We lament daily about the Les Incompetents in charge of our federal government. Let us take a moment here to be thankful that this set of nincompoops are NOT in charge during these challenging times.
Imagine for a moment, that Kirby won the CE seat. We Frederick Countians would all be so screwed if our county was headed by someone spewing this kind of nonsense:
We all knew that Kirby wasn’t batting on a full wicket, but blatant disregard for public health isn’t something we fully expected. If there was ever proof that elections matter, THERE IT IS!
Tony also has thoughts:
Praise cupcakes! This idiot.
Let’s all be thankful that we don’t have to be mansplained on the dias as to why we are all overreacting!
Billy hasn’t been as bad, believe it or not, but there are still some issues:
And….
Uh, last time we went skiing people had to congregate in the rental area, in the bathrooms, and in the lodge. This is not good advice Billy.
Lastly, we’ve had a lot of reasons to be thankful that Cindy was not elected to the BOE over the last few years, but perhaps no comment of hers makes that more crystal clear than this one:
UNBELIEVABLE!
On a side note we all had a little snicker here postulating that Billy would be the one giving the hair dryer advice, while Jessica would be the voice of reason. Thankfully this scenario does not exist in real life for us.
BEHOLD:
Okeechobee County Commissioner Bryant Culpepper at emergency meeting says you can kill coronavirus by holding a blow dryer up to your nose after he saw it on “reliable source” OANN, warns “there’s a lot of baloney out there on social media” #BecauseFloridapic.twitter.com/n9dGDBQ4WW
It’s hard to believe that people are anything but outraged by children being taken from their parents. We here at the Yokel have been sick over it. We all have little ones and cannot imagine what these people are going through. If you are thinking, “Well, it’s their parents fault,” or “Obama did it too,” go away now! We are done with the likes of you!
Even though Trump has finally signed an Executive Order to overturn his very own policy, which he insisted he wasn’t able to do because it was a Democratic law, the question remains as to when the already separated children will be reunited with their parents. That’s the only thing anyone with a heart should be worried about.
However….we live in a crazy world. And we have some people running for office who have some interesting interpretations of what we should be worried about instead of the obvious.
Something is disgusting all right! If she would have taken half a second to fact check this picture she would have found out it was taken at a protest about children being held in cages, not someone staging a picture of kids being held in cages.
Because there are plenty of real pictures of that. But, that’s not what this BOE candidate wants us to focus on is it? By posting this she’s insinuating that this whole story isn’t true. Snopes is your friend, Cindy. If you can’t bother to check the validity of a simple picture how can we possibly trust you to make fact-based decisions concerning our children’s education?
On that note, go ahead and jump over to her Local Control Facebook page, because there are some real heroes interacting with her and Seth!
How does Kirby feel about all this hullabaloo? Take a look:
Hey folks! Why are we spending so much time focusing on the deep psychological scars that these separated kids will endure when we can engage in some deceiving whataboutism?
Don’t fall for it Mittens!
There are no sanctuary policies letting criminals out of jail. That is just a lie. Just like all the lies his Dear Leader tells. We just love how both he and Jenkins love to use MS-13 and illegal immigrants in the same breath in order to associate them together as one. Ain’t that clever? Go ahead and read up on MS-13, yes they are bad, but you may learn a thing or two. Like they are an American born gang, their victims are most likely to be other gang members, and illegal immigrants actually commit less crimes than native born people. We’ll stick to talking about Trump’s immigration policies thank you very much.
There’s only two items on the agenda to discuss this evening:
We really hope there isn’t any nonsense about Bikeways and Accessory Dwelling Units. After all, we remember Kirby and Billy saying the tiny houses were a good idea just last year! However, it is an election year so we will have to wait and see how these two will react to a proposal “from the 3rd floor”.
In just four short days Frederick County residents can begin voting in this year’s primary election. We know, like us, many of y’all are busy ending the school year, but this stuff is important. Especially since we recently heard someone utter these words: Who is Cindy Rose? Sigh. We sometimes get lost in our own little world where we think everyone pays as much attention to these issues as we do!
