#kirbydelauter – Page 21 – frederick local yokel

Black is white, up is down

August 31, 2015 fclocalyokel1 Comment

We have a problem in this county. We have a problem in this country, but we will stick to the county. It’s marginally easier to deal with, no thanks to this madness.

A core group of people are not interested in productive discussions, compromises, or learning about anything that falls within the gray area of an issue. All sincerely held beliefs, all the time. No matter what is brought to the discussion, some people defiantly refuse to grasp what should be by now obvious. The same conversation stalls. Steve McKay’s excellent LTE takes a stab at the same old same old regarding the teachers on the council and the false equivalency to W. H. Delauter & Sons. He even has some new things to think about, if you’re the sort to think about things. And you are, aren’t you?! We love you for that!

At the Frederick County Council Watch Facebook Group you would get the impression that virtually all of the county agrees that Bud is the worst in every way, and that Kirby should get to do whatever he wants no matter how abusive or potentially corrupt. He and Blaine, who is still stoking the fire from across Church St., and Billy “don’t waste my time with emails from constituents” are our only hope and salvation, regardless of the topic at hand (the horror). This is in spite of a fairly bipartisan coalition of those who do not agree with any of this and find their shenanigans embarrassing. Remember the Republicans for Jan Gardner? They do, too, but they don’t qualify anymore. There is only one way to be a Republican, and all of those people who would try to introduce a counterpoint are to be shouted down immediately. There are many alleged “RINOs” vilified every bit as vehemently as anyone who has a D after their name. If not more so, considering the constant insults flung at Bud Otis, and to (hopefully) a lesser frequency some of the Republican members of local action groups. The concept that a Democrat is not an amoral maniac bent on destroying everything is too far in the abstract to even contemplate. This is in spite of the fact that many of us from both sides of the aisle agree on many things. This is the beauty of local politics. One that they would gladly endanger.

A few lonely commenters risk abuse by introducing points in the discussion proving not everyone agrees with all of the frothing whiz poppers. Rubberneckers can watch slack-jawed as they float ideas like, “Kirby Delauter brought the community together,” by petulantly and publicly refusing to donate to Catoctin Athletics (or anyone else in the community). Being an unrepentant jerk who strives to create a vacuum of decency needing to be filled is not an act of heroism. The community set out not just to fulfill the need for a donation, but to prove that our county is also full of nice people who don’t get hashtags and tantrums picked up and distributed by the AP. It is astonishing that this apparently requires time and effort to clarify. Perhaps if people are packed together in a sealed box inhaling all of one another’s toxins it affects the lucidity of their thinking.

Somewhat off topic, but it seemed unfair to make Kirby look like the only unrepentant jerk. Look forward to some ranting about how awful Jen Fifield is and how justified Billy is for being rude (better that than PC, right Trump fans?). — Somewhat off topic, but it seemed unfair to make Kirby look like the only unrepentant jerk. Look forward to some ranting about Jen Fifield and how justified Billy is for being rude (at least he isn’t PC, right–because obnoxious equals heroism or something).

Furthermore, we were treated to a genuine work of art found here as an opinion column. A brief visit to the Frederick Council Watch Clusternut Festival will reveal some direct contradictions to this silliness. Connoisseurs of irony will find it delightful, if it doesn’t depress you too much. Is there a term yet for accidental satire? If not, there’s another vacuum to fill.

Show the love; share the love

August 20, 2015August 20, 2015 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

Hey y’all there’s an online thingamabobber created by a friendly Frederick County resident, and we wanted to be sure to give a shout out for her willingness to iron out all these details for the student athletes. So many thanks to–well you can see who she is as the event host since we didn’t ask if it was okay to gush over her first, but she’s done good!!! We really appreciate her initiative, hosting this event on Facebook to raise money for the Catoctin High School Sports Boosters, and the launching of a GoFundMe campaign.

If you prefer the traditional way of making a donation through the mail, checks can be made to:

CHS Sports Boosters
14745 Sabillasville Road
Thurmont, MD 21758.
If you want you can put “In It Together” on the memo line.

Check's in the mail! — Check’s in the mail!

We love you, Frederick County! Also, please do remember that there are other programs and other schools where funds may also be needed. They didn’t get their request for help scribbled on and shared all over the place with a rehashed hashtag, so consider donating to them as well. If anyone has event details, please comment on Facebook so they may be noticed.

