Hey Yokels! We received this in the good old email box today:
On August 5th we enter the next round of voting. We’ll remind you again to put a good word in for us! Thanks for getting us this far!
Tag: Frederick Politics
Oh dear…Kirby’s doing another workshop.
Kirby’s going to brief us on landfills this evening. Will this be about the Montgomery County trash or the flammable materials? Maybe we’ll get lucky and get a smidgen of both! We’ll let you know!
What is a traitor? A primer for the hyperbolic amongst us.
If you’ve been a fan of the Yokel for some time, you know how we detest the hyperbolic language some of our county council members are so fond of. Last Spring, we had to give #kirbydelauter a lesson on what a dictator actually is. Now it looks like we are forced to do the same with Billy:
First of all, we are glad this Bud is for us! Secondly, let’s explore what a traitor actually is. We’ll start with the good old dictionary def:
So a person who is not loyal to country or friend, but really someone who betrays friend or country to their enemy. What examples does history lend us? Let’s explore…
Whoa this guy! You know the guy whose name we use when it’s too much trouble to actually say the word traitor? He was one of General Washington’s fave generals. But because he wasn’t promoted or maybe because his worm tongued British sympathizer of a wife was whispering sweet nothings in his ear, he betrayed the American cause to the British. For some good old cashola and a title, bye bye American Independence. Things didn’t work out quite the way he wanted and he never did gain the respect and money he thought he would. However, he most certainly was a traitor.
Former Stormtrooper Finn betrays Kylo Renn to assist Rey and company. Depending upon what side you root for in the Star Wars series, you may consider him a traitor. However, if we go by the dictionary definition of betraying your cause to the enemy, then he most certainly is.
For over two decades, FBI expert Robert Hanssen, was feeding the Soviets info. He did enormous damage to our national security and almost certainly got people killed. If you haven’t seen the movie Breach, it really is a must see. And yeah, absolutely, positively a traitor.
Elected to an At-Large position on the County Council in 2014, Bud Otis was a long time member of the Republican Party. As a Republican he used the resources of the local party to get elected. Receiving the most votes in the election, the President position logically belonged to him. We hear from reliable sources that Billy wanted that title. Once elected Bud governed the way so many successful local politicians do. He practiced a philosophy of governing in cooperation with other local politicians, showing that he cared much more about making Frederick County a vibrant, tolerant and successful place to live. While others prefer to practice their rabid partisan and often downright bizarre politics to become the darlings of their far right Facebook spectators. Mr. Otis eventually came to the realization that he no longer had a place in a party where someone like Billy was the leader, and like the true gentleman that he is, he knew when to take his leave. Frederick County was not sold out, no one died and the dark side was not betrayed (well…).
So Mr. Shreve, who also questioningly sits as Chairman of the local Republican Central Committee, Bud is NOT a traitor. He was an old school Republican who could not function within the confines of your monochromatic definition of what a good Republican should be. As a result, Frederick County is much better off.
The June 21 meeting continues…and it ain’t good folks.
We covered the first part of last night’s meeting in detail here. The second half reconvened at 7:00 and was a hearing about the repeal of Agricultural Rights Transfer Ordinance (ARTO) that was passed by the last BOCC. We had a lot of good speakers, many friends of the Yokel. We’ll let Kimberly Brandt educate you on the subject of ARTO, since she knows way more about this ordinance and it’s effects than we do.
Lastly we had our council member comments. Jessica started off the comments on a positive note talking about her newborn son, encouraging people to visit the Pride Festival this weekend and listing off the locations where kids can get a free lunch during the summer. Kirby wasn’t ready yet, so Jerry took the helm. He took the time to thank the people that came out to talk to him during his meet and greets, gave an update about pathways through Middletown Park and suggested people go to our local carnivals.
Now Kirby is ready. It’s time to disparage the decision to buy back the nursing homes.There was no reason to do that people! He then proclaims that the reason we can’t build schools is due to this decision. But don’t worry he’s got a solution. The secret developers are coming to the rescue! (We’ve already covered it here). He then wants to know who is going to pay for the Roddy Road bridge damage. The county is going after the truck driver, as it should be.
And then there’s Billy. His first comment? Hendershots, a shooting range in Hagerstown, contacted him and is willing to give all the council members free shooting lessons. Billy asks for a show of hands. Only Tony’s goes up and Kirby shouts out: “I am already a certified NRA instructor, so we can do it that way as well.” WHAT WAY? What kind of grandstanding, idiotic council member comment is this? Is he really surprised that no one else up there took him up on his offer?
He then concludes by telling us that there’s lots of new interesting developments in the wedding venue saga. So stay tuned!
