The dog and pony show continued…pony stomps dog to death.

Are you proud Kirby and Billy? Are you?
Are you proud Kirby and Billy? Are you?

As you read in our first report on the sick dog and pony show this evening Kirby spent  quite some time coming up with an alternative budget. We rejoin our fine coverage at the hearing to establish the property tax rate. Not a single speaker was on hand to utter a negative word about keeping the rate at $1.06. Some fine points were made in fact, and we are very happy that people actually realize that our government funds some really necessary services for our county. And District 5 why did you saddle us with Kirby when you had an excellent alternative in Mark Long? We want answers! Final vote on the rate will be held on May 17th.

We are so very sorry, dear readers, but we cannot sit through any more of Kirby’s amendments. He tells us that Meals on Wheels is an excellent program on one hand, and with the other he has his scissors out to cut the entire $23,000 county contribution.  We have to move ahead to the Council member comments.

Poor little monkey!
Poor little monkey!

Kirby’s up first and man oh man, hasn’t he talked enough tonight?  You would think all of his dead amendments would be enough to humble him, but NOOO. He wants $150,000 for bus transportation to Mother Seton school. That’s right he wants bus transportation to a private school. He also adds that Jan should be down on her hands and knees thanking the last BOCC. Without their business friendly policies she wouldn’t have all the extra greenbacks to spend. Don’t hold your breath Kirbo! Then he ends with a very contradictory statement about how the nursing home is run pretty good right now but  will still  destroy us all in the end.

It’s Billy’s turn.

Sorry Princess Kitty, it'll be over soon.
Sorry Princess Kitty, it’ll be over soon.

You know something Yokels? As much as we disagree with just about everything that came out of Tony and Kirby’s mouth tonight, at least they did something. Billy had nothing to offer. Besides screaming “second” to Kirby’s amendments he had nothing original to contribute. So why should we expect anything of substance at comment time? One sentence comes out of his mouth: It’s sad we couldn’t get a Republican majority on the board…we supposedly have one. So we guess county council meetings are really just a war for Billy. R’s vs. D’s. How’s that been working out for ya?  He then disappears. That’s right, he walks right out.

Jerry is up. And oh how so refreshing it is to hear a grown up talk. He points out that those members who actually sat down with the County Executive and voiced their concerns, didn’t have to make a million amendments and waste everyone’s time. Imagine that, working together to come up with a budget instead of putting on an embarrassing show. It’s revolutionary!

Jessica points out the BOCC’s budgets always went up and in fact they grew at a faster rate than those proposed by the County Executive. Huh.

Tony doesn’t have a problem raising taxes.(!) He wants us to know, however, that the economy will NEVER be like those of the past.

M.C. thanks the staff and commends them for coming out on their own time to defend their budgets against Kirby’s cuts. And yes, these poor people. To be a fly on the wall during their Happy Hour.

Bud feels bad that Kirby spent so much time and money on his budget. (Please don’t Bud!) He lets Kirby know that he feels you get  further ahead when you sit down and talk to people then when you fight them from afar. Bud speaks of allowing Kirby’s amendments to be presented, to which Kirby starts his back sassing and subsequently storms out. Probably to join Billy at wherever they go to slam back the Fireballs. Bud ignores the petulant man child to finish his remarks with his usual style and grace. President Otis, you can’t reason with that man, it isn’t even worth your breath.

Kirby is allergic to the honey!
Kirby is allergic to the honey!

 

It’s a very maniac Monday!

Thank you for this gift Council Man Delauter. We always look forward to your Tentacle articles.
Thank you for this gift Councilman Delauter. We always look forward to your Tentacle articles.

It’s about that time again folks. Kirby has keyed up another article for that slithery appendage. Be sure to read through it a couple of times, because it takes that long to digest. If you can’t bring yourself to do so, read our nice synopsis below.

Now you know we are in for a treat with a title like this:

The Budget, Constituent Service and Schools

That’s a lot of ground to cover! First we are reminded of the time crunch between the time the County Executive has to present the budget and the time the County Council has to approve it. So Kirby, you better put forth an amendment to extend that in the charter since that’s the only way to fix it. I am sure the citizens of this fine county will be more than willing to give you more time. Then it’s the same blah, blah we don’t have any help so how do you expect us to do this? Afterwards,  we are reminded that he was the ONLY one that came up with an alternative budget. And that he and Billy are once again the ONLY council members willing to do their own analysis. Now for a moment let’s fly back to last year. We found this nice little write up from the FNP. Remember when Billy did this:

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.

