Tag: Billy Shreve

Benedict Arnold in our midst

fclocalyokelLeave a comment
To hell with all traitors!
To hell with all traitors!

Who thought a local government meeting could be so informative? We have learned from some very brave citizens that we have a Benedict Arnold posing as the President of the Frederick County Council! We were not aware that a county council election was akin to an actual war, let alone a revolution. But apparently we were just being ignorant.

One very brave woman brought actual evidence to show us the error of our ways. Armed with an article from the Frederick News Post concerning the Grover Norquist tax pledge and campaign materials we were treated to quite the presentation. Apparently Bud Otis is a dishonest turncoat who doesn’t care about his legacy…and at his age?! Oh the outrage!

Apparently about five people are very upset that Bud Otis is not living up to his campaign promises. We are very confused because at the beginning of this very same meeting Shreve told us that Jan needed to stop campaigning and start governing. Maybe the rules only apply sometimes? Makes sense.

Anyway, we must put in our two cents here. We have been very pleasantly surprised at the leadership of Bud Otis. He has actually sat down with and listened to county employees and the county executive (the horror!).  He has been very polite and as far as we can tell has followed proper protocol at meetings. We must vehemently object to Bud being labeled a turncoat. A turncoat is someone who betrays their nation. Not someone who carefully considers the information before him and makes the most intelligent decisions based on that information. We are particularly amused at those who claim that Bud is rubber stamping all of Jan’s decisions. Agreement does not mean passive acceptance. And from what I could tell from the speakers last night they were mad because Bud was not a rubber stamp to Kirby, Billy and Tony’s motions. But maybe this is just another example of the rules only applying sometimes.

Cinco de Loco

fclocalyokelLeave a comment

So the beginning of the May 5th County Council meeting is off to a roaring start. Two local hero citizens addressed the board and told them (Kirby, Tony and Billy) to stop acting like babies, follow Robert’s rules of order and for the love of all that is good:COMPROMISE!

Well, Kirby “The Great Compromiser” Delauter was having none of that! He took Hero #1 to task and asked, “Did you not read my budget?” (See our coverage of that debacle)  All he does is try to compromise, why can’t you people see that?

That brings us to Billy. Billy was not pleased with Hero #2’s LTE in this past weekend’s newspaper and invited said misinformed citizen to meet with him privately. (Don’t do it Carl! It’s a trap!) He then went on to try to justify his vote to take money from the snow budget which took a terrible turn when the County Manager said, “I don’t see your point.” To which Billy replied, “I’ve made my point.” BAM! Take that all those who dare to conspire against Billy.

So then Billy refused to vote on ANYTHING. Not last meeting’s minutes and certainly none of Czar Jan’s appointments. We are really confused right now and hope to get to the rest of the meeting tomorrow to keep our dear readers informed.

He who must not be named…..

fclocalyokelLeave a comment

Our resident Frederick County king of high drama is at it again! It all started last night with this post:

Side note: Why is he tagging Blaine Young? Does he still require his permission before acting?
Side note: Why is he tagging Blaine Young? Does he still require his permission before acting?

We here at Local Yokel could barely sleep last night wondering what on God’s green Earth could have Billy in such a state. Why the vaguebook post? And oh no, are we actually going to have to listen to WFMD?!

Well yes, we did. And it was horrid, but that’s  another tale for another time.  And here’s Billy’s let’s get this out on the wire news: Jan didn’t pay Aurora and a bunch of poor elderly patients are going to end up on the street. And how can Jan be such a big meanie and not care about these poor elderly patients who have no where else to go? I was lucky that I had just swallowed my coffee or I would have been out shopping for a new Ipad this afternoon. When morning host, Bob Miller, asks if he has talked to Jan, while flipping through his own Rolodex for her number that he knows he has somewhere, Billy says no but he tried to call the attorney and that jerk didn’t return his phone call.

So that appearance led to this press release:

Looks official!
Looks official!

At this point we are hazarding to guess that he still has not talked to Jan.  So, in order to answer these accusations, Jan holds a 3 p.m. press conference, where her anger towards he who must not be named is only nominally concealed.

During this press conference Jan informs the public that no one is in danger of being kicked out of Montevue or Citizens. In fact, their bill has been more than paid for until the end of the year.The money that Billy (and apparently the CEO of Aurora calls him whenever he has an issue) questioned is currently in escrow. Why? Because the county, the group of concerned citizens that sued the county, and Aurora are in private mediation over this matter. They sit down next month and at that time they will decide what their next step should be. The CEO was made aware of this, so it’s curious as to why he would call Billy, and no one was in danger of being out on the street. In fact, Jan says that the county has more than paid the bills of the indigent patients since Aurora over estimated the number of people in their care.

