Sometimes we have to wonder if Stanley Snow hired a Pavlovian psychiatrist to bring about some kind of wild dog response whenever Billy hears the word Aurora.
Seriously folks? Why is Billy so gung ho for Aurora all the time? (And we know this isn’t the exact Pavlovian method but it’s fun!)
So what has Billy done now some of you may be asking? First let’s take a tour of Councilman Billy Shreve’s Facebook page. Take your Dramamine and fasten that seat belt because it’s going to be a rough one.
Part One:
Officially from the desk of Billy Shreve!
Part Two:
Then we have this charming little discussion:
And folks this is funny:
Billy claims that he’s posting a building permit, but clear as day:
What’s that say at the top?
So lessons learned from Shreve’s Facebook page:
-Jan’s a Nazi, or Joan of Arc, or falling on her sword, or fill in the blank.
-Billy can’t read the titles of his documents or just hopes people won’t click and read.
-Jan is using eminent domain right now this very second.
-Billy cares about the poor residents of Citizens/Montevue and Jan does not.
Then today on THAT website Billy is a guest columnist. He issues a Call to Action that he and Kirby are leading against Jan’s fight to return the nursing homes to county control. Read if you dare.
Months ago, we had many questions about the continuing care agreement that the BOCC signed with Aurora. Remember this language:
IV. FUTURE INDIGENT CARE. In addition to Aurora’s continuing care obligation for the subsidized MALF residents required, above, after leasing CCRC’s Facility Business Assets and Real Property as defined in the Asset Purchase Agreement Aurora shall accept new assisted living residents requiring financial assistance, to the extent MALF beds are available, provided County agrees to pay, and continue to pay, Aurora’s full private pay amount in place at the time of each admission. The County’s commitment to fund these additional MALF residents must be reflected in a separate written agreement between Aurora and the County shall not be required or inferred by any provision of this Agreement.
To the extent that beds are available has always been a sore point for us. Can’t Aurora just fill up all the beds and not have any for the indigent? And let’s not forget that Jan’s reasons for not making the last payment was because the price negotiated for the care was for a greater number of patients than is currently receiving care. Why doesn’t that get the fiscal outrage machine in motion?
And let’s not forget that this whole sale may have been illegal according to the State. You see Maryland contributed $200,000 to the building of the new facility and as a result was supposed to have a say on what happened to it. Blaine showed up in Annapolis and with much drama tried to hand the Division of Public Works a check for said amount but was refused. Learning that not everyone can be paid off. And let’s not forget this niceLTE from a member of the Maryland Commission on Aging. A lot of good points raised.
And this whole eminent domain thing is not set in motion yet. Jan has made it very clear that she is still trying to negotiate with Aurora. Billy and Kirby, on the other hand, want no discussion. They don’t even want to admit that there may be a little bit of a problem with this deal. So really where do their interests lay?
Don’t forget tonight’s the night of the hearing. 7:00 at Winchester Hall.
Hello Local Yokel fans! We didn’t think this would be a very long meeting, but hey, why do we underestimate people’s ability to waste large amounts of time on personal vendettas? Sometimes I think we should watch our neighboring counties’meetings to see if they are anything like ours. Truly curious to know if we are unique. Anyone with any knowledge of this please comment.
If you were following our drinking gameyou had to take a shot of the usual right out of the gate. And then blah, blah, blah, Billy abstains from the agenda. (Doesn’t that mean he should abstain from having any input on anything on that agenda?) Let’s move on to Budget Transfers:
Listen to the baby possum Kirby!
Everything is going smoothly. Kirby says he has a question on BT-16-051, a project for the Public Works Division. The nice fellas from this division sit at the table expecting an actual question. For those of you who are parents, do you remember when your kids were young (or perhaps they are still at this age) and someone would ask them if they had any questions? Instead of actually having a question, which of course your child insisted that they did, it’s just a story or an observation. Well, that’s what happened here. Instead of asking them anything, Kirby goes on about some previous project (one that it turns out he wanted to bid on), making some point that we really can’t follow about the bids being over the engineer’s estimate and he swears it’s a comparison. The nice fella tells Kirby that he’s only prepared to talk about this project and does he actually have a question. The answer to that is no, just an observation. So why did you make them get up and come to the table Kirby? Billy abstains on all of the budget transfers, we know yawn!
Confirmation of County Executives Appointments. All pass.
