Frederick County Council – Page 27 – frederick local yokel

From the quill of #kirbydelauter

September 4, 2015September 4, 2015 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

We're with you Mr. Octopus! — We’re with you Mr. Octopus!

In the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt, #kirbydelauter likes to keep us informed of his thoughts through a monthly column on THAT website curiously named The Tentacle. Read it in full for yourself here.

Now sit down readers, because we aren’t in total disagreement with #. We think he makes some good points about the public comments. Has there been any good answer as to why they were taken away from the beginning of the meeting? We do agree that it is a little arduous to sit through what is sometimes a 4 hour and 40 minute meeting to get your chance to speak. Anyone with any insights on this please share, because it’s a worthy discussion to have.

HOWEVER, we do have some issues with what he had to say. We do not agree with the council man’s assertion that the council should vote on an issue right after the public hearing. In fact we think he makes our point for us when he states:

Another change that should be made is that we should vote on the issue at the public hearing. This is when things like public comment are fresh in everyone’s mind, and when you can have the debate with concerned residents. As it currently stands, we vote at the third hearing, which could be as much as a month from the date of the public hearing. That makes it very difficult to remember all of the information gathered at the hearing; and one thing you lose, in particular, is the emotion that people had at that hearing. Even if you take copious notes, it’s still difficult a month later to capture all items of importance that the hearing displayed.

An issue SHOULD NOT be decided upon because of the emotion of the situation. And that is exactly why the council should be given the time to digest what has been presented to them. EXACTLY WHY. And Mr. Delauter, if you are reading this, the county records all of your meetings so you can click here to replay all the emotions you may have forgotten.

Kirby, of course, doesn’t miss an opportunity to mention the English Language Ordinance and Aurora because blah, blah, blah..who cares? But we do love this last line:

You have to keep in mind, we’re not elected forever, so how would we want a meeting to run if we were on the other side of the dais?

Oooh when, oh when is he going to be on the other side of the dais?

Recap of 9/1 meeting from the headquarters of Local Yokel

September 2, 2015 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

Some stuff we said to each other yesterday evening during the county sponsored book club meeting and recipe swap.

It was a “true colors reveal” for Tony Chmelik–not that the layers of that onion weren’t already peeling back, but his usual respectful demeanor gave way to patronizing arrogance, and he did not manage to keep his temper from getting the best of him on more than one occasion. A quick glance around the social media tubes indicates a reputation for hypocrisy developing, as his constituents complain that he is not only tardy but unresponsive in communication, and only addresses their concerns when pressed repeatedly and publicly.

Never in our lives could we have imagined Republicans so hostile to a tax incentive for business development. Black is white, up is down, what the what? It took what we had to say about reality in our drinking game for the evening into a whole new dimension. ICYMI: Democrats are nasty tax gobblers = straw man position.

Billy creates his own motif by giving the impression that he has scarcely ever read anything. Garfield allusion? They probably didn’t stock Garfield books at the long defunct Borders store on the grand opening day.

Tony knows that shall and may mean different things. Thanks be to Xenu and his disciples at Narconon, through the counsel of Mr. Chomel.

Does this Dunning-Kruger problem sound like it pertains to anyone?

Dunning and Kruger proposed that, for a given skill, incompetent people will:

fail to recognize their own lack of skill

fail to recognize genuine skill in others

fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy

recognize and acknowledge their own lack of skill, after they are exposed to training for that skill

Great. Now what do we do? We know: lets have a workshop!

Singing the praises of our friend Bud.

August 19, 2015 fclocalyokel1 Comment

Bud has had a rough couple of weeks. These ProEnglish people unleashed a very unfair and immature attack against him. And despite what Mary, Mary quite contrary may say, we don’t believe that our County Council people need “to get used” to outside groups coming in and harassing them.

We also have our fellow citizens saying terrible things about him on that awful county council watch page. For some reason they love to bring up his genitals. Must not have moved beyond a middle school mind- set. It’s especially stupid to be a lady suggesting man parts are essential to good governance. It’s the smart parts we’re after, not the Anthony Weiner parts.

Last night Bud once again proved to us what a mature, deliberate man he really is. When Billy sarcastically and very rudely asks Bud if he has anything to say about the repeal of the English Only Ordinance, he replies that he does. And how our hearts soar when this man speaks. Despite the distraction of Billy vigorously nodding his head yes when Bud begins with saying that his position many not get him re-elected, we were reminded what a sane, thoughtful man he is. Bud continues on to how this ordinance makes our county look bad and how it’s not who we are in Frederick County. And he’s absolutely right! Even Tony admitted the ordinance was inane. Reasoning that we should keep it because some people think our country is being taken away. A claim that he himself does not believe. Well, at least Bud had the backbone to stand up for what kind of people we are. Not some dystopian vision of becoming a sanctuary county.