Thankfully that didn’t happen because remember this folks?:

Photo courtesy Frederick News Post
Photo courtesy Frederick News Post

That’s right we had a blizzard!!! And Jan had this to say about the changes Kirby wanted to make to the budget. She said they were:

unclear and do not maintain a balanced budget

So it’s not enough to say and do things if they are destructive and make no sense. The next section complains about he and Billy being treated like third graders.(Yes folks, he complained about feeling like a third grader put in time out).  Do we have to point out that if you act like third graders that’s the way people will treat you? Kirby even admits that he lost his cool when he “used a few choice words” to express his discontent over not being  allowed to talk to someone at the county dump.

Alright Kirby, just calm down!
Alright Kirby, just calm down!

From day one, these two have been uncooperative, combative and have used WFMD and their writings on the Tentacle and other “news” websites to attack their fellow members of the county government. Not to mention their behavior in meetings. We will allow that if Kirby and Billy are required to follow different protocol to talk with county staff than the other members then they may have a small point. But they have offered no proof of this. And we see the logic of individual council members not barraging county staff with one request after another. You are on a collective body that makes decisions together Kirby, you don’t get to be a lone wolf.

We are so very sorry to have to tell you that this happened again:

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The horse is so very, very dead. Please stop beating it.

We guess there’s at least two more years of hearing this:

Yes, these councilmen somehow with a straight face vote on the budget that funds their employer and ultimately their own salaries. These are the same people who voted with the county executive and President Otis to disallow my company to bid on work in the county.

So we feel the need to bring out our nice little chart again:

No matter how you try to spin it Kirby this is how it is. You can't say that you may not win the bid is reason to let you bid.
No matter how you try to spin it Kirby this is how it is. Even if the numbers change, the message is still exactly the same as it was last year.

Kirby equates this “logic” to transgender bathrooms. Surprise, surprise, he’s against them. But why he used this time to slip that in is beyond us.

Now, for the conclusion, Kirby sorta kinda has an idea for school construction. But he’s not sure, and then is sure it will be great, even if it isn’t all worked out. And of course it has to do with privatization.

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Billy is going to bend the county council procedures to his whims!! Your April 26th county council workshop edition.

Zeus give us strength!
Zeus give us strength!

Continue reading “Billy is going to bend the county council procedures to his whims!! Your April 26th county council workshop edition.”

You don’t get to gloat unless you go out and vote!

Do it!
Do it!

If you haven’t taken advantage of Maryland’s early voting, then makes sure you get off your butt and vote today. You need to choose your party’s Presidential candidate, Senator, Congressperson and delegates to the party convention. And let us not forget our own local school board race. Please pick three from this slate of wonderful, qualified candidates:

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What’s that you say? You thought there were 8 candidates. Well, yes, but you can read about the 8th one here. Lots of good reasons to steer clear of that one. Do your civic and yokel duty and exercise that right that our ancestors have paid for with their blood, sweat and tears.

Putin for Prez?

Our faithful readers will remember way back when Kirby and Billy equated Jan to a tyrant. We did a whole post illustrating the difference between an actual tyrant and someone whose political viewpoints differ from your own. Well, sorry Yokels but it seems as though we are going to have to re-visit that point. In the Yokel mailbox we found this:

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This isn’t the first time we’ve seen some Putin lovin’ on Kirby and other Obama hater’s pages.  Before there is a call to do this:

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Maybe we should do a little investigatin’ into this  Putin character:

  1. He invaded and annexed a portion of Ukraine.
  2. He jails journalists and entertainers who speak out against him.
  3. He sold arms and has supported a known genocidal ruler.
  4. He allegedly has billions of dollars in offshore accounts.
  5. His aircraft has been “buzzing” U.S. ships.

This list is very incomplete. If you want to read more about President Putin, fire up Google.

So maybe if Obama invaded and annexed Nova Scotia, jailed some liberal Hollywood actors or maybe a certain English editor that Kirby thinks is mentally ill, then he will be a fan. Sounds pretty reasonable to us. Why does it seem as though those who rail against tyranny are always the fans of the tyrant?

 

How low can we go?