In today’s edition of the FNP there is a Frederick County Voter Information Guide. This guide was put together with the esteemed League of Women Voters of Frederick County (LWV). You can view this guide in one of three ways: a.) get the print edition of the FNP b.) buy a subscription so you can view the online e-pages or c.) go to the LWV’s page. Let’s take a diversion and remind y’all the importance of having a local paper.No matter how you feel about the FNP (REMINDER: THE EDITORIAL PAGE IS SUPPOSED TO REFLECT SOMEONE’S OPINION!), it’s very important that we keep this paper. Where are we going to get all of our local information from if it disappears? (As much as we love those of you who shouted out Local Yokel, we are not journalists!) The WaPo and Baltimore Sun do not care about Shrelauter! So, if you don’t have a subscription, please consider getting one.
We sympathize. However, not paying attention is no longer an option!
There is a sectionon FNP’s website that has a different questionnaire than what is in the paper or you can go to the LWV’s 411 site( this is also an excellent organization to join!) which does have what is in the paper, however, it’s not as fun as having it all laid out before you in one section. Here’s a taste to encourage you to get a subscription:
-There’s a whole list of people who couldn’t bother to get their answers in on time:
-Danny Farrar
-Galen Clagett
-Tony Chmelik
-Craig Giangrande
-Michael Bowersox
-James Dvorak
-Barrie S. Ciliberti
-William Folden
-Seth Eisenberg
-Chaz Packan
-Kirby has a very interesting solution to the opioid crisis:
A lot of our issues are that we have such a high tax system in the county that two parents have to work in order to make ends meet. This leave kids vulnerable after school and during summer months to not have the parental guidance during those hours when both parents are working. The Executive creates the budget so if we can make the county more affordable, one parent can stay home.
So taxes and women not staying home are the reason for the crisis!!! We all know that the “parent” he wants to stay home is mom, because of his past behavior on this issue.
-Cindy tries to act reasonable, and even quotes MLK in her answer! She also points out the difference between the progressives and conservatives:
It’s not non-partisan. Since education is overly politicized at this time, it’s important to know the politics of any Board of Education candidate. Progressive Democrats seem overly concerned with social learning and pouring more money into education without knowing if it will help. Conservative Republicans seem concerned over academic content and want an itemization of every penny.
-And for a good chuckle, read this quote concerning his record on education from ole Billy:
I have proven Education is a priority. I put Wi-Fi in every school & started adding computers to the classrooms. I funded the extra bathrooms at Urbana Elementary School. Led the site selection committee for the new Sugarloaf Elementary School & had the site donated & Funded. North Frederick ES was built, Frederick HS built, plus Butterfly Ridge Funded & started. Added extra security to schools
Can you believe this guy!!??
Seriously folks, you need to talk to your neighbors, friends, co-workers, or some guy walking down the street. While a voter’s guide is a good resource, it doesn’t go into past behavior. And the past behavior of people like Kirby, Billy,and Cindyare very important when considering what they may do to our fine county in the future. You know what they say:
Sorry, Tiger, hopefully everyone who can vote will!
We’ve been talking about how to go about showing our gentle readers all that’s been going on around here lately. Honestly, it’s next to impossible. Therefore, in preparation for the primary election we are going to show you as much as we can about what we’ve found in recent days. Let’s start with Kirby and this “Guess Who?” meme:
Ah, first of all the only candidate who has received any benefits is the only one that has been elected to the office. So, how can it possibly be all of them? That makes zero sense. Let’s delve a little deeper into this though. Do we really expect people who work full-time in a political office not to be compensated for their work? Or, perhaps Kirby is one of those elitists we keep hearing about that believes that only those who are independently wealthy should hold political office. Guess who else has worked close to 8 years as a politician? That’s right Kirby. And he wants 4 more!
We can’t point out Kirby without taking a look at the other half of the Shrelauter equation: Billy! There honestly isn’t much to say. He hasn’t put out any signs. He did answer the FNP’s questions in which he claimed to have solved the opioid epidemic. But, besides that we’ll let the likes on his Billy for Senator Facebook page speak for themselves:
What is with him and Kirby and the double negatives? Well, we give this guy a triple negative endorsement! How do you like them apples?
