Tag: Billy Shreve

Local Yokel strays from the local..sorta.

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10lmrj

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.”

Where has this shift led us? Well so far: increased attacks on Muslims, 3rd graders taunting their classmate, high school students chanting, “Build the wall” and a myriad of other unfortunate cultural changes.

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?

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Pay attention to who liked this as the person who posted it is no longer relevant in Frederick County politics.

 

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From Billy's page.
From Billy’s page.

Let’s take a break from the hard stuff-Your March 8th drinking game.

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109skl

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 your agenda 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.

10ezet

Billy drops “f” bomb in workshop!!!!

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It couldn't have ANYTHING to do with him, could it?
It couldn’t have ANYTHING to do with him, could it?

 

Howdy Yokels!! We’ll get back to our title in a moment.

Last night’s workshop had three items to discuss; Medical Marijuana, Kirby and Tony’s task force, and changes to the council’s rules and procedures.

We are all for the growth and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.  It is absolutely ludicrous that the Federal Government still considers marijuana to be a schedule 1 drug.  Ludicrous.  M.C. was the star tonight and had lots of good facts as to the research and uses of cannabis.  For example, there is a possibility that cannabis could be used as an alternative to opioids for pain management. If you still need to be convinced hop on over to this website and watch some of these movies. Let’ s not let Richard Nixon era craziness cloud our views on the benefits of this drug.

Next up is some very confusing talk about the creation of a task force to discuss this lease back idea of building schools.  Tony wants to go to Jan with the full support of the council. There’s some discussion as to why this needs to be done since Jan has already agreed to look into it. And Tony thinks its “very unfortunate” that anyone would think that this task force would be perceived as being against what the County Executive is trying to accomplish. Now why in the world would anyone think that Tony and Kirby would do anything to undermine Jan?

INCONCEIVABLE

Now, for the juicy stuff. The council members want to change some of their rules and procedures. This is where Billy gets really testy. He wants a break!!! Right now!!! Bud takes a little longer than Billy cares to wait and you can clearly hear him drop the “mother of all words” and storm out.

Just  cue up the video and go to the second hour and 29 minutes in ( 2:29) and enjoy! You may also want to click on the procedures to see the changes that Billy wants. Basically he wants to be able to talk all the time about whatever he wants. He doesn’t have the support of his fellow members. In fact, he and Tony have a nice little back and forth over all of this. But the pinnacle of irony for us is when Billy proclaims:

We don’t communicate very effectively.

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Frederick County is a mysterious place this week!

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I bet we can solve this in 30 minutes or less!
I bet we can solve this in 30 minutes or less!

Quite the intrigue here in Frederick this week! First we had Kirby’s declarations of unconstitutionality concerning his sad, lost county contracts. Now, at last night’s joint BOE meeting, we learned that Kirby has a mysterious developer all ready to finance one of the two needed county elementary schools.

Why the mystery you may be asking? Well, just shut up!!! Kirby has his reasons!!! He won’t tell us, but why should he? It couldn’t be because there are some pretty outlandish conditions associated with this, could it?

What we learned from watching, and today’s FNP article, is that this all has the smell of back door school privatization. Not only would this school be leased back to the county, which has been been a bad deal throughout the land…Well, just look:

 Cost savings may also come from custodial and maintenance operations being handled by the private sector, the councilmen said.

So here we go again! Remember all this privatization crap when Blaine came into office? Now, Tony and Kirby invite it to rear it’s ugly head once again.  Here’s a great quote from an NEA analysis on privatizing school support services:

There is less accountability to the residents of a school district by their elected representatives when vital services are taken over by private contractors. Contractors tend to focus on performing only the tasks contained in their work descriptions, which is understandable because they are hired only to perform specific narrowly defined jobs.

By contrast, school district employees tend to view themselves as a vital part of the system of education, and provide numerous “intangibles” that enhance the quality of their work and the educational experience of children in school.

School district employees routinely perform a range of tasks that are not typically thought of as being in their official job descriptions but that are vitally important in providing a high quality education for children. [i] The great majority of educational support workers live in the school district where they are employed, and they feel responsible to their neighbors for the quality of their work.

Most private contractors base their sales pitch on the premise that they can provide the same or greater service at lower cost

Here’s the full NEA article and a great point sheet about the risks involved in such an endeavor.