We are also dismayed by the people who love to insinuate that Bud is somehow incompetent because he occasionally trips over a word. We do not care for the ageism that is ever so present in these mean, petty observations. Every person up on that dais has tripped over their words every now and again. And believe us, Bud is not nearly the worst offender.

And as for Billy’s claim that Bud won’t get re-elected. I wouldn’t worry about that. Billy doesn’t have the pulse of this county like he thinks he does. Your support, Bud, is far and wide. Keep up the good work and don’t worry about these petty naysayers.

Evening update: 8/18

August 18, 2015 fclocalyokel1 Comment

If you followed along with Facebook and Twitter, you already know the outcome of the big stuff. The English-Only ordinance was repealed, and Kirby’s Law passed (he even took ownership of it and claimed it for himself). Now, like all the other counties in Maryland, council persons in Frederick County cannot bid on contracts with the county. There was some kerfuffle–is that an English word??? Who cares! Yay!–wherein some of the usuals tried to explain how unfair this was that Kirby didn’t know when he took the county job that he wasn’t going to be able to profit from the gig. Tony tries to suggest two amendments, but that nonsense was quickly laid to rest. Boo-hoo. Go ahead and resign. Dare ya.

Being in-house this evening was something else. It was simultaneously easy to feel sympathy for teachers and teenagers. Like being transported back to the throes of adolescence, the “Am I hearing this right?” sensation of sitting and struggling (not altogether successfully) to respectfully listen to someone try to stick a square peg of an idea into a round hole of logic has not become easier with maturity. As an example, Billy Shreve was proud of himself for a “gotcha” moment this evening that involved vilifying the county for the expense of pursuing people who steal water from hydrants. This was after it had been pointed out that it has the potential to contaminate the entire water supply and poison us all. Scary. Plus: cost benefits analysis, dude. Water. Ask California to help you understand. If Billy were to have his way, no one would be prosecuted for some spindly fine that he would deem too small to collect. What that number is could be anyone’s guess. I suppose it’s okay to committ misdemeanors here in Frederick.

On the other hand, capable teachers everywhere must cringe to realize that no matter how many times you explain how the budget works with the BOE, at least three grown adult people with allegedly mature brains will never understand it well enough to strike it from their list of “conflict of interest” talking points.

Props to Jerry Donald for pointing out that the English-Only ordinance was a loser from the right hand side, in that it created unnecessary and meaningless legislation to govern a free-market and constantly evolving language environment. Leave it to a teacher to go all debate team on it and show us he can rock it from the other angle.

And finally, at long last. And we mean long. And we mean last. Chmelik has a new game. Move to repeal is a way for an already verbose guy to force us to listen to him carry on ad infinitum.

zzzzzzzzz also, compromise, I do not think it means what you think it means.

Who researched this place? Oh yeah, right.

August 13, 2015August 13, 2015 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

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 story in 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?

Our High Sheriff of cognitive dissonance

August 4, 2015August 4, 2015 fclocalyokel1 Comment

The radio waves have been the gift that keeps on giving lately. Last week we had Billy pontificating on a variety of subjects on WFMD. Now High Sheriff Jenkins gives us the opportunity to learn how he doesn’t believe the English Language Ordinance is about illegal immigration. But then again it is, wait no it certainly is not, okay yes it is! It’s enough to make one’s head explode.

It feels good doesn't it? — It feels good doesn’t it?

Both Jessica and H.S. Jenkins are guests on Sheilah Kast’s morning show that aired throughout Maryland on NPR. Here’s our breakdown.

First Jessica is allowed to speak. She tells listeners that she believes that the ordinance has been harmful for a variety of reasons. She explains that the ordinance doesn’t have any teeth because the county has to follow State and Federal laws. So basically the ordinance was symbolic, and the symbolism was this: STAY OUT!

Then it’s Jenkins’ turn. He once again informed us that the U.S. is about one language and that we are one culture (Really? Has he traveled anywhere in these here United States?) He continues:The ordinance never changed how we did business and we cannot go down this road because we are in severe danger of becoming a sanctuary county. Now this sanctuary county nonsense is what causes gentle Ms. Kast to ask Jenkins to clarify a point. “Is your reasoning for not wanting this ordinance repealed because you fear illegal immigration”, she asks. Jenkins insists that this ordinance is not about illegal immigration, but that doesn’t stop him from talking of his fears of Frederick becoming a “sanctuary county”two more times.

He also mentions a poll. This poll claims that 84% of Americans want English as our official language. Well, we did a little research and could only find one source of that poll: Rasmussen. A notoriously right winged, frequently used by FOX News, organization which happens to have a terrible track record. So get some more accurate data and then we will talk about this.

