First things first! We always like to close out our old poll before introducing a new one.
Looks like the lawyers will be busy in Old Fredericktowne!
The Ole Yokel inbox keeps filling up with tales of Blaine running for Kirby’s seat once he files for County Executive. Wonder why he thinks the good people of District 5 would want him to represent them. Take our poll so we can tell Blaine whether or not the people want him back in office.
Your Yokels have mentioned that good ole Hashtag is planning to run for County Executive in 2018. But hold onto your hats, because rumors are swirling that local disgraced (yes, disgraced!) former BOCC President Blaine Young is planning to run for the Council seat for District 5.
We know you all remember this guy, who promised to disappear from politics after losing County Executive to Jan. This guy, who had an affair with a subordinate. This guy who was arrested for solicitation in a sting operation. This guy who seems to continually blame everyone else if they aren’t a big enough person to forgive him for his transgressions.
Well, I’m not sure how many chances you should get in your personal life, but in your professional life your chances are all used up. How can we trust you? You know the saying, “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”, well no one here is getting fooled.
As of right now, Mr. Has-been doesn’t even live in District 5. Maybe he is going to move in with friends. Watch your women folk District 5. We’ve heard he has turned over a new healthy leaf and has put all his energy into getting a super hot body to better recruit you to his cause. But, a leopard doesn’t change his spots. Still a good ole boys looking out for his own hide.
The council reconvened at 7:00 for the public hearing to extend the fee in lieu of building Moderately Priced Dwelling Units (MPDUs). This is being done in order to allow time for the completion of a housing study. This ordinance was set to expire in September but will now be continued until June 30, 2017. There was a nice presentation from Jessica, Milton Bailey (the new Director of Housing and Community Development) and three members of the public in support of the extension.
No takers for the public comment.
Jerry starts out the council member comments tonight. The new paved path is officially open through Middletown Park. There will be more information about his new bill concerning notification of re-zoning. And, he encourages people to get out to their local carnivals to support the firefighters.
Tony passes. In fact we did not hear a peep out of him the entire evening.
Jessica thanks the people who came out for the public hearing and praised the upcoming Ballenger Run project for including affordable rental units in their development plan. She also thanks everyone for having patience with the council as they modify their procedures and processes. She hopes they can continue to have positive dialogue.
Kirby congratulates the Thurmont Little League for making it to the State Tournament. Makes us aware that Little League is not only about winning but also about learning how to lose gracefully. Huh? We can only hope our beloved # learns this lesson himself. Very, very, soon.
He also discusses the new hotel bill. He has some issues with the stormwater management (shocker) and parking. He hasn’t gotten the answers he wanted from the city so he wants to know why are we pushing this forward.
Billy piggybacks on Jessica’s appreciation of people’s patience with the council. But of course, he’s going to complain about the time schedule again. He doesn’t like that the meeting begins at 4:30 and then the public hearing is to begin at 7:00. Tonight’s meeting was short enough for them to have a 2 hour break and it’s ridiculous! Unless and until Billy can predict how long the meeting will last, for we have seen some short ones and some that run all the way up to 7:00, he’s just blowing a lot of hot air. It is more convenient for the public to schedule it this way because then you know what portion of the meeting to show up for. But his time is way valuable people!
M.C. talks about the extension of the bike path out to Rosemont Ave and commends the first graduating class of community health workers. These graduates will go out in our community to provide health care in those regions of our county where people don’t readily have access. A good program indeed.
Bud asks Chief of Staff Cherney to help Kirby get the information that he was seeking about the hotel. Mr. Otis also talks about the grant to Hood’s nursing program and the re-establishment of the I-270 coalition. He finishes up by reminding us that the Fireworks in Baker Park will be held on July 24 and a Veteran’s Rally in the Valley will be held on July 30 at the fairgrounds.
No more meetings until August 15!
Short and sweet. The council will reconvene at 7:00 for a public hearing but here is what has happened thus far…
Billy votes against the agenda, no one signed up for pre-meeting public comment, Billy abstains from the consent agenda. Before getting into the meat of the meeting Bud commends Jerry for his suggestion on putting cell phones aside. Billy yells: “Let’s stick to the agenda.” We all know that he and Kirby cannot function up there if they don’t have the texts from the puppet master to guide their way. Oh whatever would they do?
