We here at Frederick Local Yokel cannot get one day off from Billy’s antics! Not one! Soon we are going to have to submit an overtime notice to his office, because really it is becoming all too much. What did he do now? Well just look:
We will blur out these documents since the county says they are confidential.
On his public Councilman Billy Shreve Facebook page he decided to publish both the invoice and letter that the county received from Aurora. Even though we don’t agree with Billy’s opinion on this matter we don’t see anything wrong with him hashing out his opinion on the radio or in the newspaper or even on television. But we have to think that some line has been crossed when he posts documents addressed to the county on his Facebook page. Documents that could eventually be a part of a lawsuit, documents that are not even addressed to him, documents that the county says are confidential. According to the Code of Ethicshe is supposed to abide by, we see many possible violations. For example: Avoid activities, which would compromise or give the perception of compromising the best interest of the employer. Or perhaps this one: Avoid the appearance of unethical or compromising practices in relationships, actions and communications. There are many more so please look at the codefor yourself. Whether Billy likes it or not he represents Frederick County and no matter his feelings on this particular issue, he should really take more care as to what he posts on his Facebook page.
First we must start with a complaint! We have had to listen to WFMD three times this week! We were subjected to propaganda such as: ” Fox News, we report you decide” and some odd PSA about how you are the worst parent in the world if you allow your graduating senior to go to beach week. We want you to know what we go through for you, our gentle readers.
Let us begin with yesterday’s phone in appearance by Blaine Young on the Bob Miller show. Martyr Blaine is very, very upset about some things. First of all, he begins with, “Every deal that has my name on it is a bad deal for the citizens of Frederick County.” Well, duh. And then after repeating this platitude goes on to say, “Plain and simple, in this day and age the last thing the county needs to be in is the nursing home business.” He then repeats this for all you idiots who didn’t understand him the first time. Bob Miller, helpfully points out that technically we are still in the nursing home business if we are paying for the 58 indigent residents that were there at the time of this deal. To which Blaine said that it’s only for a little while and the government doesn’t know what it’s doing and it’s a horrible center and money, money, money. But here’s the kicker. Jan you need to get over Blaine! Stop texting, calling and blaming everything on him! He’s moved on gosh darn it! Why can’t you let him be!? We must give a shout out to Bob Miller. At the end of the interview Blaine told Bob that he is soliciting funds for his new Presidential Library. Bob responds, ” What’s it going to have in it? Two comic books? I didn’t even know you could read!” We were shocked as well. And it’s really funny to make fun of people who actually like to read. Hilarious!
So, last night we were helpfully alerted to the fact that Billy was going to make yet another appearance on Bob’s morning show. First, it’s at 7:20, then no it’s 8:20 but he didn’t actually make it on until 8:36. So there’s 16 minutes of our life lost forever! All kidding aside we do appreciate some of the push back that Bob has given Billy over this whole Aurora scandal. He once again asked Billy why he never contacted Jan directly. Billy says he didn’t need to, he contacted the lawyers. Bob points out that she may have been able to explain to him her reasoning for withholding the next payment to which Billy replied, ” I don’t think if she explained it the results would be any different. The process is the process.” We feel the same way. There are no words that Jan could have used that would have gotten through to him. NONE. So it was much of the same re-hashing of hisappearance earlier in the week. But at the end Billy tells us the real reason he came on the radio. He claims the residents were calling Aurora concerned they were going to be kicked out. Even though both Aurora and Jan have publicly announced this would not be the case. He doesn’t care about Aurora, no siree Bob, only our poor residents.
Well, well, well, that is certainly news to us. But we have a very specific question. Billy and Blaine both claim that the poor residents of Frederick County will still be allowed to use the nursing home, with county funds, if need be. However, this clause in the Continued Care agreement :
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.
leaves us with this question: If Aurora fills up all the beds, can they turn the indigent away? No where in this clause, or in the agreement itself, is there any requirement that a certain number of beds be set aside for this purpose. So it seems as though the county has left a nice loophole for Aurora to get out of providing care if they should happen to fill all their beds up. If that is the case, I believe we will have to side with Jan that it’s a bad deal for Frederick County.
