Our faithful readers will remember way back when Kirby and Billy equated Jan to a tyrant. We did a wholepostillustrating 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:
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:
Maybe we should do a little investigatin’ into this Putin character:
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?
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.
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.
So much has happened this past week in Ye Olde Fredericktowne that your friendly Yokels have decided to do a weekly roundup. Let’s start with the County Council and happy budget fun time.
We’ve written two posts this week about budget talk. Read it here and here. However, we were very interested to find this in the Political Notes section of the paper this morning:
County Executive Jan Gardner’s budget announcement last Friday included a new little nugget. Well, five of them.
Gardner said she extended an invitation to all seven Frederick County Council members to talk about the budget, including a list of their priorities. Five members took her up on the offer: Democrats Jerry Donald, M.C. Keegan-Ayer and Jessica Fitzwater and Republicans Bud Otis and Tony Chmelik.
Gardner said she couldn’t meet all of their requests, but each was considered in her proposal.
Councilmen Billy Shreve and Kirby Delauter, also Republicans, didn’t take Gardner up on the offer, apparently.
It seems they have other plans.
Shreve, who is still upset the council doesn’t have a dedicated budget officer, gave handouts to his colleagues, showing that they are the only council in the state without such help. Nevertheless, Shreve said he was going to dig into the numbers.
“I’m going to work on this budget. Look at it. See if we can make some changes,” he said Tuesday. One major change he pitched included scrapping a plan to keep the county’s property tax rate steady — which will yield increased revenue — and instead lower the rate and cut spending.
“The easiest solution … is if you have the same amount of revenue as you did last year, you adopt the same budget you did last year,” Shreve said.
Kirby and Billy are fine sitting on the couch thank you very much!
So not only are they refusing the County Executive’s invitation to come discuss the budget, which really is a dereliction of their duty, but Billy is all fine and dandy with keeping everything the same. Why should we strive to improve? A real brain stumper!
Next on our wrap up is Sheriff Jenkins. As we are sure you all know our Sheriff testified in front of Congress this week about illegal immigration. Last night, Sean Hannity had the Sheriff and two other guests on for four minutes of the most exquisite fear mongering we have ever seen.
Is that comment for reals?
Look, we here at the Yokel do not want anyone, be it citizens, immigrants, or illegal immigrants, committing crimes. And if someone had hurt our kids, we cannot say that we wouldn’t feel the same way that poor woman who testified with the Sheriff does. However, this kind of sensational talk does nothing to bring about meaningful immigration change. What it does do is incite fear and discrimination against the Latino community. Not one of us wants criminals running around our community. Building a wall is not a realistic solution towards that goal. Also, it is a known truth that huge numbers of “illegals” arrive by plane and overstay an expired, once-valid visa, so wasteful government spending on a stupid wall is stupid and wasteful. But now we totally get why Fox News watchers are so angry and paranoid all the time. Jeeze O’Flip that channel! And we also didn’t realize how scary a place Frederick is to live, the internets must be wrong about us.
Who exactly is the beast in this scenario, Gaston?
Last on our roundup: You may have heard that a certain Presidential Contender was in town yesterday. Another nugget from the Political Notes section was this:
Apparently, that relationship stuck. Ahead of Cruz’s rally on Thursday, Hough picked Afzali to pick up the candidate from the airport. And if Cruz’s camp was impressed with Folden’s driving skills, they may have had a different review of the Afzali Cab Service. “My husband went slow, because I needed to talk to Ted,” Afzali said. “We had a lot to talk about.”
If Cruz wasn’t so terrible we might have felt sorry for him. But since he is, we laughed and laughed.
If you missed our tweets about his speech head on over to @fclocalyokel and take a looky look. The most disturbing story to come out of that mess was the transgender student who was thrown out of rally. You can read the story here. But James, we would be remiss if we did not officially give you a Yokel tip of the hat:
Thank you for having the courage to stand up for what you believe in. Always be proud of who you are!
We really don’t get all this fervor over public bathrooms. Whether you like it or not transgender people have been using public bathrooms for years. And has society crumbled as a result? No! Because nothing bad has happened! You really should be more afraid of former Republican Speakers of the Houseand U.S. Senators. But if you can’t get past it, Kirby has a solution:
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!