Tony’s not talking tonight. M.C. reminds us about the city/county meeting and also encourages us to go to the carnival. Bud tells us all that he’s been up to this past month and whew! We’re adjourned til next time!
Let’s bring back the dunce hats! Your June 21 council meeting part one.
These two are much cuter than the two who should be wearing them.Pre-meeting public comment has no takers…again. Billy starts right in on the agenda. Moves to remove the item concerning appointments to the ethics board. M.C. initiates a discussion with County Attorney Chomel asking if they remove the item would be they be able to discuss it later on. The answer is no, once an item is removed you can no longer talk about it. Billy then suggests to remove it and then to put it back on the agenda later for discussion. Chomel says, and I quote, that it would be “cumbersome and futile” to remove an item just to put it right back on again. And, oh, how we laughed, and laughed because cumbersome and futile is the perfect description of Billy’s style of governing.
We fear that Billy is also confused about when he should say no and when he should abstain. He gave a hearty no to the agenda, but an abstain to the consent agenda and then a yes to the meeting minutes, which is a departure from his usual fashion. It’s hard to keep things straight when when you don’t have a real consistent philosophy.
Some very nice representatives from FCC came before the council to discuss the budget of their fine school. We learned that there will be a small increase in tuition and no increase in student fees.There seems to be some loss in the dining services department and this is where the talk gets a little dicey. Kirby and Billy want to know why outside companies are not being considered. Well, the nice lady tells the story of how they looked into outsourcing the child care center and found that it was not feasible. And holy moly, I guess not everyone is on the privatization train. She even goes on to say she does not want to privatize the custodial or dining services because she would like those people to keep their jobs. Hurray! The only one to vote against the budget in the end was Billy.
Billy is the sole abstainer on the two appointees to the appeals board and then we are on to the real drama of the evening…ethics.
Let’s start off in praise of the four women who sat before the council this evening. They kept their cool under some really trying circumstances. We have seen a few of these ladies speak in their roles as representatives of the League of Women voters. Every single time they have been articulate and well just awesome. Tonight was no different.
The discussion centered around the pilot program to chose people to sit on the ethics board. It was determined that in order to sit on the board, you would have to prove yourself to be non-partisan. There are a few criteria to prove this: You cannot have held public office in the last four years, served on a central committee for the last 10, have aspirations to run for office or have been involved in a political campaign. They would also like representatives from the two local universities, the United Way, the rotary club and the Unitarian church. The Unitarian church was chosen since it encompasses a variety of faiths. The potential members would only be interviewed by the nominating committee, not the County Executive or the County Council, with final approval from the Executive. If you remember the beginning of our post we spoke of Billy trying to remove this agenda item. It was because he thinks the council should interview the members of the board. The ladies vehemently disagree with him as do the other members of the council. It shouldn’t be difficult to grasp the concept as to why an ethics board should not come before the council. Shouldn’t be being the two key words.
But of course we all know who is going to throw the biggest fit.
We’ve written before of Kirby’s Pavlovian response to hearing the word ethics, and tonight was NO different. Our esteemed council member has a suggestion as to a new question that should be asked of our potential ethics board members. Are you ready?
“If your decision is overturned by Executive Order, how will you react?”
BAM! Take that Jan! But seriously people, how long is this going to go on?
Kirby continues by saying the reason you don’t have people lining up to be on the ethics board is because they are afraid that every decision they make will be overturned by Queen Jan. One of the patient nice ladies disagrees completely with this theory to which Kirby tells her you can disagree but thems the facts. Jerry ventures out into the choppy waters to get clarification as to when the County Executive can issue Executive Orders. This causes our dear county contract-less council member to then scream: All the time! But no the answer is she can only make an order when the issue comes under the Executive’s power. Like county contracts. Kirby tries to say what she did was illegal, gets shut down again, but hey why let the facts get in the way? We keep forgetting he’s the only one in possession of the real facts.
Billy tries to disparage our fine ladies. Proclaims that two of them were involved in a lawsuit against the county. So how can they be non-partisan? And we do not know how these ladies keep their cool, but the one he seems to be addressing asks him directly to what he is referring to. Oh you know, proclaims Shreve. Well, no, no, no. The fine lady tells him that she was never a part of a lawsuit but a representative of a position for the League of Women Voters. And she wasn’t even a part of the ethics nominating committee so the big gotcha moment that Shreve thought he had totally blew up in his face. You know what Billy, citizens can have a position on a piece of county legislation with out it being a partisan affair. You know what else is a popular non-partisan affair in these here parts? Lamenting the legislating style of one Billy Shreve. The new members are appointed 6-1.
The final observation of the evening comes during County Executive appointments. Billy doesn’t like the fact that one of the committees, concerning loans, does not have an expiration date. He tries to put forth a motion, that M.C. tries to parse for him. It’s here that Jessica interjects telling M.C. that she shouldn’t have to make Billy’s motion for him. He is instructed to write his motion down and his reply? He doesn’t need to write it down two other people are doing it already.