#kirbydelauter throws online tantrum (again), refuses to donate to kids

August 20, 2015 fclocalyokel7 Comments

JeezLouise. This guy. He’s clearly mad that Frederick County (belatedly joining the rest of Maryland) is also not going to be hiring its council persons to do their construction work. Airing his grievances like this happens to really get our knickers into knots. If his business was so dependent upon Frederick County in order to profit, the least he could have done was sincerely look for other donors to help Catoctin High School Athletics. Assuming a county school would be unlikely to get into a political brouhaha with a county council member, we will ask on his disgusting, self-serving behalf.

Is anyone more despicable than this? Just gross.

So hey, if you should find yourself in a position to be generous, consider sending some coin to the extra-curricular programs at our stretched-thin schools. Since this guy’s mad at some other council members, he’s taking it out on the students. Publicly. Because #kirbydelauter cannot learn from past mistakes.

Oh, and if this is staged and did not actually affect the status of a donation–and it well could be–pretending to be stingy with kids because you’re mad at adults is just as bad, in that you still look like the same jerk. But dumber, because you want to show everyone you’re awful, and that is facepalm stupid.

If you have specific contact information to process donations or promote fundraisers for student activities in Frederick County, please feel free to share in our social media contacts.

Singing the praises of our friend Bud.

August 19, 2015 fclocalyokel1 Comment

Bud has had a rough couple of weeks. These ProEnglish people unleashed a very unfair and immature attack against him. And despite what Mary, Mary quite contrary may say, we don’t believe that our County Council people need “to get used” to outside groups coming in and harassing them.

We also have our fellow citizens saying terrible things about him on that awful county council watch page. For some reason they love to bring up his genitals. Must not have moved beyond a middle school mind- set. It’s especially stupid to be a lady suggesting man parts are essential to good governance. It’s the smart parts we’re after, not the Anthony Weiner parts.

Last night Bud once again proved to us what a mature, deliberate man he really is. When Billy sarcastically and very rudely asks Bud if he has anything to say about the repeal of the English Only Ordinance, he replies that he does. And how our hearts soar when this man speaks. Despite the distraction of Billy vigorously nodding his head yes when Bud begins with saying that his position many not get him re-elected, we were reminded what a sane, thoughtful man he is. Bud continues on to how this ordinance makes our county look bad and how it’s not who we are in Frederick County. And he’s absolutely right! Even Tony admitted the ordinance was inane. Reasoning that we should keep it because some people think our country is being taken away. A claim that he himself does not believe. Well, at least Bud had the backbone to stand up for what kind of people we are. Not some dystopian vision of becoming a sanctuary county.

We are also dismayed by the people who love to insinuate that Bud is somehow incompetent because he occasionally trips over a word. We do not care for the ageism that is ever so present in these mean, petty observations. Every person up on that dais has tripped over their words every now and again. And believe us, Bud is not nearly the worst offender.

And as for Billy’s claim that Bud won’t get re-elected. I wouldn’t worry about that. Billy doesn’t have the pulse of this county like he thinks he does. Your support, Bud, is far and wide. Keep up the good work and don’t worry about these petty naysayers.

Evening update: 8/18

August 18, 2015 fclocalyokel1 Comment

If you followed along with Facebook and Twitter, you already know the outcome of the big stuff. The English-Only ordinance was repealed, and Kirby’s Law passed (he even took ownership of it and claimed it for himself). Now, like all the other counties in Maryland, council persons in Frederick County cannot bid on contracts with the county. There was some kerfuffle–is that an English word??? Who cares! Yay!–wherein some of the usuals tried to explain how unfair this was that Kirby didn’t know when he took the county job that he wasn’t going to be able to profit from the gig. Tony tries to suggest two amendments, but that nonsense was quickly laid to rest. Boo-hoo. Go ahead and resign. Dare ya.

Being in-house this evening was something else. It was simultaneously easy to feel sympathy for teachers and teenagers. Like being transported back to the throes of adolescence, the “Am I hearing this right?” sensation of sitting and struggling (not altogether successfully) to respectfully listen to someone try to stick a square peg of an idea into a round hole of logic has not become easier with maturity. As an example, Billy Shreve was proud of himself for a “gotcha” moment this evening that involved vilifying the county for the expense of pursuing people who steal water from hydrants. This was after it had been pointed out that it has the potential to contaminate the entire water supply and poison us all. Scary. Plus: cost benefits analysis, dude. Water. Ask California to help you understand. If Billy were to have his way, no one would be prosecuted for some spindly fine that he would deem too small to collect. What that number is could be anyone’s guess. I suppose it’s okay to committ misdemeanors here in Frederick.