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?:
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:
We end with a nice presentation on a Maryland Development Block Grant. Meeting reconvenes at 7:00 for a public hearing on the budget.
As we let you know yesterday there was a county council workshop to discuss two land use issues. We can say this: Billy and Kirby do not like it when old BOCC business is criticized. Even when given something like a million explanations as to why something should go they steadfastly refuse to do so. Have to admire their tenacity. Or not.
First off, kudos once again to our county workers. It must be the bane of their existence to have to come before the council and try to explain things to a couple of these fellas. A few of the presenters tonight seem to have had it with Billy and Kirby, as has the FNP. In the articledescribing yesterday’s meeting there was no mention of their behavior. How dare the FNP not report upon their hissy fits? This upset Billy and Kirby so much that this had to happen:
Not at all accurate, people!Oh don’t worry Billy. We watched and we decided.
So let’s deal with the Agricultural bit first. County staff has met with the State over the issue concerning our lost Tier IV Exemption status. The State, in turn, gave four options the county could utilize to remedy the situation. County staff has weighed the pros and cons of each option and decided the best one one was to repeal the ARTO. Here’s the rationale:
Well, Kirby, Billy and Tony want to have their own meeting with the State. Some nonsense about how “they can work things out”. Isn’t that what the staff’s job is? Not one of them gives any good reason as to why this ordinance should stand. Not a one. Kirby, at one point, concedes that he is not an expert on this subject. However, its not enough to make him stop arguing.
Sorry, Marmalade, we need a better reason that that.
Then it was off to the second item of business. Reinstating the old APFO process. Our poor, downtrodden county employee, Jim, explained very thoroughly how this new process , passed in 2012, helped no one in any way shape or form. Jim even went as far to suggest that perhaps the BOCC made this change because they were concerned that the make up of the Planning Commission at that time would not be friendly to some of the projects that were proposed. Billy had some sarcastic comments, but as usual, nothing of substance to back his arguments.
Being a workshop, there’s still more discussion to be had. One final question though: If Billy votes no to going into a closed session does that mean the rest of the council can lock him out? Please say yes!
Hey Yokels! It’s finally Maryland’s turn to weigh in on this primary side show. Starting this Thursday you can choose who will run for President, Congressperson, Senator and a slew of local offices. If you don’t align with a particular party, you can still show up to pick three choices for our local school board. We here at the Yokel believe local elections are really important. There’s lots of good choices for the board, except one. Steer away from Cindy Rose. We will have more on her in a separate post soon.
If you are still undecided whom to vote for to run for President, Kirby has some really good advice:
Life is all about change. Humans, in order to survive and thrive, must be adaptable to change. If not, you end up denying indisputable climate data and supporting a candidate that promises to make everything great again. So we here at the Yokel want to be adaptable. We don’t want to end up stockpiling canned goods and squatting on National Wildlife preserves. We really don’t! That’s why we want to accept all of the changes we saw at the meeting last night no matter how hard that may be.
First we’ll start with someone who could use a bit of change.
AYE Billy AYE!
We’ve done a few posts about Billy’s oppositional defiance disorder.When he can bring himself to vote he never, ever says Aye. Everyone else can do it, but Billy likes to be a trailblazer. Nobody is going to tell him how to talk, no sirree Bob. Until Billy sends us a message explaining why he does this we’re going to refer to him as a:
Next on the agenda is some sewer talk. The two amendments to the code and one out of sequence item concerning sewer hookup to Lewistown were passed with little to no fanfare. Then came the third reading section of the evening.
First off, Jessica tables the bill concerning the changes that can be made to historical designations. Of course Xenu is playing a hand in this. And the FNP articleon it acknowledges as much. We here at the Yokel agree with Mark Long’s public comments concerning the Scientologists turning the land over to the park service. Enough is enough. We don’t want a bizarre cult recruitment center thinly disguised as a very ineffective drug treatment center in our neck of the woods.
The next bill was also tabled. This time it was medical cannabis that landed on the cutting room floor. In a separate FNP article we learn:
Keegan-Ayer said after Tuesday’s County Council meeting she didn’t have four votes among the seven council members to approve the bill. In early March, she told The Frederick News-Post she believed a majority of the council supported the legislation.
