Tag: Kirby Delauter

Best wishes to Mrs. Otis and Billy behave!

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On this last day of June, a fine, fairly mild summer day, the Frederick County Council convened to take care of the business at hand. Before we get into the nitty-gritty of tonight’s meeting , dear readers, we must start off with a message to our BFF Bud Otis. We here at the Local Yokel sincerely hope that your wife is on the mend. We are very glad to hear that our EMT and 911 services are top-notch. And we are sure that since the “everything must be privatized” majority is gone they will continue to receive the funding necessary to keep them so.  Mrs. Otis please accept our virtual flowers and very real well wishes:

flowers

Now to the business at hand. If you were following our drinking game then you had a Stars and Stripes right out of the gate:

imageAt the top of the agenda was Budget Transfers. A fairly common occurrence, quickly discussed and voted on. Should be no surprise that Billy was the main hold out. But that’s become boring to us so let’s go to the next item.

Approval of the Frederick Community College FY 2016 operating budget. Very nicely presented by FCC representative Dana McDonald I must say. She explains how the county contribution has helped the school. Most importantly, how the contribution has helped keep tuition increases low. I don’t know about you but I believe that FCC is a wonderful institution. It’s a great place to start college without the high price tag or to gain a certification or simply expand your knowledge. One would have to be living under a rock to have not heard of the crippling student debt that many young people carry. It would be very hard to imagine that an elected public official would be ignorant of the fact that the high price tag of a Bachelor’s degree is a real concern in these United States of America.

Who is living here?
Who is living here?

Just kidding, we totally can image who…Billy! Not only is he the only one to give this poor woman any grief, but he once again renders a presenter speechless with his inquiries. He wants to know why county residents can’t pay more in tuition if they want to! He wants to know why county residents are given any special “subsidy” at all, because folks he would love to charge them all the out-of-state rate! Every single meeting we are presented with more and more proof that Mr. Shreve is not a big picture kind of guy. I offer this article on the economic impacts of high student debt so Billy can come out of the darkness and into the light. Fortunately, the other council members see the value in an affordable post-secondary educational institution and the budget was approved 6-1.

Time for another item of common occurrence…County Executive appointments. All passed unanimously, except for the planning commission in which Billy is trying to make some point about Trout Run by voting no.

Earlier in the week we posted about item d. on the agenda. Local Yokel is not a fan of giving Mr. Smith any money at this point. Well, the only council member who agreed with us was M.C.. She argued that, “as a lawyer he should have known better.” But with 6-1 she was clearly in the minority and Mr. Smith will be receiving almost $12,000 in legal fees that he claims were associated with his duties as a former county commissioner.

A couple of items about plumbing code and an amendment to the moderately priced dwelling unit bill and then we are on to the big-ticket item: Monrovia Town Center. In short, no decision. Of course Tony would love to see this rushed through and at one point he became very agitated at Jessica for asking a question that he deemed irrelevant. Thankfully, because of the leadership of M.C. Keegan-Ayer, the council is going to review this information on the MTC dating from January 2014 to the present. The council wants to make sure they can make a thoughtful, educated decision about what has certainly turned into a nightmare for everyone involved. Even though Tony wanted a 30 day limit to this thoughtful deliberation, more reasonable heads prevailed and a decision will be deferred until September.

A few thoughts on public comment. It is very sad to us that people have to thank the county council for behaving in a thoughtful, deliberate manner. Shouldn’t that be a given? But that’s exactly what speaker after speaker did this evening. Whether Kirby or Billy want to admit it, the last four years of the board of county commissioners was a dark time in our county’s history. Citizens felt disrespected and it was really frightening to us that our county government was in the hands of a group of people who don’t really believe that government should exist at all.  Billy gave us a flash back of this disrespectful behavior when he openly sparred with a member of our community, and then Jessica, over some concerns this community member has over Route 75. Billy was consistently rude and out-of-order during this whole interaction. As one woman stated, it is embarrassing to think this man represents our county.

Blaine's not there to back you up anymore! It's time to behave if you want to sit at the grown up table!
Blaine’s not there to back you up anymore! It’s time to behave if you want to sit at the grown up table!

Another point concerning public comments is that Tony took the brunt of the criticisms this evening. He was accused of not answering communications, not properly representing his district and the people are not happy! He tried to answer these accusations in his comments, telling people to stop smirking, but it’s fairly evident where Tony’s loyalties lay. He’s got a lot of fences to mend if he hopes for another shot at this council seat.