On the other hand, capable teachers everywhere must cringe to realize that no matter how many times you explain how the budget works with the BOE, at least three grown adult people with allegedly mature brains will never understand it well enough to strike it from their list of “conflict of interest” talking points.

Props to Jerry Donald for pointing out that the English-Only ordinance was a loser from the right hand side, in that it created unnecessary and meaningless legislation to govern a free-market and constantly evolving language environment. Leave it to a teacher to go all debate team on it and show us he can rock it from the other angle.

And finally, at long last. And we mean long. And we mean last. Chmelik has a new game. Move to repeal is a way for an already verbose guy to force us to listen to him carry on ad infinitum.

zzzzzzzzz also, compromise, I do not think it means what you think it means.

The flavor of tears

July 29, 2015 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

We think we may need to update their bios to reflect the fact that if it is a day that ends in Y, Billy and Kirby are crying again. It was merciful of Tony Chmelik to refrain from comment on this story. Either that or sensible. As often as we disagree with him, he doesn’t seem like his primary motivation in holding office is attention seeking behavior.

This time Billy and Kirby are bent out of shape because the procedure with the council government is to consider comments made during public hearings and vote on related actions at a subsequent meeting, in order to think first about what the public has had to say.

Shreve complains:

“You kind of lose the flavor of the discussion,” he said.

The flavor is the same every time there is a discussion. Billy abstains, Billy complains. Billy is actually pretty dang boring. We try to derive some entertainment from all of this, since we will take laughter over tears any day.

The “shoot-first-ask-questions-later” method that they prefer was used with the commissioner form of government. Readers may recall that at the time there was a common perception that four of the commissioners (R-idiculous) had already decided how to vote before they listened to the public comments. For some reason. Also, David Gray (R-ational) recently told us all in his public comments during the hearing about the Monrovia Town Center approval process that the other commissioners truly did not give a flying pizza crust about what the public had to say. Whaddaya know? The people were right about that all along. Could it possibly be that Bud Otis is sensitive to a need to change this perception?

So now that Bud Otis’s leadership is trying to present a friendlier approach to local governance, predictably the holdovers from the last BOCC are cranky about it.

“When I have an opinion, when I have a point, I’m going to make it,” Delauter said at the meeting.

Yes, we remember that about #Kirbydelauter…it’s kind of his thing.

Otis said he had no plans to push for any changes in the legislative process or schedule regular workshops at this point.

“We have just gotten started,” he said. “You need to see how the process works before you start changing.”

Interestingly, if you have some feedback you’d like to give on how the process works best now that you have this information, using Bud’s type of thinking you would be free to do so. And Bud can keep an open-mind about it until we see how it’s working and if people like it or not. Isn’t that nifty? Somehow, open-mindedness is still a partisan issue where we have the Democrats lining up in favor of it and talking about keeping open lines of communication. With Chmelik sensibly demurring it appears that our favorite band, Bud and the Democrats, are still together for the time being.

Quotes taken from the Frederick News Post “County council members at odds on when to debate, vote” from Tuesday, July 28, 2015.

Where is everyone?! Your July 7th council meeting roundup.

July 7, 2015 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

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!

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.

Best wishes to Mrs. Otis and Billy behave!

June 30, 2015July 1, 2015 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

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:

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:

At 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.

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.

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?

The water vapors are weighing the council down

June 16, 2015 fclocalyokelLeave a comment

I do declare the humidity must be affecting some members of our esteemed county council. Tis the time of year when it is common to fall out from the stickiness that surrounds us like mud on a hog. Mr. Shreve in particular was a tad testier than usual. Makes us want to pull him under the shade of an old Magnolia that our great grand pappy planted back in 1907 and give him a good talking to. Alas, what difference would it really make?

Our first point of bewilderment with Mr. Shreve is this:

Why every week, before the pledge, does he do this? And notice he’s the only one. Does he not want to face the public? Does he worship at the altar of the American flag? What in a donkey’s backside is the meaning of this?