Our resident Frederick County king of high drama is at it again! It all started last night with this post:
Side note: Why is he tagging Blaine Young? Does he still require his permission before acting?
We here at Local Yokel could barely sleep last night wondering what on God’s green Earth could have Billy in such a state. Why the vaguebook post? And oh no, are we actually going to have to listen to WFMD?!
Well yes, we did. And it was horrid, but that’s another tale for another time. And here’s Billy’s let’s get this out on the wire news: Jan didn’t pay Aurora and a bunch of poor elderly patients are going to end up on the street. And how can Jan be such a big meanie and not care about these poor elderly patients who have no where else to go? I was lucky that I had just swallowed my coffee or I would have been out shopping for a new Ipad this afternoon. When morning host, Bob Miller, asks if he has talked to Jan, while flipping through his own Rolodex for her number that he knows he has somewhere, Billy says no but he tried to call the attorney and that jerk didn’t return his phone call.
So that appearance led to this press release:
Looks official!
At this point we are hazarding to guess that he still has not talked to Jan. So, in order to answer these accusations, Jan holds a 3 p.m. press conference, where her anger towards he who must not be named is only nominally concealed.
During this press conference Jan informs the public that no one is in danger of being kicked out of Montevue or Citizens. In fact, their bill has been more than paid for until the end of the year.The money that Billy (and apparently the CEO of Aurora calls him whenever he has an issue) questioned is currently in escrow. Why? Because the county, the group of concerned citizens that sued the county, and Aurora are in private mediation over this matter. They sit down next month and at that time they will decide what their next step should be. The CEO was made aware of this, so it’s curious as to why he would call Billy, and no one was in danger of being out on the street. In fact, Jan says that the county has more than paid the bills of the indigent patients since Aurora over estimated the number of people in their care.
Throughout the conference, Jan refused to address Billy by name, instead referring to him as “a certain irresponsible council member”. She used the terms irresponsible and fear mongering to describe this whole charade. We are left with a couple of questions about this whole situation. Why does the CEO of Aurora call Shreve when he has a question? And why the hell does Shreve care so much about them getting paid on time? We certainly know from his past record that it is NOT because he cares about what happens to the elderly people in our community.
Last evening the council advanced a slightly trimmed budget to County Executive Jan Gardener. Ironing this out over the past week has been a titillating mixture of the painful boredom that goes along with budget crunching discussions, as well as fabulous fodder for this brand new local gossip blog. Critics have alleged for years that Billy Shreve and Kirby Delauter have just been doing the bidding of Blaine Young, and people wondered what would arise as they moved forward without him in the executive role. They should work harder at shedding the puppet reputation, because watching them navigate the budget talks left the distinct impression that these re-elected councilmen were the least experienced at the table.
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.Frederick News Post, Bethany Rodgers
Chmelik voted along with them. They are obviously a block opposed to taxing, spending, and providing services, so that is no surprise. Chmelik kept his calm yesterday, though, and his demeanor is a departure from what has been seen in the past (and continues in the present) from his like-minded council members. Even in insisting that a stable tax rate was a tax increase, he did press the issue without so much as raising his voice. For that we find ourselves grateful. Big drama means more subject matter for us to pounce on, but for the sake of the county a cool head is a good thing. Bud (swing voter) Otis is like our very own local yokel Justice Kennedy. When some of his fellow council members were hell bent on cutting the permit office’s budget, he reminded them of the complaints they made to him concerning the amount of time it took to process permits. Otis brought up the reality that a budget cut would only cause things to get worse. This is the voice of reason that was sorely lacking in the last administration, and we are more than happy that Mr. Otis is there to fill this role.
Rarely is one properly rewarded when they slip on over to that sticky appendage of a website known as the Tentacle. But Hooey Mama we hit the jackpot yesterday! Our esteemed Councilman #KirbyDelauter had a few things to say about Jan Gardner’s budget. (Spoiler alert: He doesn’t like it.)