She said Tuesday that she was aware of concerns among some council members, but declined to elaborate what they were.
“In my opinion, they were not based on fact,” Keegan-Ayer said of the concerns.
What’s that you say?! Some council members hold opinions that aren’t based on facts? When did this start? Oh that’s right December 1, 2014. Come on people, enough craziness about marijuana. There’s even been research suggesting that we may not have the opioid/heroine addiction problems if Nixon hadn’t made everyone so cuckoo over marijuana and let it be researched as a pain management drug. Let’s all operate in the real world..please!!!
Now we come to the part of the meeting that still has us scratching our watches and winding our butts. Remember a few weeks back when Councilman Chemlik was all so against the impact fees? We recall a longsoliloquy in defense of our poor, downtrodden developers. Fast forward to last night and oh how things have changed. We like the change, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t want an explanation! Tony is now for both of these fees! He was so very excited to vote for them that he screamed Aye into his microphone before the vote had even been taken. We would like to accept his vote and move on, but we can’t. What the hell happened?
It is unbelievable to your Yokel gals the lengths to which some of these people will go to in defending Blaine Young. A look at the paper today reveals an LTE, short and sweet.It’s so short it would have fit in one little block quote. Some lady admonishing the FNP for being mean.
Can we just ask? Why is nothing ever their fault? Kirby can make an ass of himself on a public forum, and it’s other people’s problem for noticing. Blaine allegedly can’t keep his pants zipped anywhere for any reason at a time period lasting for decades, and WE are the ones embarrassing his family (!!!!) according to the unwavering logical fallacy that is the hallmark of the County Council Watch page. Oh, and by-the-by, if you aren’t following the County Council Watch Watch, you should be! It will save you having to peek at the condition of that festering boil on the butt of the county.
And guess what, dear “Area Woman” of the Watch Watch! We don’t even have to be the voyeurs to your exhibitionist friend group. There is an entire network of concerned citizens who just occasionally lets us know when something interesting is going on. It’s just that simple. Probably they let everyone and their mother know about the same stuff, but the Baltimore Sun is staffed and paid to call everyone for comment. We’re just leading you to the same public information you could find any old time, but the internet made it faster. Like the White Pages. Remember when you had to look in a book? Well, no longer. Same with court records, Woman.
When we started this group one of our goals was to poke fun at the local mess so that maybe more people would be willing to pay attention to local politics. It’s absolutely not our fault if your weirdo sideshow makes the best scandals. Too bad that “Mexican” food for dinner is too boring to capture anyone’s imagination. Multiple sex scandals (even more than one with hookers), repeatedly doing stuff so dumb that the A.P. runs stories about how dumb you are, or the “je ne sais quoi” Billy contributes to the Honey Boo Boo vibe of Frederick county are just plain fascinating.
Get ahold of yourself, Woman!
This matter of going after people’s kids. No one is going after kids, except for Area Woman trying to suggest it would be fine to persecute ours. We are absolutely in agreement with Blaine’s deleted Facebook apology (the one the Baltimore Sun screen capped and distributed like common stalkers, hahah!): his family and romantic partner(s?) need space. However, if a john’s kids feel ashamed by his gross behavior, that’s a john’s fault and he should have thought about that before breaking the law. It seems like there have been ample opportunities to learn this lesson:
Keep your crazy tucked in, people. And your other stuff, too, while you’re at it.
How cute! County citizens thought they had a voice!
For years we labored under the delusion that the 1st amendment mattered. Along comes Roy Stanley’s lawsuit and shatters that illusion. It’s really silly to admit that we whole-heartedly believed that American citizens were allowed to assemble and petition the government. In fact, our urbanite education kinda instructed us that it was our duty to do so. Some nonsense about it strengthening our democracy and making sure the most powerful voices didn’t always win out. It makes us blush because we now realize that we have been stuck in our post adolescent idealistic phase for a couple of decades.
Perhaps we should thank Mr. Stanley for waking us up and making us face the harsh realities of the world. We get that Mr. Stanley wants to move on with his development. And while we don’t agree with his premises about C. Paul Smith’s FACT letter, nor do we think he will win, we get why he would sue the county government. What we cannot imbibe, and what has shattered our faith in American democracy, is that fact that he decided to add members of RALE to his lawsuit.