Kirby and Tony cannot treat the school system as they do their contracting and excavating  businesses. It’s not the same on any level. Our children are not commodities that can be moved around on a spreadsheet. They are unique human beings  with a variety of talents and needs. And quite frankly, if we don’t get this part of their lives right and educate them properly, then we as a society will feel the repercussions for years to come. We must not allow the promise of a badly needed school lead us down a path of high costs, poor services and low wages. For this low wage, low cost thinking that has led to the elimination of many middle class jobs in this country.

We do need good discussion and solutions as to how to finance not only these two schools, but schools that will be needed down the road. It will have to be a combination of private and public funds and it must be a priority. It should not be a back door dismantling of our public education system all in the guise of saving money. We cannot let these gentlemen get away with that!

As for who the developer is, we really have no idea. But that is not going to stop us from speculating wildly and naming Roy Stanley. Should we start a pool?

 

Special Alert: Billy wants to hand all county taxing power over to Annapolis delegation!

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Alright, we'll give you two.
Alright, we’ll give you two.

It’s very possible that we’ve broken Billy. Maybe it was those long, cold, lonely walks from the Church Street parking garage. Or perhaps, it was the endless scratching upon the windows of Winchester Hall for someone, anyone, to let him in. For we know not what to make of what happened here this evening.

Our frustration was at top peak at the start, for we know not how long this pervasive strategy to do nothing will go on:

Agenda vote-NO

Budget transfers-Abstain

Minutes-Abstain

Then old Billy boy wants to be a part of stuff and decides to vote Yes on appointments. Not the proper AYE mind you, he’s not going down without a fight. (Why does it feel as though we have written these exact words at least twenty times now?)

Now we’ve come to the part where we think all the stress may be getting to Billy. You see our legislators in Annapolis have decided to strip the county council’s ability to change the hotel tax. Some of the county council members were upset about local control being swept away, but not Billy. These words came out of his mouth:

I support the delegation taking all taxing ability away from this council.

You see Billy is a self proclaimed “big picture kind of guy” who sees the “end results”. So logically, he will vote to allow the delegation to take local taxing ability away because he doesn’t like one particular bill. That’s a mighty big picture there. There’s also some confusion about voting to vote on allowing Bud to speak on this issue, and Jessica has to tell Billy not to vote against his own motion. However, when it came time for the actual motion, Billy was left flapping out all alone.  But not before he got one more zinger in aimed at Bud:

I would not have you speak on behalf of the council or for me in general.

What a hero. Good luck in Annapolis Mr. Otis.

How our hearts soared when we thought tonight would be the night this ethics nonsense would be put to rest. But curse you mystery letter sent in to the council at 3:00 this afternoon. The ghost of Antonin Scalia must have had something to do with this because all Kirby would allude to was that it was “unconstitutional”. We get a little more information from Councilmember Donald when he says its mostly the same old stuff again with the Kirby profiting from the county until  2018 clause  still alive and well. And Sweet Sappho, Billy doesn’t even have the letter. So we must postpone!!! We disagree here, Billy should read what he’s given and Kirby doesn’t get to wait until the last hour to obstruct things. He’s had plenty of time. But alas, it is done. Another week…another dead horse.

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Award winning council members also attended this week’s council workshop

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That workshop was something to behold. As we try to figure out how to adjust our Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance so the schools aren’t so crowded, our major characters were relegated to supporting roles. Tony Chmelik took his soliloquy a bit too seriously. As we have previously noted, Chmelik could not provide us the courtesy of making any damn sense.

A couple of high points. Runner up for the “Best-Calling-Out-of-a-Smarmy-(but-Exceptionally-Loquacious) A$$ Award” goes to Councilmember Shreve for blasting into his microphone at Chmelik: NO. You cannot interject! You’ve done nothing but interject for 50 minutes!

We do love when someone up on the dais says exactly what we are thinking.

We have to promptly dissolve this alliance with Shreve, though, because he wants to shuffle the grades around. Maybe send some fifth graders to middle school, maybe some middle schoolers to high school, they aren’t crowded, etc. Whatevz. It’s hard to get good education policy enacted from experts in pedagogy and child development. Please tell us we won’t be entertaining harebrained schemes introduced by part time council act who does not have a child, but still acts like one himself.

As a warm up, Jessica Fitzwater laughingly acknowledged  that Tony is never quick, when he pleaded for a couple of quick questions.