County Council Drinking Game: it’s only Tuesday! edition
Gracious, y’all. Nothing like summer to make a random Tuesday sneak up on ya. We just about left you with nothing to drink this evening.
Yes, it’s a random Tuesday, and that normally means there’s some council stuff to attend to. For the most part the meeting doesn’t look too complicated. Barring that one sticky, sure-fire, hot button issue. Have you guessed it already?
First things first, though. If the Early Bird Special public comments section is all <<crickets>> mix up a Classy Cricket. We do think it’s probably a good idea to class it up early, because later is coming…
There’s some regular old budget transfers (Billy’s gonna abstain. Why bother even pretending he will do his job?).
There’s an opportunity for some grandstanding, since they need to pass FCC’s budget. If Billy, Kirby or Tony climb up on their soapbox, sip a clean martini. If all 3 of them chime in, slam the thing and steel yourself for the talk of…
Wait, wait not yet. Gotta get through appointments to the Board of Appeals.
Then it’s time to tango, because guess what folks, you know there’s some ethical stuff on the agenda (Review of the Selection Process, and confirmations) this evening and we are familiar by now with the Pavlovian response one #kirbydelauter has to this topic. If he throws a hissy fit. Why are we starting this sentence in a conditional construction? When he throws a hissy fit, we suggest a Murphy’s Law.
There’s more on the agenda folks. Some reappointments to numerous commissions, council information at the first reading of a bill to extend the option to pay a fee in lieu of building affordable housing units, and a public hearing about the Agricultural Rights Transfer Option (ARTO), but if we drink our way through all of these, you’ll have to call Billy for help, and nobody wants to see that happen! Remember, always drink through council meetings responsibly. Frederick County politics can kill ya!
Let’s figure out our opportunity costs!
Last night was Kirby’s chance to educate the community about his lease back school idea that he’s been cagey about these past few months. You can watch it here if you want the full experience. Up on the dais with Kirby was local business man Randy Cohen and who we must assume are the secret developers. One was John Garner (not 100% positive of his last name as it was hard to hear and not restated, but it is NOT Daniels) who didn’t speak much, and Jeff Pacy of Municipal Acquisitions. Since Jeff Pacy did a majority of the talking we think its relevant to share how his company describes itself:
So the gist of the presentation was this:
-We can make all your wildest school construction dreams come true!
-Why have 2 schools when we can give you all four? Plus shiny new laptops to boot!
-Yeah, our numbers may be off, but who needs accuracy?
-Opportunity costs of not doing this are tremendous! This will attract new teachers for how can they resist all the new buildings! (Somehow we think salaries are a tad more important).
-Yes, we must make a return on our investment and you will pay millions upon millions more than if you used a no interest government bond. But how do you expect us to compete with that?
-Prevailing wage and we assume county ethics laws would not apply to privately built structures. Hmmm.
So it kind of sounds like in order to get all these schools at once we would be paying this company millions upon millions in extra cash over the next 30 years. One of the Yokel’s favorite county employees, Rick Harcum, very politely tells Kirby and friends that as a numbers guy it just doesn’t make any sense to pay this kind of money when other, better options are available. Jan also makes sure they know that because of our AAA rating, we can borrow money at the low rate of 2.62% which throws their numbers off even more. We also hear from the COF of FCPS who has to correct some of their math on the portables. Overall, we sensed an enormous amount of skepticism from those who asked questions.
Excepting of course Billy and Tony who got up there only to try and showcase the positives of this idea. Their questions were transparent and frankly too embarrassing to even speak of.
So after months of build up, Kirby didn’t do a good job selling this idea. Says there will be another workshop, but we doubt it will lead to anything. We need good ideas on how to finance everything we need, and sorry #, but this doesn’t look like it’s the one!
Will the mystery developer please step forward!!
Continue reading “Will the mystery developer please step forward!!”
Billy proposes class action lawsuit against Bud…it’s the most work he’s done all year!!
Today, the FNP ran a piece about the statement Billy et al put out about Bud changing parties. We covered it pretty well here, so we won’t revisit the “content” of their statement. What does need attention is this:
At least one person is considering a lawsuit seeking a return of the funds, Shreve said.
“I told them, ‘If you can find an attorney that’s willing to do it, I will bring it before the [central] committee for a vote,’” Shreve said, referring to the possibility of a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Frederick County Republicans.