For those of you not familiar with RALE (Residents Against Landsdown Expansion), please visit their website. In short, they are a group of concerned citizens in Monrovia. They banded together because they were concerned about the amount of development and lack of improvements that were being proposed in their neighborhood. They have faithfully attended every meeting, spoke their minds (especially Steve McKay) and called foul when they believed certain political officials were not only listening to developers, but were in cahoots with them.
We here at the Yokel were lucky enough to get a copy of said lawsuit. Count III is the only part that we see that includes RALE, though we are still not exactly sure why. See for yourself:
COUNT III DECLARATORY JUDGMENT (all Defendants)
149. Plaintiff adopts by reference the allegations contained in Paragraphs 1 through 148 of this Complaint with the same effect as if herein fully set forth. 150. This is an action for declaratory judgment pursuant to § 3-409 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland, for the purpose of terminating uncertainty or controversy between parties with antagonistic claims that will likely give rise to imminent or inevitable litigation. 151. There exists an actual controversy of a justiciable issue between the parties involving the rights and liabilities of the parties. The County Council is determined to force the Plaintiffs to present their rezoning application anew to the Planning Commission and then to the County Council, and the Plaintiffs maintain that the County Council has violated the Court’s March 10, 2015 Order, violated Maryland’s impermissible change of mind rule, and denied the due process to the Plaintiffs. 152. The actual controversy between the parties is within the jurisdiction of the Court. 37 153. The antagonistic claims between the parties indicate imminent and inevitable litigation. 154. A declaratory judgment by this Court will terminate the actual controversy between the parties. WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs, 75-80 Properties, L.L.C. and Payne Investments, LLC, respectfully request that the Court enter an Order: (a) Declaring that the purpose of the Court’s Order of March 10, 2015 was to direct the County Council of Frederick County to conduct further proceedings, including testimony, to resolve the issues raised in the Court’s March 10, 2015 Order, i.e., to determine what significance, if any, the FACT Letter played in the former BOCC’s approval of the Plaintiffs’ PUD rezoning application for the Monrovia Town Center; (b) Declaring that the statements of Councilmen Shreve and Delauter at the June 9, 2015 public meeting of the County Council that the FACT Letter did not have any impact on their decisions to vote to approve the Plaintiffs’ PUD rezoning application for the Monrovia Town Center, together with former Commissioner Young’s Affidavit submitted to the administrative record to the effect that the FACT Letter was not a determinative factor in Commissioner Young’s decision to vote to approve the Plaintiffs’ PUD rezoning application for the Monrovia Town Center, effectively resolves the question as to the significance of the FACT Letter; (c) Declaring that the testimony and Affidavit of the decision-makers, Councilmen Shreve and Delauter and former Commissioner Young, establishes that the FACT Letter was not significant in that the FACT Letter did not have any effect on the votes of a majority of the 38 former Commissioners to approve the Plaintiffs’ PUD rezoning application for the Monrovia Town Center; (d) Declaring that since the FACT Letter did not exist when the Frederick County Planning Commission unanimously voted to recommend approval of the Plaintiffs’ PUD rezoning application, the County Council violated Maryland’s impermissible change of mind rule by remanding this matter back to the Planning Commission with instructions to the Planning Commission to review the Plaintiffs rezoning application again from the beginning; (e) Declaring that County Council has taken a patently unreasonable amount of time in addressing the Court’s March 10, 2015 Order, that the County Council does not have a valid reason for the unreasonable delay, and that the delay violates the Plaintiffs’ Fifth Amendment rights against deprivation of property without due process of law; and (f) Granting such other and further relief as this Court deems just and proper.
Are we to discern that they want the court to get rid of all antagonist influences? If others have problems with this development, are they not allowed to voice those concerns? And this FACT letter…how can anyone take Young, Shreve and Delauter’s word on this? We hope, like in the case concerning Trout Run, that our fellow citizens ,who are guilty of nothing but voicing their concerns, are stricken from this suit. Can you imagine the precedence it would set if all developers had to do was to reach into their deep pockets to silence the dissenters with litigation?