But the true heroism comes in when Ms. Fitzwater activates her superpower (that’s teacher voice) to get errant pupil Kirby Delauter back on track. He is disrupting the group by alluding to plans to solve school overcrowding (mysteriously, he cannot reveal any plans at the present time; he didn’t do the homework). Just at the moment we are saying, “Plans? What plans? We haven’t heard any plans?” Ms. Fitzwater seizes the teachable moment. The protocol for revealing one’s plans for the county is not The Tentacle.  Much like a soliloquy–speaking to oneself without regard to the audience–it seems as though that website is not actually a recognized forum. More like a safety deposit box for nonsense (because these “ideas” Kirby has published so far are batpoo crazy). So it sounds like The Tentacle does not write legislation or even agendas for the Frederick County Council. Who? Knew?  (????) And we are all like, “Nailed it!!!!” For bonus points: #KirbyDelauter was irritated, because he knows that they can’t retroactively place impact fees on Spring Ridge (or anywhere else) because there is no legal leverage to do this thing that was an idea originating from his own dim dome, so “they are wasting time…[discussing his stupid idea].”

GRRL!
RIOT GRRL!

We simply cannot wait to hear of the plan to address this that # and Tony Chmelik are percolating this week.  It’s probably either send wishes to a fairy godmother or online schooling. Both seem about as reality based.

 

Let’s lay off the hard liquor -Your February 2nd guide to the County Council meeting

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It's Unamerican I tell ya!
It’s Unamerican I tell ya!

For this month’s meeting we are going to lay off the hard liquor and only offer wine and beer options. Make sure you grab your agenda and please remember this game  is only for entertainment purposes. We hear that  Billy isn’t taking any more calls.

Right out of the gate there is a budget transfer for the Department of Aging. And oh yawn, Billy will say something about Aurora’s hurt feelings and how Jan is going to take everyone’s land away. When he does slam back An Arrogant Bastard.

Next it’s time to sign the Ordinance allowing Ourisman Chevorlet to expand their dealership. There’s already been lots of discussion and a vote. So if any last minute shenanigans rear their ugly heads, have a little sip of some Le Vin De La Merde.  ( Billy would be happy to translate for you)

Uh-oh, Union talk. However, when the union applies to the Fire department it’s not met with the same vitriol as let’s say…the teacher’s union. All this bill wants to do is lengthen the amount of time the union has to bargain. If any, and we mean any, anti-union talk makes it in to this discussion, go ahead and have yourself a Blind Pig. Since you would have to be one to not see all the benefits of an organized work force.

What’s this? Emperor Jan wants her minion Bud to be able to approve budget transfers under these very specific conditions:

  • 1-8-31. COUNCIL PRESIDENT APPROVAL OF CERTAIN TRANSFERS OF UNENCUMBERED APPROPRIATIONS.

(A) The County Council authorizes the President of the County Council to approve, on behalf of the County Council, a transfer of an unencumbered appropriation that:

(l) The County Executive has recommended;

  • Is between departments, agencies and offices•
  • Is within the same fund in the Operating Budget: and
  • Transfers $10,000 or less.

 If the County Council President, in the President’s sole discretion, does not approve the transfer of the unencumbered appropriation, the County Council may consider and approve the transfer.

Venus have mercy on our souls!!!! We just know there is going to be quite a bit of lively discussion about how Bud is just a rubber stamp to the capricious whims of Bloody Jan. So when this all too predictable mess begins get your six pack of Red Emperor.

As if all of the above wasn’t enough, we are back to ethics. One would hope, that by now, Kirby would come to some kind of peace with this. That he will stop turning bright red and stammering on about the teacher’s conflict of interest and just generally looking like a crazy person. So WHEN this happens pass around a bottle of Pure Arrogance.

Whew! This week is rough! Now on for special exceptions for historical structures. Here comes the Trout Run talk out of Billy! Time to beer bong the Cult of the Occult!

Now it’s time for Public Comment and those troublesome (at least for some) council member comments. This has been a busy evening so save yourself the hangover and have some water while you listen to the informative ramblings.

 

 

 

Billy explains his abstentions-still makes no sense.

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Come on Cricket give the liar a break!
Come on Cricket give the liar a break!