And you know we have to mention Cindy…again. Even though we’ve done it a million times over, we need to make sure that everyone knows what a terrible choice she would be for our BOE. If this lady had just stuck to over-testing, we may have had some common ground. But alas! We’ll leave you some of our favorite, more recent, posts we’ve seen her make:
The Wonkette, one of our favorite blogs, did a couple of great pieces about him a few weeks back. If you missed the New York Times article about this fella, take a gander. He believes not only in the patriarchy, but that women should be in enforced monogamy with men! Why, you ask? Well, if not men will become violent, like all those disgusting incels you’ve been hearing about lately. And who is to blame? The man? No, no, no! According to Jordan Peterson women are!
Sanctity? When is she going to leave the transgender population alone?
And, let’s not forget the other two that have hitched their wagons to the aforementioned:
You are the company you keep fellas! Wait, I thought they weren’t a slate!
We don’t rubber stamp every Democrat that comes down the line, nor do we rally against every Republican (Vote Steve McKay in District 2 if you are voting in the Republican primary!) Click here and here to read what we think about Galen Clagett.
This morning we were alerted to a story about congressional contender David Trone and his efforts to get the African American vote in A Miner Detail. Read it all here, but pay special attention to this excerpt that has to do with trying to recruit two Frederick City Aldermen to his campaign:
On Shackelford, Trone writes, “he is the easy fruit.”
“I don’t want to use him right away. I want to use Roger Wilson because we have to bring him out and get him to support us openly and that will send other messages to the black community because he represents in absentia Jan Gardner in the county government and he has his own strong network of people than Derek who has been to my house and been great doesn’t have [sic].”
Trone continued, “After we run Roger down and get as much help from him as we can get, then we will talk about when to shift over to Derek.”
Trone does not have the backing of your Lady Yokels.
We know there are more candidates that we need to bring attention to, but this is all we have the time and energy for today. If you know of any other stories that need to be shown the light of day, do not hesitate to put them in the comments for all to see!
Can you believe that Shrelauter will be off the council dais in just 6 short months?! Billy isn’t even trying to run in his primary election, and Kirby? Well, we can’t predict the future, but things haven’t been looking so good for his CE race either! Hopefully the new council won’t be as cray cray as this one and we can take it easy around Yokel headquarters for a while.
This evening’s agenda is oh so very full. We have a myriad of budget adjustments, approval of FCC’s budget (will FCC’s president have to slap down Billy’s outsourcing ideas again?), and then…oh dear…an amendment to the ethics code. Will Kirby be able to control himself?
Then we have two hearings on community block grants. We are sure Tony is going to pipe up here, since he doesn’t believe the government should be giving out grants and picking all those winners and losers. We end the evening with two more hearings on sustainability and holy moly macaroni… the Monocacy River Plan. We’ll leave the game up to you. Use whatever beverage you need, if you want to drink after a traditional bingo, or any square you mark that’s up to you! Just remember to be safe, don’t call Billy, and VOTE! #localelectionsmatter!
Some of these items aren’t on the agenda. Don’t worry one of the Tweedles will bring something up about them anyway. Our Cristal Ball says so. Drink!
We have to say gentle readers, listening to the meeting tonight was very hard. There was so much bickering, condescension, and rudeness, it was almost too much to take. However, we want you to stay informed in this election year so here goes!
The first discussion focuses on a resolution that M.C. has put forth to alleviate some of the concerns that residents, The Farm Bureau, and the planning commission brought up with regards to the river plan that was approved back in August. Let’s present the facts first before we get in to the hullabaloo that took place there after!
FACT ONE: These recommendations come from a state mandated board that is tasked with preserving the river for future generations. You know so we can live,..because without clean water that is impossible.
FACT TWO: This plan and the accompanying resolution is not a land grab. This point is reiterated by pages 4-5 of the resolution before the council:
We do find it sad that the county government has to take the time and energy to combat all the misinformation that has been spread by people like Kirby. I guess they have to do what they have to do though.
FACT THREE: These recommendations are voluntary, not compulsory. There are no fines or other punishments for not following them.
FACT FOUR: The resolution M.C. brought before the council this evening is to simply allow the resolution to go before the public in order to hear what people have to say. It is not voting to implement the plan, just suggesting some changes.