All County Executive confirmations pass. Charter amendments will go through on the November ballot with one change. Council member Fitzwater made a motion to change 2 business days to 4 when it came to bill amendment notices. All three passed and will be grouped as two questions (One will deal with the two budget issues and the other bill amendments) for the good voters to decide upon this November.
Three bills are introduced:
We’ll let ya know how the public hearing turns out!
Howdy Yokels! This drinking game is going to have a punch theme. First of all, punches are refreshing during really hot weather and secondly, well…we all know the other meaning of the word. Grab a copy of your sacred agenda, tune in your FCGTV and get ready to slam back the punches.
One person has chosen to take advantage of the pre-meeting public comments so far, if anyone shall share their thoughts mix up some jam juice.
If Billy should shriek no to any of the budget transfers slowly stir a pitcher of lights out punch.
Next up we have some appointment confirmations to take care of. It any of our “friends” shall throw a fit have yourself a tall hurricane punch.
There’s been a lot of discussion on charter amendments these past few weeks. They’ve been work shopped and discussed to death. We still imagine there will be a rumbling here and there. When there is, have some pom pom planter’s punch in order to keep one’s spirits up!
We have three first readings up. Zoning, cannabis, and hotel tax are all up for some changes. This is supposed to only be for informational purposes. Just. An. Introduction. So if any of our council members, who seem to have trouble following procedure or understanding simple directions, decide to sound off mix up a whole giant bowl of Adult Life Saving Drench punch.
Lastly, there is a public hearing to extend the expiration date on the ordinance that allows applicants to pay a fee in lieu of constructing Moderately Priced Dwellings.
We end, as always with public and council member comments. Grab some sparkling water and try to sober up!
Dear friends, we have noticed a petition circulating on Facebook whose subject is yet another wedding venue with zoning woes. We are very surprised that we have heard nothing about the issues facing this vendor at any recent council meetings.
Here is the petition
We are going to admit that when reading this we had a few thoughts about why Shrelauter hasn’t brought this to the council’s attention. Keep in mind these are just guesses and as far as we know they are not facts.
We really don’t know much about this whole thing, but it seems unusual that they haven’t brought this up as a shining example of how the county is closed for business. Seeing as how #Kirby has been actively advocating that businesses sue the county for unfair treatment this silence is puzzling. Of course, it seems like this issue predates the charter government so perhaps that is the real issue. Or is this a real issue and they are only the champions of the lost cause? Enquiring minds want to know.
Back in 2014 we saw a lot of these signs floating around:
We giggled because, well, it’s a pretty dumb slogan. However, we did think it probably had something to do with #kirbydelauter’s low cost bargain government philosophy. So we were a tad confused upon reading this section of the Political Notes in the FNP:
Frederick County Councilman Kirby Delauter encouraged a local business to file a lawsuit against the county — and he volunteered to testify against the county if a case is filed.
Delauter (R) sent an email Thursday morning to other council members, the media and J&J Trash Service.
The message was addressed to a J&J staff member.
The trash company, you’ll remember, is at the center of a debate over the county officials’ interpretation of “out-of-county” trash. The company has been told that certain truckloads it wishes to dump through the county’s landfill and transfer center are prohibited.
The council discussed the issue at a meeting last month, but didn’t resolve anything.
The county interprets the loads — surplus government furniture or parts of surplus government furniture processed by a second company — as out-of-county waste, believing it is originally brought in as potential refuse.
Delauter said he agrees with the businesses that the furniture is brought into the county under the premise that it is a purchased product and not waste.
On Thursday, Delauter said any effort at changing the county’s position through legislation may be futile since it is an issue of interpretation.
“I would say your only recourse is to sue for damages. … Good luck, I hope you win a big payday from the taxpayers since they elected people who can’t stand up for what is right and just. Let me know if you need me to testify on your behalf,” Delauter wrote to J&J.