#KirbyDelauter’s first problem is that the property tax is not being lowered, which in his mind is a tax increase. It is extremely confusing as to how leaving an assessment alone is an increase, let alone a hidden one, I guess math is really hard sometimes. The second item of contention is the one time transfer of $2 million to cover the assumption of county buildings that he doesn’t believe should cost any money because they sit empty. One quickie look at the Jan’s budget (and please, please don’t just take our word or #KirbyDelauter’s, read it here) and lo and behold here’s the explanation:
One-time transfer to create a 2.0 million reserve fund to cover potential budget impacts from litigation (Wynne Case) and 2.0 million to cover a prior assumption of revenue from the sale of County buildings that did not materialize.
A prior assumption of revenue? And from where did this prior assumption of revenue come from? It couldn’t have been the last budget put forth by #KirbyDelatuer & Co. could it?
But the best is yet to come. The prior board privatized the maintenance of county vehicles. Jan is reinstating two of those positions with an estimated $0 cost to taxpayers. Well let’s see what #KirbyDelauter has to say about this:
The previous Board of County Commissioners outsourced fleet services for maintenance, etc. It worked great and saved the taxpayer a substantial amount of money. The executive wants to hire a full-time maintenance technician. Anyone ever see Jiffy Lube, or Quick Lube, the Lube Center, or your local garage that does maintenance on cars and trucks? Again, would you hire your own mechanic, or take your car to Jiffy Lube? You make the call.
So where to begin with this little gem? First of all, a county budget cannot be compared to a household budget. It’s not the same thing at all. How many cars does the average American household possess? Maybe 2? So of course it isn’t feasible or necessary for us to have our own personal mechanic hanging out in our garage ready to change our spark plugs or fix our transmissions. The county possesses a fleet of 950. That’s more than Jay Leno, who himself owns maintenance equipment to do the work in-house. We have to expect that there is the NEED for daily maintenance on those hundreds of vehicles. As a matter of convenience and efficiency it behooves the county to have their own maintenance workers, rather than having them stand in line at the local Jiffy Lube.
Next on the rap sheet of complaints is this lovely little gem:
Fountain Rock Lime Kiln
Here’s #KirbyDelauter’s take:
Let us not forget about the Lime Kiln rehabilitation at Fountain Rock Nature Park: $600,000 to do some masonry repairs to an old lime kiln that if you took a visitor there today, they would look and say, “That’s nice” If we spend $600,000 on masonry repairs, that same visitor will look at it and say, “That’s nice”.
Don’t put words in my visitor’s mouth #KirbyDelatuer! First, of all we are big fans of Fountain Rock (and Catoctin Creek) Nature Center and see the value of keeping these county treasures open and in good repair. Having visited the Lime Kiln on many occasions we know that it is in desperate need of repair not only for the possible liability issues (in which the county of course could be sued) but also because it is a tourist attraction and tourists bring money to our stores and restaurants. I once heard it explained, “We’re Open for Business!”
But the icing on the cake, the words that we cannot believe our eyes were subjected to were these:
We have two teachers on the County Council who will vote on millions of dollars that will help their coworkers as well as themselves.
I’m not saying they’re bad people, but they are in a bad position. If they vote for these added millions to the Board of Education, the taxpayers will scream foul, claim they’re padding their own pockets. If they don’t, it will be very hard for them to walk among their peers at their schools to say the least. I don’t envy them in that position.
Well Jessica and Jerry I am sure you are beyond relieved that #KirbyDelauter does not think you are bad people! You just do bad things, like pad your wallets with all those county funds angering the tax payers from Emmittsburg down to Urbana! This coming from someone who would love to pad his wallet with county contracts.
We value open, useful discussion in our government. Especially when it comes to how our money is spent. And if our esteemed councilman had some useful words we would surely listen. However, all he wants to do is say no, no, no. We suspect this comes more from his libertarian viewpoint that government shouldn’t exist at all than it does from any real concern of how Frederick County should function.
frederick local yokel 