Ethics discussion. Read this nice article in the FNP today that breaks down the changes the panel is suggesting the council make. Predictably, Kirby has something to say about it. He wants to know why we have a commission if the County Executive is going to override it. It’s a complete waste of time in his mind. The only difference being that now 71% of the board can now resign in protest. Billy isn’t much better when he tries to make a point about the quorum. Now 3 out of the 5 have to show up. This change will make it so that 4 out of 7 will make a quorum. That’s one more person than before, Billy points out. Mathias tries to explain to him that there will be more people on the board and that this really isn’t a point that he wants to get mired down in. (We hear ya!) After this, some good discussion from just about everyone takes place. What about having the commission members appointed by an independent body? That’s worth discussing. But then Tony takes it in a different direction and tries to reject the entire bill promising that he will sponsor it in the future. That motion is defeated. There will be county workshop on this on October 6th and a future public hearing. If you have any input on this be sure to contact the council before that date.
A break was put on the agenda to reconvene at 7:00. Billy doesn’t like that he has to twiddle his thumbs until then. Which could be a valid point if Bud could reasonably predict how long the first half of the meeting will take. But since he can’t……(Actually Billy’s last parting shot was: “Well let’s not make any decisions like that again.” Nice, huh?)
After Billy sat in his office twiddling his thumbs for an hour and a half, the council reconvened to take up two public hearings.
The first was concerning the bill to amend the Water, Sewers and Sewage Disposal code:
Remember during the first reading of this bill when Billy said the government shouldn’t collect small fines? Well, poor kitty cat took him literally.
This bill is to fine people $250 for taking water from hydrants.Last time Billy said the county shouldn’t take people to court to collect small fines because it wasn’t fiscally sound. And tonight he reiterated that notion by saying $250 is not enough to stop offenders. So is he advocating for making the fine larger? There’s some discussion of the WSSC method of giving contractors a meter, which is not feasible for the way we do things. Especially since our water and sewer department doesn’t have the manpower. Kirby has some reasonable questions here. This is the Kirby we wish we could see all the time. And the fine representative from this department is more than prepared to answer them. We like good questions. Not observations not so subtlety masked as complaints. Bill is moved on.
Next up is discussion of the expansion of the MedImmune facility. We will leave you with this article if you want to read more. Very ably presented by Helen and Company. Passed as well, with only Billy saying no.
Public comment was only two fellas this evening. Steve McKay gave a very informative comment about his take on the ethics law. (Can we see the power point Steve?) And hopefully his comments will be taken seriously.
Another commenter asked the council to look into some building code violations that were going to jeopardize his solar panel business. And we have to say we love how respectfully this man was treated. Let’s keep that level of respect going!
And now…Council Member comments.
So it’s not a surprise to any of us that Kirby and Tony are against the prevailing wage. And that they are encouraging the public to attend Delegate Afzali’s meeting tonight. But we’ve said enough about that so let’s move on.
Billy. If only Thor had sent down a thunderbolt to knock out the power, then we could have been spared this last bit of nonsense. Billy wants it to be known that Paul and Blaine were not issued their proper engraved invitations to sit before the dais of the county council. How could they have known when to come? (David Gray somehow figured it out.) Billy wants to make a change to the record so it’s known to one and all that they were not invited. He gets into a verbal back and forth with Chomel, who tells him that council member comments are not about making motions. But somehow it happens anyway. But not before Jerry Donald gives Billy a good dressing down as to how their presence before the council would not have made a difference. And, Jerry continues, the council didn’t ask for this issue, it was given to them and they need to make the best decision based on the record not what was going on in Paul and Blaine’s heads. Billy’s motion fails. As do we all when our time is wasted so egregiously.
Psssst…it should have the contraction “it’s” instead of the possessive “its” here. We didn’t make it. Education matters, evidently!
We were afraid that last night’s Board of Education meeting was going to turn into an ugly us vs. them shame fest.( If you want to watch the meeting, clickhere to get to FCPS’s TV channel). Thankfully, we were all so very wrong. First off let’s give an old yokel tip of the hat to Board of Education President Brad Young for setting the tone of last night’s meeting:
There has been a misrepresentation that this is an either/or situation. I don’t want to see this as one vs. the other. Both schools are needed.
This entire board 150% agrees that both schools are needed.
Just for you Mr. Young. Thank you for setting the tone for what could have been a very contentious meeting.
County Executive Jan Gardner also spoke:
We need to advocate together for our community’s needs. We are all in it together.
The Frederick News Post also reported that the speakers also kept that tone of togetherness. At the end of the meeting, it was reported, that the PTA Presidents exchanged contact information. Way to go ladies!
Brad Young, and others, have told us the main reason that we have these money problems is due to the prevailing wage. Back in 2014, the State passed a law that if they provided more than 50% of the school construction bill, wages need to be set at a certain level. This is why Frederick High’s costs have skyrocketed and also why these construction projects are in jeopardy. Now, before anyone villianizes the prevailing wage, let’s all remember to look at the big picture. We have a huge problem in this country of good folks working hard and not having enough money to pay their bills. If the prevailing wage measure helps with that, then it’s a good thing. We need to find a way to pay people well and get what our school system needs to educate our children properly.