So instead of writing the necessary legislation to correct this problem (if there is a problem), Kirby instead encourages this business to sue the county. Not only sue, but sends out good wishes for a huge payout!? Where is our steward of our precious tax dollars today?! It must be dependent on who he’s mad at that day. Not sure how this all fits in for him running for County Executive in a few years. It’s an interesting strategy, that much is for sure!
It’s our favorite time. Well, besides drinking game time, and picnic time and family time, and well, anyway. Let’s close out our last poll in which we asked you about Billy.
Since Kirby just pitched a huge fit again about Jan, we figured it would be fun to speculate on the subject of his next tantrum. It will happen before you know it.
We are sorry to have to start every month off like this, but it appears that’s when Kirby’s “Guest Columnist” rant is unleashed on the world. (Question: How often does one have to write for the noodlely appendage before a guest columnist turns into an actual columnist?) Curiously this same column(with a few minor edits) also appears in the Emmitsburg News Journal.
The theme of this month’s list of complaints is how horrible Jan is. He refers to her as a “citizen activist”. If you haven’t heard Kirby has his sights on the CE office and he’s already started campaigning. As usual, it’s hard to follow. We’ve heard him complain that we’ve been talking about school construction for 40 years. But in this column, it’s 30 years, wait no it’s 20, but maybe it’s 22. Who knows? He wants us to know that Jan has ruined education when she took back the county’s nursing homes. But never fear, because Kirby is here to rescue us! Even though his last workshop on his school construction idea would cost the county tens of millions of dollars he’s still sticking with it. How does he answer his critics? Well, in his special Kirby way of course:
Executive Gardner says this won’t work, that it’s too expensive, that something could go wrong, that the sun got in her eyes, and that it’s Blaine Young’s fault.
Any other questions folks? He’s going to waste everyone’s time with another workshop. Where he will attempt to manipulate the numbers and we are oh so curious to see how he can possibly sell this idea as economically viable. One question has really bothered us here at the Yokel. If these projects are privately funded does that mean Kirby’s company will be in the running to do the excavation? Or will he remove his company from consideration since he’s the one pushing forth this idea and it would seem as though it’s a giant conflict of interest? We think Kirby has his own self interest in mind. What do y’all think? We’ll let Kirby’s own words answer that question:
We all know that it is insane to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result each time.
We hope you had a fun 4th! After the ridiculousness that went on during last week’s workshop, we don’t have much hope for sanity this week. Grab your agenda, tune up your FCGTV and let’s do this!
We’ll be surprised if anyone comes to speak for the pre-meeting comment, since it’s failed to happen thus far. So we’ll skip ahead to one of our fave county employees, Rick Harcum. He’s here to speak of some budget adjustments. The list is long and we have little hope that our usual suspects will not grandstand. So when they do what they do, sip on your President cocktail in honor of Bud and all he has to put up with.
The High Sheriff will be in the house to discuss a joint grant application with the City of Frederick. This actually looks like some good stuff, with the money split between the Sheriff’s office and the Frederick City police. Click on the agenda to get all the details.
Up next is naming the County Attorney as the Resident Agent for the county as required by law. If this discussion is too much for some to comprehend, mix up a Roosevelt, since he’s probably spinning in his grave.
There are some first and third readings of bills proposed by the county executive on the agenda. Kirby threw this Facebook fit earlier:
Someone hasn’t read our post about what a traitor is. And these guys have a hard time comprehending what a legislative body does. Jan cannot introduce legislation. She needs someone on the council to do it for her. And quelle horror! She actually has some people on the council who think it’s advantageous to work together. If Kirby can get over his Ted Cruz style of legislatin’ we’ll all be better off. If he brings up anything on this Facebook rant mix up a batch of Martha Washington’s punch. Since we are fairly certain that’s what the good lady would do to him.
To round things up there’re two public hearings. One on sewage amendments and the other on charter amendments. There’s gonna be words. When there are slam back your Bear Witness. Since bearing witness to this all really can be a burden.
Grab some water and hydrate for public and council member comments. This can sometimes be the hardest part of the meeting.
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