Now, let’s talk some more about the High Sheriff. Jessica is very clear to NPR’s listeners that Pro English provided the language of the 2012 ordinance. That the previous BOCC met with this group is no secret. And we all know by now that the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies Pro English as a hate group. Why you may ask? Well, for one thing, the group’s founder likes to talk like this:

“I’ve come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that.”
– Dec. 10, 1993, letter to the late Garrett Hardin, a controversial ecology professor.

He seems nice! But, hmmm, this quote seems familiar to us. Really familiar. Oh yeah, we saw it in this article in the Frederick News Post back in 2014. Remember when our High Sheriff took that trip down South to learn all about the illegal immigration? And remember how we were all up in arms about how it was financed by the Federation for American Immigration Reform? Well guessy who founded and funded both Pro English and F.A.I.R.? That’s right this guy:

John Tanton Founder of F.A.I.R., Pro English, and just about any other anti-immigrant group you can think of. — John Tanton
Founder of
F.A.I.R., Pro English, and just about any other anti-immigrant group you can think of.

And there’s more. Click this link to see all the other groups he has had a hand in. And click here for some more nice quotes. Because man, this guy is a peach!

We know that this ordinance was not passed because it was costing the county money. For no fiscal analysis was done. We know that the former BOCC met with Pro English and that our High Sheriff accepted a trip from another one of Tanton’s groups that is decidedly anti-immigrant. The supporters of this ordinance love to talk about how it didn’t change anything, so why do away with it? We would like to talk about the flip side of that question. If it doesn’t matter, if we are still required by higher powers to translate documents, then why have it? Why did a bunch of tea party conservatives spend time and money to pass an ordinance they knew didn’t mean anything? In reality it’s not only a message to illegal immigrants, but also to legal immigrants. Because please, please tell us how this ordinance differentiates between the two groups? This ordinance was the brain child of a hateful man and was passed in our county for no other reason than to “send a message.” It’s time for that message to change. And on August 18th, we hope that’s exactly what we will see.

The flavor of tears

July 29, 2015 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

We think we may need to update their bios to reflect the fact that if it is a day that ends in Y, Billy and Kirby are crying again. It was merciful of Tony Chmelik to refrain from comment on this story. Either that or sensible. As often as we disagree with him, he doesn’t seem like his primary motivation in holding office is attention seeking behavior.

This time Billy and Kirby are bent out of shape because the procedure with the council government is to consider comments made during public hearings and vote on related actions at a subsequent meeting, in order to think first about what the public has had to say.

Shreve complains:

“You kind of lose the flavor of the discussion,” he said.

The flavor is the same every time there is a discussion. Billy abstains, Billy complains. Billy is actually pretty dang boring. We try to derive some entertainment from all of this, since we will take laughter over tears any day.

The “shoot-first-ask-questions-later” method that they prefer was used with the commissioner form of government. Readers may recall that at the time there was a common perception that four of the commissioners (R-idiculous) had already decided how to vote before they listened to the public comments. For some reason. Also, David Gray (R-ational) recently told us all in his public comments during the hearing about the Monrovia Town Center approval process that the other commissioners truly did not give a flying pizza crust about what the public had to say. Whaddaya know? The people were right about that all along. Could it possibly be that Bud Otis is sensitive to a need to change this perception?

So now that Bud Otis’s leadership is trying to present a friendlier approach to local governance, predictably the holdovers from the last BOCC are cranky about it.

“When I have an opinion, when I have a point, I’m going to make it,” Delauter said at the meeting.

Yes, we remember that about #Kirbydelauter…it’s kind of his thing.

Otis said he had no plans to push for any changes in the legislative process or schedule regular workshops at this point.

“We have just gotten started,” he said. “You need to see how the process works before you start changing.”

Interestingly, if you have some feedback you’d like to give on how the process works best now that you have this information, using Bud’s type of thinking you would be free to do so. And Bud can keep an open-mind about it until we see how it’s working and if people like it or not. Isn’t that nifty? Somehow, open-mindedness is still a partisan issue where we have the Democrats lining up in favor of it and talking about keeping open lines of communication. With Chmelik sensibly demurring it appears that our favorite band, Bud and the Democrats, are still together for the time being.

Quotes taken from the Frederick News Post “County council members at odds on when to debate, vote” from Tuesday, July 28, 2015.

What ARE these ProEnglish people smoking?

July 19, 2015 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

Hands off our Bud. Stop crashing Frederick County’s party. Here we have been celebrating the newer, saner county style brought in with our reasonable and thoughtful County Council President, and these hateful creeps come in from out of town and harsh our mellow.

Frederick County has plenty of trouble sticking to doing sensible stuff all by itself (and here we thought being open for business meant something–like also being abierto para negocios–but apparently nothing counts if you have a compulsive need to express your xenophobic message through legislation). We don’t need any unwanted interlopers bringing their outside influence on this.