Now particular to this week, Billy goes right in for the no when voting on whether or not to approve the consent agenda. On the consent agenda this week were various budget transfers for departments such as: The Child Advocacy Center, Agricultural Preservation, Housing and Community Services, Planning and Development, Fire and Rescue and Community Development. His particular beef, from what we could tell since we cannot fathom getting in that head of his, was he was really bitter about the council not approving Trout Run and still not getting his budget liaison. Logic of course dictates that he then mess with everyone else’s budget. Thankfully, Billy has no one else on board with his interesting style of governance and all budget transfers were passed 6-1.

Moving on to the approval of minutes for the last three meetings. A unanimous vote! Still Billy cannot bring himself to say Aye. Must be that oppositional disorder rearing its ugly head again. A note to be made about Kirby. He did not seem to want to turn on his microphone this evening. We later discover it’s working just fine. But through all the votes we can barely hear his little “aye”. What’s up with that?

On to everyone’s favorite commission: Ethics. A motion is put forth to appoint four new members. Of course Billy isn’t going to let this go without making some kind of declaration. “It’s sad that 3 of the 5 members of the ethics commission resigned and we are in this position.” Really, really sad.

6-1 approved! Even Kirby. Billy seems to be losing all his playmates. On to Jessica and M.C.’s bill to repeal the English only ordinance. We heard some nonsense earlier in the week about Billy going on WFMD and saying this:

“You either have to stay all English or not all English. And as soon as you open up yourself, you have to provide absolutely everything. If you have someone from the jungle of Brazil from some tribe of 20 people, and they come in and want a document translated, you have to be able to translate it for them.”

With great poise Councilwoman Fitzwater introduced the bill and we know, just know he’s going to say something and of course he does! He insisted that we don’t have to throw out old Blainey boy’s ordinance, we can just modify it. Jessica then snaps at him (Oh the humidity, but how can we blame her? I mean really.). If you have something in writing, she quipped, you can share it with me. Right now all we are doing is reading the bill. Properly chastised he shuts the microphone down.

The next order of business is something we have wanted to see happen for quite sometime. We here at the Local Yokel love our festivals. The 4th of July, In the Streets, special events at Rose Hill Manor count us in! What we do not love is seeing the mountains of trash that are full of recyclables. Our fair State passed a law requiring that all counties pass ordinances that require event organizers, within certain parameters, to provide recycling. Yay!!! Now keep in mind THIS HAS TO HAPPEN! It is a State law and Frederick County must comply. The Department of Solid Waste Management presented a lot of information to the council. And they underlined the fact that THIS HAS TO HAPPEN. Well, looky over to the left, who is going to make this difficult? That’s right Billy. He tries to make the poor solid waste people give him an estimate as to how much recyclables would be generated at a picnic or a soccer tournament. And these poor souls. Silence falls and then a response of, “There is really no way we can estimate that.” He then wants to know what private companies charge to haul this stuff away. They don’t know. His point, I suppose, is that he thinks this will put an unfair burden on people. But hey, this isn’t for little outings. It’s for events that are expecting over 200 people and take place on public property. Why can’t this man see the big picture on this or anything else for that matter? Thankfully passed 6-1.

Next oddity on the agenda. Kirby wants a lobbyist. What for? To send to Annapolis, because according to him we are missing out on millions of dollars that are either sitting in some secret bunker or being distributed to other counties. Bud rightfully asks if this is not the job of our elected delegates and state senators. Aren’t they not the ones elected to bring back money to the county? And if Kirby’s contention, for which he has no proof, is correct, then we have a problem. It was agreed that they would meet with the delegation to see if they were in fact missing out on this secret stash of cash.

It was within this conversation that our good buddy Bud almost gave us a fainting spell. He called Kirby Congressman Delauter! And oh my stars do not even joke about such a thing Bud! He quickly and quite loudly added: “Sorry about that”! Wouldn’t we all be sorry indeed?

Last week’s poll results and this week’s happy fun time!

June 10, 2015June 10, 2015 fclocalyokel3 Comments

Wow! Thank you very much looking forward to seeing y'all out in the field. — Wow! Thank you very much looking forward to seeing y’all out in the field.

Ha ha! But seriously, who voted for Blaine?!

So for this week we want to imagine that you are going to attend a lecture series. Which one of the following would you like to attend for the purpose of heckling?

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