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You may have heard that the scourge of modern day American politics slithered his way out to Hagerstown yesterday. What you may not have heard is that Blaine, Kirby and Billy decided to get the band back together so they could scream like a bunch of groupies at a Justin Bieber concert.

Someone needs to work on their selfie technique. What's going on with Kirby? And poor Billy, put in the back again.
Someone needs to work on their selfie technique. What’s going on with Kirby? And poor Billy, put in the back again.

Blaine, Kirby and Billy have all been very vocal about their support of Trump. Billy seems especially giddy over the possibility of a Trump presidency. Look what he said to the FNP:

Shreve, who is also running as a delegate to the national convention, said Trump’s comments mirrored the campaign promises of himself and Delauter.

 

“It’s really similar to the things we said when we ran for office. He said, ‘We’re open for business,’” Shreve said after the speech. “If he wins, you’re going to see our style of politics get big again in Frederick County.”

Hear that folks? “Really similar.” And do we want that “style” of politics back in Frederick County?

We’ve made no secret how we feel about Trump, and how dangerous his rhetoric is. Not to mention the fact that he has absolutely no experience nor does he possess the temperament to be President of our fine nation. It’s nice to know some of our local politicians admire these traits in him.

 

Get your soup and grab your dildos! Ted Cruz is a comin’ to town!!!

Local Grocers we hope you stocked up!
Local Grocers we hope you stocked up!

If you’ve got a hankering for some Campbell’s Chunky Soup you best haul your butt down to the store before Rafael gets here! We’ve heard he likes to buy it in bulk. (Seriously, what is wrong with him?)

Anyhoo, rumor has it that he’s going to make an appearance (taint) the Weinberg at 10 tomorrow. We want to encourage our fellow Yokels to show up at the Weinberg tomorrow with either a dildo, because Ted really hates them, or a can of soup if ya think the guy is hungry.

Here’s a hint as to which one we here at the Yokel have decided to bring:

image

Let’s give this charlatan a good old fashion Frederick welcome!

Billy says his world is great, and has Kirby been audited? Your April 19th roundup-Part 1!

Thank Zeus on his high mountain that tonight’s meeting has been divided into two parts! We need the break!  Now on to our fine reporting.

Billy’s no where to be found, ran in late. So Kirby had the sole job of objecting to budget transfers. His issue? We have no proof that the bay can be saved by trees and stuff. We’ve heard this before. Science isn’t his thing. Passes and  we moved on.

Installment Purchase Program Easements get no objections. Even talk to what a fine program it is. Protecting our agricultural land!

It seems like the budget season gets the tempers a flarin’! We are going to go back to our budget posts of a year ago to see how much of the rhetoric is the same. We predict A LOT. Tony, Billy and Kirby want the constant yield to be called a tax raise, all M.C. wants to do is take a vote to have a hearing on this issue so the public can discuss. How dare she interrupt their grandstanding? Billy informs us that we should all come into his world, it’s nice there he says.

We'll pass!
We’ll pass!

Tony wants an answer as to whether or not the hearing equates to increasing the constant yield. Exasperated lawyer says this question should have been asked before the meeting so they could research the answer. Jerry then points out two of the members were on the BOCC, so shouldn’t they know the answer to that? What’s that Kirby and Billy?:

FieldCricket

The hearing will be on May 3 for those of you who are interested.

Now, fellow Yokels, in all seriousness we are concerned about Kirby. Has he been audited? Because we remember commending him for voting against the Trout Run historical designation way back when. But tonight he’s singing a different tune. When the resolution, which is essentially the answer to Social Betterment’s lawsuit, was presented he voted no. No explanation just no. Billy wanted to know if he really had to vote for it at all since he was the lone wolf on the original vote, to which he was informed he in fact did.

We do really hope this hasn’t happened to Kirby:

HubbardProvesTomatoesScreamWhenSliced

We end with a nice presentation  on a Maryland Development Block Grant. Meeting reconvenes at 7:00 for a public hearing on the budget.

 

Let’s fight for the money! Our schools are worth it honey!

12paql

Kudos again to County Executive Gardner for adding $10.5 million above the maintenance of effort (MOE) for our schools. Tonight there’s a hearing about the budget:

2016-04-18 (1)

Our kids certainly can’t wait. The old BOCC’s policy of funding the public schools at MOE funding has made Frederick County dead last in the State for spending per pupil. That’s right people, dead last.