So what can we do?
As we reported yesterday, we can petition Governor Hogan to release some of the education funds that he’s been holding on to. Click here to get to the petition.
Jan said she is going to work on raising the impact and school development fees so the developers pick up their fair share of the price tag. These builders shouldn’t be allowed to come into our county, make huge profits, and then leave us with clogged roads and overcrowded schools. When her bill comes to the county council, make sure they hear your voice. We suspect there may be, umm let’s see, at least three people who will be against this.
Email, call or visit our state and local officials. Here’s a nice listof all of them. Make sure they know how you feel about school funding in our county. Because……..
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 storyin 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?
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!
Yes Billy they do!
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.
I know our readers are going to be shocked by this news. In this morning’s Frederick News Post, we are made aware of the fact that some of Blaine & Co.’s policies were fiscally irresponsible. “How can this be?”, you may be asking yourself. Oh, it be. In addition to extending the life of county vehicles, which seems to have been a huge mistake, the cost of contracting out these repairs has been “twice as expensive as previously expected.” We found this handy article about how mechanics not only charge for their labor, but they also mark up the parts. Therefore it’s super curious as to how it was ever conceived that outsourcing these repairs would ever be cheaper than having a mechanic on staff. Will this guy please explain all this to us?
Well, ummm. Government is bad? Is that the correct answer?
We are scratching our heads and winding our butts over here digesting the editorials from Tuesday and Sunday. Or whenever they are from, the dates online and the shuffling of the deck makes it hard to keep track. His own, worst enemy is from Friday or today, and it kind of piggybacks on the Sunday editorial they published online on Friday, possibly. At the time it wasn’t chronologically challenging, just chock full of dubious logic. Maybe this is some sort of device to round out the feeling of being shaken like a martini while trying to follow the thoughts here, which can now be summed up as, “Everyone is right. Also, everyone is wrong.”
Oh, say can you see…? Because we’re not seeing it.
For our part it seems a lot like they need a reason over there to try and sympathize with Kirby, because some of the people they’d like to have read and buy the paper think he is the bee’s knees. But, it’s such a stretch especially to call Jan to task because they have so lately noticed that the executive role is pretty powerful.
According to county attorney Michael Chomel, the power to issue an executive order is inherent in the position. However, it is not specifically addressed in the charter.
Gardner shouldn’t be using a power without first having a public discussion about what that power entails and its scope. As it is, she appears to have claimed for herself an alarming amount of authority under a nebulous, unspecified provision, not approved by those voters who supported charter government.
The nerve of this woman: deciding that the ethics commission’s opinion was inadequately ethical, then doing something about it in alignment with bipartisan support – notably public support from our hero Bud Otis (R-easonable) in the office of Council President. Checking the newspaper comments section and social media, it’s also clear that Jan is doing what people on both sides of the aisle have hoped from her. The FNP is coming alarmingly close to the insinuations that Billy and Kirby and Co are using. They go on to say that none of her supporters would be comfortable with Blaine Young and this kind of power. Oh hahahahahahaha, we are going to laugh til we cry about that. On that point they are correct, but in what sense is this Jan Gardner’s fault? It is almost as though this role was tailor made for him and Kirby (and the usual suspects) to abuse to mutual benefit, and then the dynasty failed to coronate the chosen son. If one can imagine such an absurd scenario. It’s like this was written by someone who has only seen the beautiful Frederick County in pictures.
If they wanted to criticize her actions, they should have stuck to the obvious point that she should have known Kirby would respond to this like a starving bear being poked out of his winter slumber with a stick Slim Jim. However, there’s nothing Jan Gardner will ever do that won’t evoke that reaction from some people around here, so it’s a point that doesn’t count for much.
NB: while we may disagree with the contents of these editorials, we are ardent supporters of the local media. Do imagine what kind of advantage the cronies would have with a vacuum in the local media. These things keep us locals up at night.
It’s always interesting how two groups of people can come to two vastly different conclusions when looking at the same exact situation. This whole ethics opinion is a prime example of such a phenomenon. Jan, Bud, Jessica, Jerry and M.C. all believe that the county should conduct it’s business openly and fairly. While Kirby, Billy and Tony believe that Kirby should be allowed to low ball everyone’s bids and snatch up all those county contracts for his own. Now, we always appreciate a good debate, but so far have not found one. Instead we been subjected to immature, inflammatory banter on WFMD and unbelievable rude behavior at a public county council meeting.