Speaking of litigation if you would like to help RALE out go to their website and click donate.
Man, how bad is it when even Donald Trump wants to distance himself from you?!
Yokels, if you’ve been with us from the beginning you know that Blaine Young is the reason that we started this little blog. As we read his letter to the FNPentitled:
Blaine Young: ‘Work together, or nothing will get accomplished’
we knew we had to do something. Our first instinct was to go on an angry, drunken rampage through the streets of Frederick. Cooler heads prevailed and we instead decided to start a blog on the corruption and down right craziness that exists in our local government. For almost a year, certain characters have kept us very, very busy. Even the one that promised we wouldn’t be hearing from him for 10 years.
In fairness, or because they wanted us to have an endless stream of material, someone at the FNP has given Blaine a column. It’s always terrible, andtodaywas no exception. Let’s begin with the title:
What does ‘open for business’ mean anymore?
Sorry Hoots, but if we had to endure it so do you.
Didn’t he hear that when Jan took down the “open for business” signs all local businesses, especially hot dog stands, were required to shut down? I mean really Blaine, get with it.
The first few paragraphs are dedicated to educating us to how Democrats ruin everything. Of course! Republicans, on the other hand, would like to get rid of ALL regulations, except those that protect the public. To do otherwise would be picking the winners and losers. Then we are treated to his views on government services (Keep in mind folks, this guy was in charge of our government for 4 years and wanted to become our County Executive. Man we dodged a nuclear weapon!):
Sometimes the government would even go into business competing against the private sector, such as a golf courses, health and fitness, aquatics, nursing homes, entertainment, hotel and conference centers — just to name some categories close to home.
So is it his contention that the government provides recreation and medical services just to stick it to local businesses? There couldn’t possibly be other reasons could there? Like cost, accountability and equal access? Hmm, let’s continue….
Sorry Sprinkles, we’re almost done.
His enlightened views on the tax code:
The tax code is a mess on all levels, local, state and the federal, but we created this mess. We desperately need tax reform and a simpler, more equitable tax code. I’d propose either a flat tax or fair tax. But this will never happen, because politicians would lose the power to directly benefit those who helped elect them.
Sigh, then he meanders his way back to Maryland. You know the most business unfriendly entity on the face of the Earth!? Because folks, no Fortune 500 companies operate out of Baltimore. Thankfully, though, the Gods of fortune have heard Blaine’s cries for help:
It was a major step to elect a governor who understands how business works. Gov. Larry Hogan actually owned and operated a business that employed people. Now, no disrespect to other small-business owners, but unless you have a business location and employ at least a handful of people, it’s hard to understand the everyday challenges that a business owner encounters. In my opinion, career politicians who have never owned a business are the core of the problem, and this needs to be addressed if we are ever really going to have a government that encourages free enterprise instead of stifling it.
Hey Guv, Blaine wants to know if there are any open positions on your staff.
We are happy to know that Governor Hogan employed people instead of let’s say baboons. Business people of course have a perspective to bring to the table. But not the only perspective. So is Blaine actually advocating that business people are the only ones qualified for public office? It sure seems so. Things haven’t been working out so well on that front though:
We have very few business people serving in elected office or who ever aspire to serve. When I look locally, I can only find one, and they are trying to drive him out of business or out of office.
Who, pray tell, is he referring to? A real stumper!
Well, Blaine has a solution to all of our anti-business woes. There’s only one person brave enough to strip all regulations, ban all governmental functions and get this country back on course again! Are you ready folks?!:
This is why I believe Donald Trump has hit a nerve in this election cycle. Some people say we need a successful business person who tells it like it is to straighten this country out. Now, we always want to start at the top to fix our problems but it’s Congress and the state Legislature that needs to be changed first.
“Some people”:
Do these mysterious “some people” really think that Trump is qualified to run the free world because he’s run a trazillion businesses into the ground? Is it a fair trade to elect a racist misogynist xenophobe to the highest office because he’s employed people? How can that be a reasonable action to propose? Oh yeah right, it’s Blaine.
If you do get a chance to read the article, MAKE sure you read the comments. They’ll give you a chuckle or two. In all fairness, not everyone was upset about this column:
Why is everyone always calling Billy? Stop it people!
frederick local yokel 