in violation of State and Federal laws? Could it? What’s Billy got to say?
Not everyone interpreted the budget figures the same way. Councilman Billy Shreve, another member of the board that passed the English-only ordinance, noted that costs did decrease after the ordinance took effect.
When asked about the increase in recent years, he said that was the result of County Executive Jan Gardner’s administration.
Had to giggle at the line: “Not everyone interpreted the budget figures the same way.” He never does, does he? He cannot possibly be blaming Jan for the 2014 increase since she didn’t take office until December of that year. But of course he will. And let’s take a peeky boo at Kirby’s analysis:
Councilman Kirby Delauter, a member of the board that passed the ordinance, said it was more of a preventive measure than a cost-cutting move.
“I don’t believe there has been any real effect on the budget. It’s just a matter of, in the litigious society that we live in … that there is a set policy,” he said. “You want to set the standard, make sure we know exactly what the standard is.”
Excuse me Mr. Delauter, but the standard has already been set! The county has to translate documents for those who need them. There’s no way around that! This doesn’t protect Frederick from lawsuits, because you have to do it!!!! Why can’t these people just come out and admit why they passed this ordinance?! It wasn’t because of money, it wasn’t because of lawsuits. Even the High Sheriffis a little more honest when he makes some vague allusion to the county becoming a “sanctuary county”. They did it to send a message to immigrants, legal and illegal since there’s no way this policy differentiates between the two. You aren’t welcome here. This recent Baltimore Sun article is another indication of how this fiasco has made our county look to the rest of the State. We need a new direction, and the repeal of this ordinance is a huge step forward.
We derive no pleasure in bringing these stories to you faithful readers. Today, the Frederick News Post once again has shown us how the decisions of the former BOCC nearly brought this county to it’s knees. We wrote a story a few months back concerning the horrible decisions the Unfantastic Four made concerning county transportation. Now we have this sad report:
In the two years since a private company took over managing a long-term care center for Frederick County government, the quality-of-care rating at the center has fallen from above average to below average
Not that this is surprising to a single one of us here at the Yokel, nor to a majority of the commentators on this article. It still breaks our hearts though. The transportation fiasco was inconvenient, frustrating and expensive. This story involves the care of our sick and aging neighbors. Billy’s buddy, Mr. Snow, wants to throw the blame on the county for this rating. However, when the county was in control the rating was a 4. So what has been the change since then? That’s right Aurora. So even though a certain council member once told us that Aurora was like Disney World. Obviously that’s not the case.
Now let’s look into our crystal ball for a moment:
How are Kirby and Billy going to blame this on Jan?
We would like to make a prediction. Billy or Kirby will be a guest on WFMD and on that program they will blame Jan not paying the bill for this rating. Even though both Billy and Mr. Snow assured us that the level of care would remain the same. Maybe it has. And that level has always been pretty low.
We hear a lot of rumblings around town that Jan is on a vendetta to reverse the former BOCC decisions out of spite. We have another term for it: It’s called fixing things.
So last week’s poll, when we made you work so hard, is done. Here’s the results:
Now we want you to imagine that TLC has decided to do a reality show based on the antics of Billy and Kirby. Our question to you is: What should that show be called?
Kirby has a lot of complaints this morning. Try and follow his stream of consciousness rant. It gives us here at the Local a raging headache. Read the original post here. We will try to emulate Kirby with our own stream of consciousness post.
I’m sure no one on the Council has any vision for the future. That’s certainly why there will be a vote on repealing the County’s English only ordinance. Heaven forbid our little bitty county comply with Federal and State law concerning providing documentation.
And, sure there is no vision in offering up legislation regarding affordable housing. Why we would we want to get rid of ghetto areas and make sure all our our schools have a more equal mix of low income kids instead of them being concentrated in just a few schools? Surely, that is a very bad idea. Is low income catching? Shudder.
Let’s look at the list of new hires and their salaries. The first thing that seems like a giant waving red flag to us is Kirby saying he has a problem with Janice Spiegel being a liason to the BOE because we have two teachers on the council that could do the job for free. Wasn’t he just crying a few months ago that it was a conflict of interest to have them vote on matters relating to the BOE because he thought it was a conflict of interest? (It isn’t a conflict, is he suddenly acknowledging that?) Surely he doesn’t think Jerry and Jessica should have to do their day jobs, plus their elected Council jobs and then volunteer to be BOE liasons on top of that (for free y’all!) Maybe Billy can volunteer to be Fire Chief. He already gets all the calls from drunks needing rides. I’m betting being Chief could be just the new volunteer position he didn’t know he was looking for. Why not get rid of High Sheriff Jenkins while we are at it? Couldn’t his salary be used for something else? Maybe Kirby can take that position on as his volunteer job.
I don’t think anyone is under any illusions that Billy and Kirby will just go along and get along with anyone. (Unless directed to do so by Blaine). Maybe Billy could actually vote on something instead of abstaining all the darn time. Maybe, he will make a few phone calls to help get all the GPS companies up to date on that darn low CSX bridge in Monrovia. I do hope the all the voters are paying attention and hold their Councilmen accountable for all that they say and do.
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