What must be going through Councilman Shreve’s brain when he sits at his computer to pen his excuses for the Woodsboro times? Does he really expect anyone to relate to this stream of consciousness b.s. ? I mean really folks, does he really think we are this dumb?  Let us start with excuso numero uno:

December, 12 months in office. #1 duty of the County Council is to provide budget oversight. So far, after 12 months, we still have not hired a Budget Director. I have protested this repeatedly by abstaining on all budget related votes, over 60 times this year. (I refuse to do hunger strikes : )

Ha ha! As if Billy’s not going to eat for you jerks!!! So, why did he vote “yes” for Trout Run? And why vote against the minutes? Because it’s all a very convenient bunch of crap. Billy must have been hungry when he wrote this because there’s this:

I’m not a big government guy and don’t propose hiring employees just to have them, but if you are running a restaurant, you need a cook, dishwasher, and server. The Council inherited a $550 million dollar budget and a population of 240,000. An entity this size requires staff to handle the day to day operations on day one! We aren’t running a coffee shop; we need employees.

But you just said a coffee house/restaurants need employees. Wouldn’t the better analogy be: like a coffee shop, we need an adequate number of employees to make sure things run smoothly. OHH OHH! 25 word job-posting digression time:

Billy’s Speech Writer

Must be able to take endless non sequiturs and unrelated analogies and translate them into standard English. Overtime a must!

Any hoo! Back to the article. There’s lots and lots of complaining about Mike Gastley, and how they had to put all the numbers into Kirby’s work budget software (what the what). And they still, even though they were on the BOCC for four years, weren’t able to make heads of tails of it all. What we find most interesting about this whole written catastrophe is what Billy leaves out. He omits the name of the very person that Billy and Kirby put forth. A person who not only vacations with one Councilmember, and tailgates with another, but one who is living with the very person who lost to Jan! Look at his complaint about Mr. Gastley:

How can we believe he will support the Council and not the County Executive? Is this the right person to provide checks and balances to the County Executive? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Now, can we believe that this person that Billy and Kirby put forth will provide the the appropriate support to ALL of the members of the county council? That this person would also, without bias, take information from the County Executive’s office and relay that to the council?  I think we can be safe to say: NOOOOOOOOO! Maybe–just maybe–Billy would have just a shred of credibility if he had not put this name forward. But hey, since when has Billy ever worried about that?

Xenu part deux: Narconon clusternut at Trout Run

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What the heck is even going on? A judge has remanded another frustrating thing back to the Frederick County Council, saying that they did not explain the reason for their vote that kept Trout Run from receiving a historic designation. (Umm…they said it wasn’t a special piece of local history?) Nobody apparently told Judge William R. Nicklas, Jr. about the shall versus may voodoo. Maybe the people who have since trotted that line out with regard to other issues should use the argument more conservatively.

If only it were this easy to erase, start over, forget these cretins.

What all this means is…Well, we don’t know for sure.

The Underground Bunker has expressed the matter concisely.

Judge William R. Nicklas Jr held a hearing earlier this month, and then this week came out with a ruling that seems to have confused nearly everyone. Researcher Mary McConnell declared that it was good for the county council, the local NBC station announced that it was a clear win for Scientology, and even more expert local observers don’t really explain whether this is good for one side or the other.

But maybe we will get Billy Shreve on Kojo Nnamdi’s show again, feverishly defending the need to have these exploitative, abusive whackadoodles run a campground for drug addicts to spend all day reading Dianetics and dehydrating in a sauna up in the northern reaches of Frederick County. What in the great and bizarre-o Milky Way Galaxy is driving his advocacy of this deadly nonsense?

It’s been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year. By Billah Shreeeeve

fclocalyokel3 Comments

First Blaine didn’t get the County Executive spot, and then Jan became the Queen and she took away the free parking, and then I lost my keys. I could tell. It was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.
The charter government was hard, and we couldn’t figure out Robert’s Rules and who even knows what to do with the budget without Blaine there to say what is happening. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.
Bud Otis became the Council President, and he keeps voting with the Democrats, and they overturned the English Only Ordinance. They looked at Paul Smith’s letter and decided to start over with the Monrovia Town Center. I think I am going to move to Costa Rica.
The Scientologists could not win a historical designation and everyone keeps calling me about the overdoses and Xenu is mad about No Narconon at Trout Run.
Jerry Donald was mean to me. He said is a burrito English? He said sharing a microphone with me is like sharing a steak with a pit bull. He said I was the expert about everything, but I know he didn’t mean it. I told Blaine I am moving to Costa Rica.
I keep abstaining, the locals keep complaining, we aren’t even going to get a new canyon, and they won’t make Blaine’s girlfriend part of our staff.

Blaine says some years are like that. Even in Costa Rica.

But, neener neener, I am the new chair of the Republican Central Committee. 2016 is probably gonna be my year. heh heh heh
But, neener neener, I am the new chair of the Republican Central Committee. 2016 is probably gonna be my year. heh heh heh