Then on this beautiful Memorial Day morning we see an article entitled “The Genesis of a Relationship” penned by no other than Mr. Delauter himself. So we reluctantly click the link, really not happy about giving The Tentacle any more web hits, to see what #KirbyDelauter has to say today. It begins with this sentence:
As you are probably aware, the buzz in Frederick County is about ethics. As it currently stands Frederick County has the same ethics laws as the state of Maryland.
Stop talking about this Kirby! You lost. It’s over!
Oh, we are aware. More than aware. Well, we read through the article trying to find something, anything that looks as though he has a leg to stand on. But instead…well just look:
It’s very disappointing to have this executive order come down with no notice, no meeting, and with Council President Otis backing it, without the courtesy of a phone call to me or any discussion whatsoever beforehand. What a coward we have in Mr. Otis. What a lap dog for the County Executive Gardner. His lack of leadership is the only consistent thing about Bud Otis. He is consistently bad at leading this council.
As I’ve said many times, I will continue to do what I said I would do: expose tax and spend policies, watch out for your tax money, and serve you honorably and with conviction.
Once you get through the smoke and mirrors of the Jan Gardner and Bud Otis sideshow, soon enough you will see who is a businessman/politician, and who the politician’s politician are. One looks out for others, the others look out for their own best interest.
We ALL know that Bud calling Kirby ahead of time would have only resulted in a verbal assault on Bud. There’s absolutely no other way that would have turned out. And the nerve calling Bud and Jan’s action a sideshow! We are sorry, but not allowing ONE councilman to hoard all the county contracts for himself does NOT mean that the county isn’t business friendly. And we really don’t know how in the world he can say he has behaved honorably this past week. If that was honorable behavior then we cannot even begin to guess what he would consider dishonorable. And how is he looking out for everyone’s else best interest in this situation? HOW?!
Once again we will reiterate the rather obvious point that if Kirby really wants to bid on county contracts, something he was not allowed to do as a commissioner, then he can relinquish his seat. Jan acted appropriately and totally within the law of the charter when she made an Executive Order stating that NO county executive or council member could profit from county contracts. This issue is settled. How much longer until the 3 amigos realize that and actually start doing something useful?
The story in which Billy calls Jan a queen because of ethics. Which sounds kinda familiar, but much more fun and fanciful than that earlier ugliness about tyrants and dictators. They’re just not so sparkly and glamorous, and imagining a Good and Lovely Queen makes us think of Glinda the Good Witch, and gives us warm feelings about her kind and wise guidance. Amidst personal attacks, she stands by and keeps her comments to the situation at hand, which makes it that much more a pleasure to sing her praises.
You have no power here! Begone, before somebody drops a house on you, too!
Kirby D had this to say:
Delauter said Gardner’s decision to issue the order is “par for the course.” With the decisions she is making, he said, the county will go back into the same hole that it was in when the last board of commissioners last took office, which was after Gardner’s last term as commissioners president.
Yes indeed. We all remember the utopian vision of the BOCC under Blaine Young, with Billy and Kirby to boot. We could go out to eat with the hundred bucks, and they got to “trim the fat.” You know, county workers who do all the things to make our county the place we call home. County employees who might have liked to afford to go out to eat themselves, we have to suppose.
This all makes us think of con-men, tricksters and cheats in so much detail. In the end they are supposed to turn out to be good. Is that only in old movies? Not to draw out this conceit and suggest Bud Otis has ever been such a bad seed, but at least in him we see that our first impressions were wrong. It’s sad to feel so hopeless in regards to some.
And another word about tricksters. Does it seem a mite strange that if you are on an ethics panel that believes politicization has run amok that the decision would be to resign? That sure strikes us as an odd way to ensure ethics are maintained. It almost sounds like b.s.
The new county budget will spell doom for each and every one of us!
I know our readers may not believe this but Blaine Young is like a father to us. It’s true! After writing his “Work together or nothing will get accomplished” LTE we were motivated to create this little blog. So for that we will be eternally grateful.
But now we are confused. Because in said LTE we were told:
I have moved on in my life. I wish her the best of luck, as it is very tough trying to keep everyone happy while trying to keep your campaign promises.
But today on his politician Facebook page we see this:
We are sure he really, really hates that he had to tell us so. But this ,and last week’s appearance on the Bob Miller morning show, does not seem as though someone is moving on with his life. We cannot help but remark upon the fact that he seems to be creating hysteria where none really exists. This budget reflects a change that quite frankly many people wanted to see. Enough people, at least, who decided that they would like to see Jan at the helm rather than he. So while Blaine may want us to believe that he’s out, he really still believes that he’s the only one that can keep the sky from crashing down upon us.
frederick local yokel 