Is he listening? Time will tell.
Is he listening? Time will tell.

Not sure what’s going on with Kirby lately. He needs someone to fix his microphone because once again it was very hard to hear him. His comment at the end of the meeting was very strange. He announced that he received a text that a cement truck dumped its load on the side of a road and will someone look into it? This all seemed really out-of-place. Why is someone texting Kirby with this information? And why announce it at the meeting? Does he want us to know that people call him as well? Maybe he’s tired of Billy getting all the credit.

We will end this post with a Twitter update from Jen Fifield of the Frederick News Post:

What's this about? What is the developer getting a police escort?
What’s this about? Why is the developer getting a police escort?

Dear FNP Editorial Board, Are you new here?

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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.
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.

Now, gracious me, Jan is acting like a queen! We wonder from whence such notions come!

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.

Last night’s council meeting: the good, the bad, the UGLY

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The Good

First things first, in the spirit of Cannes, the red carpet looks. Jerry looking professorial in a good way with his jacket and tie, Jessica in a delightful chartreuse, and MC with a classic scarf (bold neckwear a salute to her rapper image). Bud is elegant as always, with pinstripes in his suit. Tony is in “Friday at the office” wear, with a short sleeve plaid button up. He and Kirby forgot their county pins. It happens. Plus, Kirby can’t pin stuff on that Under Armour fabric. It leaves holes, but that’s okay since Billy wore an appliquéd school uniform with a truly enormous county seal to make up for it. A smart nod to his role as an elected official (which may fail when juxtaposed with the fact that he never acts like one). Nobody knows what they’re wearing from the waist down. Maybe bare feet like everybody else. ?

Do all the council members have these official looking outfits? Serious question.
Do all the council members have these official looking outfits? Serious question.

As an added bonus, things start with a public comment from a speaker wearing a Delauter campaign shirt. Wonder what he’s gonna say. haaaaaaa

The…Undecided

We’re out to lunch on Tony Chmelik. Quality acting from him as he belabors questions about taxes that don’t increase but do. He is perfectly credible in his portrayal of a person who has never paid taxes and has no idea what happens when property assessments increase (or when they don’t). He seems fit for higher office, with his doe-eyed looks and even-tempered behavior. Which is sort of scary to start thinking, because we do not drink the tea here.

The Bad

There were numerous opportunities for Bud and the Democrats (great band name) to say some version of, “We’ve already covered all of this, and we’re not going to talk about it anymore.” To explain the logical fallacy of comparing the teachers to Kirby’s business, again. To explain that taxes pay for stuff we need, and we need 4 new deputies. That’s when we remembered Sheriff Jenkins rolled along in some earlier meeting with his “cream rises to the top” thinking and complained that he can’t afford quality, and Bud also noted that such logic applies to the school system as well.

*duh

We had to fortify with a glass of Sledgehammer before even clicking on the archives. If we had come up with a drinking game for this meeting, everyone playing would have died of alcohol poisoning. The only saving grace is that hardly anyone in the county even pays attention to this stuff, so they’d all be fine. Maybe that part should be demoted to the ugly section.

The Ugly

Now there’s going to be crazy infighting amongst your local yokel writers over who loves Bud the most, because he pulled out a most brilliant thing. He said, “You get what you pay for.” Yes he did. And we swooned.

The UGLY

Kirby started off with a tantrum and called Bud a chickenshit. By the end of the meeting he looked like he was going to explode again. Swiveling back and forth in his chair, with his elbows sticking out from behind his head.

Who looks like a punk? Huh.
Who looks like a punk? Huh.

The worst of it all is that Billy and Kirby treated the council meeting the same way they treat going on WFMD. They wasted time, they ranted and raved. They spent considerable energy pretending that they had some real ideas about the budget, but we watched that, and it was like a kindergartener doing art work. You don’t put that stuff in the Smithsonian. Their behavior is ridiculous.

County Council Drinking Game: 5/19 Meeting

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All in good fun! HUZZA!
Drink Responsibly, Locals and Yokels Alike!

Stock your bar! County Budget Transfers are on Tuesday’s agenda. It will be streaming on FCG TV starting at 4:30. If you have ever enjoyed/stared slack-jawed at a “reality show” on “The Learning Channel,” do we ever have a treat for you! Reality in its purest form: local government. Representative democracy in, um, action…is that the word we are looking for? It’ll have to do.