Read the whole article here: http://www.npr.org/2016/04/18/474256366/why-americas-schools-have-a-money-problem?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20160418
Read the whole article here: http://www.npr.org/2016/04/18/474256366/why-americas-schools-have-a-money-problem?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20160418

And we came across this disturbing article yesterday outlining how there has been a coordinated effort to decimate public schools. If you value education in our community you have some options to have your voice heard:

  1. Show up and testify at tonight’s hearing.
  2. Email your county council members at: councilmembers@frederickcountymd.gov and tell them that you support the County Executive’s budget.
  3. Vote for three of these articulate, caring and educated candidates for our Board of Education:

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Let’s make sure that education is a priority here in Frederick County!

 

Let’s end this week on a high note!!!

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With all our talk of untucked craziness and hissy fits this week, it’s been really easy to lose sight of the good happening in our county government. Today, County Executive Jan Gardner held a press conference to highlight her budget for the Fiscal Year 2017. Now this isn’t a done deal, there’ s still a bunch of hearings and county council meetings to be held, but oh how wonderful it is to have an executive who knows how important it is to invest in our community services.  Here’s some of our faves:

The budget provides $10.5 million in funding to the Frederick County Public Schools above the minimum required Maintenance of Effort (MOE) level and an additional $500,000 in one-time funding for school technology.

Frederick Community College (FCC) plays an important role in lifelong learning and training adults of all ages for the workplace. The budget reflects an investment of $700,000 to help keep community college affordable and accessible. This investment will provide salary improvements for staff and make improvements to campus security.

The budget proposes adding three librarians to restore operating hours at our regional libraries – C. Burr Artz, Urbana and Thurmont. This will allow expanded hours until 9 p.m. during the week at these locations, facilitate greater use of the community rooms, and accommodate the needs of our library patrons.  The long-awaited Walkersville Branch Library will move forward with construction. A significant portion of this project is funded by library impact fees and state funding.

The budget meets increasing demand for early childhood intervention services providing for two Occupational Therapists, a Speech Language Pathologist and funding for substitute therapists.

CREST is Frederick County’s first higher education center. It is uniquely designed to provide higher education in science and technology fields specifically to provide advanced degrees to meet workforce needs for local biotech and life science companies. The budget proposes $40,000 in annual funding to match city and state funds.

This budget provides for a new pay scale for both deputies and corrections staff. It is critically important that we pay competitive wages to value our existing employees and attract the best and brightest to work in our community. In addition, the budget provides for two new deputies for courthouse security, one new deputy for narcotics, and a fiscal services director. Division of Fire and Rescue Service.

The top priority in Fire and Rescue is to improve staffing levels to staff equipment and meet growing call volume. To achieve this goal, the budget adds 12 new firefighter positions. The budget also funds a firefighter/EMT recruit class, supports the fireparamedic conversion approved in the current fiscal year, and provides equipment and training support.

9-1-1 communications is a busy place and our call takers are on the front line of almost every emergency. On average, a call taker handles 50 calls per hour. The budget provides for four new call takers to meet growing call volume. These positions are part of a three year plan to increase current capabilities and to staff closer to industry standards.

Fulfilling a campaign promise to restore the county’s longstanding productive partnership with our non-profit human service agencies, the budget provides a modest increase of $250,000 to Community Partnership Grants. Grants awarded this year went to over 20 human service non-profit agencies in the county to provide for basic human needs, such as food, housing, medical care, car repair so people can get to work, and other basic needs.

The capital improvement program for FY 17 includes funding for the first phase of construction of the Othello Park near Rosemont and Brunswick, which will add needed sports fields and recreational opportunities in this area of the county. The capital budget also provides for planned upgrades to the Kemptown Park near Mount Airy/Monrovia. The Point of Rocks Commons Park also will move forward in the upcoming year.

In the face of a dramatic rise in overdoses and fatalities stemming from heroin and opiod abuse, the State of Maryland has decided to transition Health Departments away from providing direct substance abuse treatment to an oversight role. Treatment programs will shift to private sector providers. The Frederick County Health Department has been approved to continue the substance abuse program in the detention center as well as the methadone treatment program. Because the state will no longer directly support these programs, the budget provides gap funding to continue these critical substance abuse treatment and prevention programs.

There’s much more so read the entire proposal here. 

The future is looking great for our county!