First bahaha! If you can find an attorney willing to take on a losing case that has NO basis in the law (cha-ching–billable hours, tho!), then sure we’ll join! (And the Yokel has a very good idea who this one individual is). Can you imagine the time and money wasted in such an endeavor? Sounds totally reasonable, doesn’t it? And this coming from people who commonly lament frivolous lawsuits. Just imagine for a moment if every time a donor was upset with a politician’s decision they took them to court. We would have to establish a whole court devoted just to this! Not to mention the fact that politicians would be afraid to do anything lest they be sued. But really, we aren’t suprised. This is just one in a really long list of Billy’s really dumb ideas. Make sure you visit the comment section of this piece. No Billy love at all. Our fave is former BOCC member Lenny Thompson’s post:
jthompson Jun 8, 2016 7:01am
Bud ain’t the first to receive threats from local Republicans. The high-water mark of the Gray BOCC (1998-2002) in terms of camaraderie occurred in 2000 when the Republican Mens Club (forerunner to the Frederick County Republican Club) sent the four GOP members of the board (Gray, Rhoderick, Hogan & moi) a letter threatening “appropriate action” if any of us voted for proposed increases in the County’s property and income taxes. Three BOCC members (Gray, Rhoderick & Gardner) supported the increases with Ilona and moi opposed. Ilona promptly and publicly pointed out some hypocrisy in that the author of the letter had also written the BOCC advocating an increase in spending. I promptly & publicly indicated that while I opposed the tax increases I understood why my colleagues were in favor. I promised to come to the defense of my colleagues, regardless of party, should the Republican Mens Club attempt to take “appropriate action” against them. We never heard any more from the Republican Mens Club.
Billy you really need to step out of your little echo chamber. The people in your club and on WFMD are not indicative of the larger group. There are a lot of people who appreciate the change, order, and sanity that Bud’s leadership has brought forth.
We’ve never seen a summer reading pamphlet reject a person before. Your June 7th meeting roundup!
So most of the evening was tame. We smirked at the fact that no one showed up for the before meeting public comment. Billy couldn’t round up just one of the watchers? Lots of presentations tonight. Maryland Association of Counties, Solid Waste Commission and the Agricultural Preservation all expanded our knowledge of our fine county. We are breezing through all this, however, because the meat of the meeting, the crazy of the crazy was in the council member amendments.
We will try to walk you down the path of what happened. But it’s confusing, so don’t feel bad if you get lost. Yesterday we posted about Tony’s amendment to increase the County Executive’s pay. Kirby had a Facebook fit over it and Tony decided to say a few things about it. However, he decided to pull that amendment. Now, remember that readers. He PULLED the amendment. Well, now Billy was not having any of that. He wants to talk about an amendment that is not going to be put forth and he’s going to talk about it real good. So Tony puts the amendment back on, even though he doesn’t want it anymore, and Billy goes on this whole cray cray time discussion. He finds it funny that people are upset that the teachers are the lowest paid in the State but no one is lamenting the fact that they are the lowest paid officials.
Kirby then goes on to say that if you are getting into politics for money then you aren’t doing it for the right reasons.(We know people, we know). But the gold star of the evening goes to M.C.. She asks Tony if he asked the County Executive about this before proposing this amendment. He gives a snarky, “Why should I?” Uh, we don’t know, because she would be the only person thus far that would have an opinion as to whether or not the salary matches the expectations and skills required of the job? But no, Tony accuses M.C. of playing politics. So for keeping your cool in an unbelievably difficult situation, Council woman Keegan-Ayer, you deserve a Yokel tip of the hat:
And, in the end, Tony pulls the amendment…again. Incidentally, just like he pulled his first and sixth amendments, which concerned compensation for council members. Let’s reflect a moment on his desire for minimal government–as far as he is concerned, he would do his job for nothing. Yet, somehow if you care to step through the looking glass with him, he will go to bat for a concept he would ordinarily want to dismantle.
It’s time for Kirby’s amendments. Jerry’s face kinda sums up this section of the evening:
Kirby plagiarized one of his amendments from Cecil county. And then couldn’t remember his reasoning behind proposing three members of the council be able to make budget decisions (oh we are so sure). Weird. There are three in a group of stooges. We thought three was the magic number. Since memory failed when he was pressed to defend these shenanigans, he decided to pull the amendment. Whew!
Now Billy wants to make it clear that if a council member changes their political affiliation and then leaves the council, the central committee of the party that the elected official ran under should be allowed to choose their replacement. How timely. And we must ask here, why is an elected official allowed to be the chairperson of the central committee. Wouldn’t it be a total conflict of interest for Billy to appoint someone to sit up there with him?
To go back to our title, during council member comments, M.C. hands out summer reading pamphlets to all of the council members. Well, one of the pamphlets fights tooth and nail to prevent itself from landing in Billy’s hand. We understand, summer reading pamphlet, we understand.
frederick local yokel 