Suggested rules of the game (you may have to amend these for your own safety):

  • Environmental science is alluded to as a faith-based matter–drink.
  • For any reason the spin is spun that the “Rain Tax” has been repealed–drink.
  • During the budget transfer discussion libraries are regarded as obsolete/undeserving–drink.
  • Kirby loses his temper–make a round of Angry Balls.
  • Abstains from vote–drink.
    • Billy makes it a trend–add Absinthe to your shopping list for next time.
  • Grover Norquist’s name is invoked during public comments–finish your drink.
  • Anything that might be paraphrased, “Kirby Delauter is being slighted; teachers are favored: no fair, no fair, no fair.”–drink.

Comment on our Facebook Page to suggest rules for Thursday’s meeting. The agenda looks promising.

How can Kirby Delauter profit from the government like a businessman today?

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Inside the dome.
Inside the dome.

Seriously questionable timing. An ethics task force appointed by Jan Gardner has not yet completed its findings on how to strengthen the county’s ethical guidelines, and preemptively we have been tossed a bombshell with the findings of the “ethics commission“. Things that make you go hmmm.

The justification for allowing Councilman Kirby to bid on storm water management projects [which haha, duh, is so not a problem, woohooo the Rain Tax was repealed; pssst that is a huge lie so that everyone gets to smell like roses], plus also the county must let Delauter bid on doing all the other stuff Frederick digs up, relies on the fact that the county executive has a great deal of power in determining what happens with the bidding process and contracts. This is all well and good if you trust County Executive Gardner to make objective decisions.  For some odd reason here at the Yokel we have an entirely different vision of the likely outcomes with a different person up in the executive saddle.

Delauter estimates his company could have received $4 million to $5 million in projects during his time as a commissioner if he had been able to submit bids.

“To give up that kind of work just to be a county commissioner, it is giving up a lot to serve your community,” he said.

Ummmm yeah how ’bout no. Kirby should give up serving profiting from Frederick County and go run his business milk it for all it’s worth in a way that doesn’t have anyone questioning whose hand is feeding whom? Plus, we will have to constantly bring up that time a guy working for the county thought his department should get to replace a 17 year old truck, and he was a punk. Teachers who may vote to increase the BOE budget and down the road the BOE may vote to give teachers a little raise so that they can afford to keep buying school supplies for their classrooms, and maybe get a smidge of realistic compensation for working nights, weekends, and summers (who knew!) planning and grading and documenting and doing professional development–those people are sure to be accused of padding their pockets. When a part-time county employee’s family digging business wants to get $5 million-ish from taxpayers, that is to be regarded as ethically sound and fiscally prudent use of public funds. Hoss, we’re hoping to buck you from this part-time gig, eventually, and then you won’t have so much stuff to try and keep consistent up in your dome.

Partisan Games Make No Sense to Locals

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A big slap on the back and a firm hand shake goes out to Steve McKay for an LTE in the Frederick News Post. His words align neatly with our sentiments about Bud Otis, and point out some of the problems that come along with partisan posturing in our community. Yer Yokel writers hope that these criticisms coming from within the party will have some impact.

Signing Grover Norquist's Pledge
Signing Grover Norquist’s Pledge: you get what you pay for.

Watching The Grover Norquist Fan Club speak against Bud Otis in the most recent county council meeting really chapped our hides. When Democrats like what a Republican is doing, it doesn’t make the man a turn-coat, it makes him a success. We are all conservatives: we want our needs met without waste. We are all liberals: we have needs that we acknowledge must be met with public funds. Considering public safety and property values, we must balance our taxing and spending priorities. Bud Otis is doing this without acting pants-on-head ridiculous.

Shreve and Delauter have a history of running their mouths with partisan rhetoric. Such attention seeking behaviors are great tactics for Bob Miller’s radio show ratings, and for nationally known politicians who want to use their elected position to launch their next gig on the box of crazy obnoxious talking heads. Using techniques pioneered by toddlers who don’t want to leave the sandbox is a farcical approach to local government, though. It makes good neighbors despise you for poisoning their well. People simply need the best possible result with the least amount of drama, particularly when we are likely to be bumping into each other at the schools, parks, sports fields, and libraries. Presuming we are going to have enough realists around here that we don’t let all of that fall into disrepair. Local officials do not enjoy the buffer that Rush Limbaugh has between himself and most of America. Nobody wants to buy Dittohead bumper stickers from the guys they elected to make sure their county continues to be a nice place to live. Clearly stating a refusal to think for ones’ own self makes people lose respect for constant unwillingness to adapt to changing circumstances.