ProEnglish is afraid our beloved Bud Otis is going to vote in favor of repealing an ordinance that is in a position to adversely affect the business climate in Frederick County. We have no idea what Bud is scheming, but he could be *thinking* along these lines, because it seems like a solid, sensible Republican thing to think, in light of the buying power of Spanish speakers in America. Oh, how we most fervently dream that their nightmares are true.

Please let this be true! We want this nonsense repealed. It's gross. — Eeeeee!!! Please let this be true! We want this nonsense repealed. Stop making our county look gross. Go away ProEnglish, anti-sense people.

What the cuss, Billy? Let’s talk about Kofi Annan.

July 12, 2015 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

We’ve already taken a position about this language ordinance. To get redundant, the federal government does not have an official language because it is thought to be a violation of free expression. People into civil liberties think that “It’s Unnecessary, Unconstitutional, and Unsafe.”

Communities far more diverse than Frederick function without announcing their intent to discriminate. Montgomery County’s website basically says go use Google translate and they aren’t responsible if you mess it up. See how onerous that is?

Billy, he has reasons, and it’s not really worth thinking too much about them, but here’s one that’s funny because now we are going to think about the U.N. and hold them up as an example of how to conform. It’s the New World Order, folks–let’s do this thing! Welcome, Kofi Annan. Tell us what language to speak.

The United Nations, the largest inclusive governing body in the world, with 193 of the 206 countries in the world represented, has six official languages: Arabic (Literary), Chinese (standard Chinese, simplified Chinese characters), English (British spelling), French, Russian and Spanish. In 2001, the United Nations mostly used English, not all six languages, because of budget constraints and the cost of producing official documents in all six languages. At the time, the U.N. was led by Ghanaian Kofi Annan. I’m sure he would be more than happy to discuss English as the official language. He lived with the costs of translating documents when he was in charge of the U.N. in 2001. Instead of interpreting U.N. documents into six languages, he decided to use mostly English. (per Billy, Frederick News Post July 12, 2015)

We will make space on our calendars to attend the English-only seminar when Kofi Annan visits.

How funny! They have 6 languages, made no official policy changes, but they just mostly used English. What if we just mostly use English? We could be just like that. We already were just like that, as a matter of fact, before small-government-minded people started making unnecessary legislation.

P.S. A whole ‘nuther post could be made wringing him out for insinuating that this type of legislation has something to do with being pawns for Jan Gardner, because that literally makes no sense. Is she going to profit somehow from Spanish. Just…what?

P.P.S. Also, sign language, Americans with Disabilities Act. Already done. Nonnegotiable.

**oh psst hey, here’s another LTE today with some actual thoughtful comparisons to how stuff is done elsewhere made by a well-traveled Army veteran.

Where is everyone?! Your July 7th council meeting roundup.

July 7, 2015 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

Many times tonight we felt as though we were trapped inside an episode of “The Leftovers”. For the first twenty minutes of the meeting all we saw was this:

Now how are we supposed to know whether or not to drink our Purple Jesus? Or how many shots of Jackass to shoot back?! Oh well, such is life in the technical age. We do finally get to join in the fun at the end of County Executive appointees. Billy is still suffering from his oppositional defiance disorder, that or some kind of speech impediment that prevents him from saying the word aye. We really hope that he addresses this problem sooner rather than later.

Plumbing Code amendment passed 7-0. Amendment to Moderately Priced Dwelling Units-passed 6-1. Can you guess who voted in the negative? It’s not even fun to play this guessing game anymore.

Off to the public hearings we go. It’s all about the sale of 115 and 117 Church Street to Ausherman for $1.45 million. It’s a chance to sell a property that’s just been sitting there for quite a while. Kirby decides to say a few words. He’s for the sale, of course, but is upset that 118 Church Street isn’t up for sale as well. Not that this really has anything to do with the conversation at hand, but hey, anytime is a good time to talk about something bad that Jan is doing. But still he votes for it. So do five others. Therefore Kirby + 5= What the hell Billy? He did not comment, did not ask any questions but is still going to abstain!

This is money coming into the county not going out! Why is he still abstaining? What is the meaning of all this? And why do we ask, we all know there is no answer.

The next public hearing about amendments to water and sewage goes off without a hitch. Then it’s Public Comment time and where is everyone?! Not one person spoke tonight! Carl? Stan? Patrick? See what we mean about being trapped in an episode of “The Leftovers?” But since you guys weren’t there, Tony’s having a Town Hall Meeting at Urbana Library July 16th from 6-8 p.m. Be there or be square.

Billy has to go out on a sour note. There has to be a vote on whether or not to go into closed session to talk about a recent court filing (Trout Run we suspect) and to interview a County Executive appointee. Billy is the only one to say no. We won’t even ask why this time.

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