Throughout the conference, Jan refused to address Billy by name, instead referring to him as “a certain irresponsible council member”. She used the terms irresponsible and fear mongering to describe this whole charade.  We are left with a couple of questions about this whole situation. Why does the CEO of Aurora call Shreve when he has a question? And why the hell does Shreve care so much about them getting paid on time? We certainly know from his past record that it is NOT because he cares about what happens to the elderly people in our community.

Frednecks Hash a Budget

fclocalyokelLeave a comment

Last evening the council advanced a slightly trimmed budget to County Executive Jan Gardener. Ironing this out over the past week has been a titillating mixture of the painful boredom that goes along with budget crunching discussions, as well as fabulous fodder for this brand new local gossip blog. Critics have alleged for years that Billy Shreve and Kirby Delauter have just been doing the bidding of Blaine Young, and people wondered what would arise as they moved forward without him in the executive role. They should work harder at shedding the puppet reputation, because watching them navigate the budget talks left the distinct impression that these re-elected councilmen were the least experienced at the table.

At one point, Councilman Jerry Donald asked about the impact of following Shreve’s suggestion to completely eliminate a $1.2 million allocation for snow removal. “What would happen if it snows?” he asked. “We’d pray it didn’t,” said Doug Browning, the county’s chief administrative officer. Frederick News Post, Bethany Rodgers

Chmelik voted along with them. They are obviously a block opposed to taxing, spending, and providing services, so that is no surprise. Chmelik kept his calm yesterday, though, and his demeanor is a departure from what has been seen in the past (and continues in the present) from his like-minded council members. Even in insisting that a stable tax rate was a tax increase, he did press the issue without so much as raising his voice. For that we find ourselves grateful. Big drama means more subject matter for us to pounce on, but for the sake of the  county a cool head is a good thing. Bud (swing voter) Otis is like our very own local yokel Justice Kennedy. When some of his fellow council members were hell bent on cutting the permit office’s budget, he reminded them of the complaints they made to him concerning the amount of time it took to process permits. Otis brought up the reality that a budget cut would only cause things to get worse. This is the voice of reason that was sorely lacking in the last administration, and we are more than happy that Mr. Otis is there to fill this role.

Congratulations Tony Chmelik

fclocalyokelLeave a comment
a beard does not make a philosopher
Congrats and welcome to the Frederick County Council

 

We really hope we don’t have too many opportunities to hand these out. Chmelik belabored this point at yesterday’s meeting. I am not sure what you would call the process of lowering the taxes, were such a thing to come about. It sure presents a potential for a messaging dilemma. Via the Frederick News Post:

Delauter, along with councilmen Tony Chmelik and Billy Shreve, want the tax rate lowered. Chmelik said Wednesday he sees Gardner’s budget as a tax increase, although her budget is based on leaving the current tax rate untouched at $1.06.

This is because the budget is above the constant yield tax rate of $1.045. Constant yield is the rate that would generate the same amount of revenue for the county as the year before. Because of rising property values next budget year, the unchanged rate is expected to generate higher revenue compared with this budget year.

The councilmen want the rate to be set even with constant yield, which would require about $4.2 million in cuts.

The prior Board of County Commissioners, which included Shreve and Delauter, adopted tax rates above the constant yield rate in fiscal 2014.

 

Free Letterhead for Frederick County Residents

fclocalyokel1 Comment
Please grab me up for e-communication, too!
In order to form a more responsive county government, we seek to emphasize the importance of its constituents.

After hearing Billy Shreve remark on the Kojo Nnamdi show that his opponents were less powerful than the honeybee lobby, we got a bit hot under the collar. Some of us have received letters from members of the previous BOCC that stated that our opinions were not under consideration because they were elected with the opinions they held at the time. Could it be that a serious lack of voter participation in the county has perpetuated the idea that constituents’ opinions do not need to be routinely considered by our representatives?

We have created a quick and dirty version of letterhead for our readers. Please consider using it for written communication with council members. People matter.

 Letterhead for Constituents

Billy the Savior of Frederick County

fclocalyokel6 Comments

“I’m the one who gets all the calls when someone needs help. When someone’s daughter runs away or someone’s son overdoses or their neighbor is found intoxicated or near death. I am the one that gets the calls.”

Good news Frederick County! Billy Shreve is the answer to our drug problem. Yesterday on the Kojo Nnamdi show Mr. Shreve informed us that for an entire year, that’s right a whole year,  he has led drug awareness efforts in our local high and middle schools. It’s true! He felt compelled to do so because his phone won’t stop ringing off the hook with everyone trying to get him to find their daughters, deal with their son’s overdoses and “Dagnabbit Billy get my drunken neighbor off my front yard”! He had to do something, all these calls were interfering with his skiing and budget meetings.

And it’s working! Even though for some strange reason this recent Frederick News Post article doesn’t mention Savior Billy by name, we have had zero heroin deaths so far this year! The answer to all of our woes was right in front of us the entire time. Thanks Billy!