Furthermore, most people are engaged enough with their community–even if they don’t follow its politics–to realize that a single issue focus offered up by Grover Norquist is unmarketable at the local level. Community needs are more nuanced than that (and if you keep your thinking hat on, national needs are, too, but we’ll bet on having more success tackling the smaller messes we’ve stepped in around these parts).

Cinco de Loco

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So the beginning of the May 5th County Council meeting is off to a roaring start. Two local hero citizens addressed the board and told them (Kirby, Tony and Billy) to stop acting like babies, follow Robert’s rules of order and for the love of all that is good:COMPROMISE!

Well, Kirby “The Great Compromiser” Delauter was having none of that! He took Hero #1 to task and asked, “Did you not read my budget?” (See our coverage of that debacle)  All he does is try to compromise, why can’t you people see that?

That brings us to Billy. Billy was not pleased with Hero #2’s LTE in this past weekend’s newspaper and invited said misinformed citizen to meet with him privately. (Don’t do it Carl! It’s a trap!) He then went on to try to justify his vote to take money from the snow budget which took a terrible turn when the County Manager said, “I don’t see your point.” To which Billy replied, “I’ve made my point.” BAM! Take that all those who dare to conspire against Billy.

So then Billy refused to vote on ANYTHING. Not last meeting’s minutes and certainly none of Czar Jan’s appointments. We are really confused right now and hope to get to the rest of the meeting tomorrow to keep our dear readers informed.

Frednecks Hash a Budget

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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.

Congratulations Tony Chmelik

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a beard does not make a philosopher
Congrats and welcome to the Frederick County Council

 

We really hope we don’t have too many opportunities to hand these out. Chmelik belabored this point at yesterday’s meeting. I am not sure what you would call the process of lowering the taxes, were such a thing to come about. It sure presents a potential for a messaging dilemma. Via the Frederick News Post:

Delauter, along with councilmen Tony Chmelik and Billy Shreve, want the tax rate lowered. Chmelik said Wednesday he sees Gardner’s budget as a tax increase, although her budget is based on leaving the current tax rate untouched at $1.06.

This is because the budget is above the constant yield tax rate of $1.045. Constant yield is the rate that would generate the same amount of revenue for the county as the year before. Because of rising property values next budget year, the unchanged rate is expected to generate higher revenue compared with this budget year.

The councilmen want the rate to be set even with constant yield, which would require about $4.2 million in cuts.

The prior Board of County Commissioners, which included Shreve and Delauter, adopted tax rates above the constant yield rate in fiscal 2014.

 

Kirby says what?

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At the County Council meeting of April 21st Councilman Delauter once again demonstrated his talent for grandstanding with no discernible purpose. Last night his indignation was directed towards BT-15-171.

Notice the $0 the county is contributing!
Notice the $0 the county is contributing!

Kirby’s disdain for the so-called “Rain Tax” is well-known. When Bud Otis dared to take discussion of the Stormwater Management Fee off an earlier agenda, Kirby called him a tyrant and threatened him with a no-confidence vote. (I am sure Bud was shaking in his boots.)

Kirby calls Tyrant! via Frederick News Post

So one can only imagine that every time Kirby sees the word “Stormwater” some Pavlovian process must be taking place deep within that grey matter called his brain. Instead of finding out any details of what this program would accomplish or even recognize the fact that ZERO county dollars would be used for this program he asks:

“Are we going to mow people’s yards now?

lawn_mowing_kitteh

I had to play the video back a couple of times to make sure I heard  correctly. Mow people’s yards?! Of course not! Even the landscaping allotted in the bill is for conservation landscaping. Conservation landscaping has nothing to do with lawn mowing . It has to do with creating an environment that benefits the waterways and wildlife of a particular area. I was able to find out exactly what it was in less than 2 seconds.

 What is Conservation Landscaping? via Montgomery County

Perhaps Kirby isn’t as good at the internet as I am.

Kirby continues to hammer away at our poor county employee Steve on the science and data and blah blah blah. But to him none of the science is true anyway so there!

But seriously, since when has our esteemed Council Man (and #1 Allen West fan) cared about scientific facts? He obviously does not believe that humans pollute the waterways. Or that the Earth is getting warmer, or that evolution exists or that gravity is a thing …

So why question a simple budget transfer that uses grant money expressly given for the purpose of improving the watershed of the Potomac? To show all of us that science is wrong and he’s right!