Well, well, well, some are not going to let go of the land grabbing narrative. Kirby smells a rat! He believes that since there are some new members on the river board we should just wait, who knows how long, to see what they have to say. Tony agrees and thinks this has to do with politics. Kirby claims the cart is before the horse(?), and Billy claims that all the landowners are unhappy because that’s the emails he received. Because, we all know how people love to write their legislators when they are happy about something! Kirby also claims that nobody is going to die and there hasn’t been any flooding! (Where the hell has he been the last week ?) Billy gets super insulting and tells M.C. that she just took orders from the top! M.C. and Jessica are both outraged at this because M.C. spent A LOT of time talking to people on both sides of this issue to come up with this resolution. Will it make everyone happy? Of course not, but that doesn’t mean that a GOOD legislator doesn’t try. This conversation goes on and on and it’s entirely unproductive to the point that M.C. says that we’ve beaten this dead horse to the point it’s bloody and lying in the gutter. And you know what that means!!! We get to bring this classic back:
Motion passes 4-3, the resolution goes to a public hearing on June 5th.
The last part of the evening is to discuss three additional charter amendments to be sent to public hearing. The first one is proposed by Shreve and has to do with what happens when a councilperson has to vacate their seat. Billy thinks that the party should get to decide who either gets appointed or nominated. Jerry agrees with Billy, Kirby, and Tony that this should go to public hearing.
The next amendment is put forth and then quickly taken back by Tony. No one is sure what he intended to do here. Everyone, including the county attorney, argues that the council already has the ability to do this during budget season if they would, you know, just meet with the CE and talk things through. Tony doesn’t even seem to know what he wants to do, something about not giving non profits money? Anyhoo, we won’t waste anymore of your time because it’s a moot point anyway.
The last amendment is also brought forth by Shreve. We are honored to hold witness to the Dunning Kruger effect in real time:
Billy wants to mandate that the budget be presented to the council 30 days earlier than it is now. M.C. brings up the point that the county doesn’t know what money we will get from Annapolis until the beginning of April, so this is impossible. Rick Harcum and Lori Depies also make a special trip to tell Billy how: a. very unnecessary this charter amendment is b. how they could never have the numbers ready this early and c. don’t you think some thought went into the date before it was put in the charter dummy!? (the dummy is our nice edition, but hey they were certainly thinking it!) This doesn’t deter Billy from arguing his moot point, even though he clearly doesn’t understand what it takes to form a budget. All come through in the end though. Voted down 6-1! Isn’t it astounding that after all of his years as a legislator, Billy still doesn’t know how things work? We still can’t believe that he thinks anyone should vote for him to represent us in Annapolis!!! Dunning-Kruger strikes again!
We don’t make drinking games for workshops, but we did want to let y’all know what’s going on this evening.
Kirby, Billy and Tony have all claimed that this Monocacy River Plan is just Jan grabbing up all the land. We suppose to build herself a mansion along the banks of the river? Read the board’s suggestions and keep in mind that the goal of all this is to protect the river, not take anyone’s land away from them.
The second item on the agenda is to go through the charter amendments that could appear on the ballot come November. And remember, if you support our EMS workers, then you should support Jessica’s collective bargaining amendment. We’ve been told by our firefighter friends that this amendment will help them in their yearly budget negotiations with the county.
We were in and out of the meeting this evening. May is really something for your gang of Lady Yokels. All of us have youngsters and it seems as though this is the month that we all have to be in a million places at once.
We were lucky enough to catch some of the people that came to public comment. They were all in support of the county safeguarding $500,000 that wasn’t used in the 2018 weather budget in order to enter a public/private partnership to open a detox center. Some very brave ladies told of their own struggles, and one let us know that when she was having problems she would have to drive down to MoCo for treatment. This passes without incident. The High Sheriff shows up after the vote and tells us that he supports this because we have a huge epidemic on our hands right now. This is what we would like to see him spend his time on rather than going on Fox News in his finery to talk about MS-13. So, brace yourselves people, but thank you Sheriff for reiterating the importance of treatment facilities in our fine county.
We missed the budget adjustments and some of the county executive appointments, but join up again when it comes to appointments to the ethics board. Thankfully all are approved WITHOUT incident.
There’s a lot of hullabaloo over the Comcast agreement. It’s a proven fact that people don’t like Comcast. And, because of that, the council got a lot of emails and calls telling them not to vote for this agreement. However, that would have been a bad thing to do. The fact is they hold a monopoly over this area. This agreement makes it so that both the county government and FCPS pay a lower rate for internet services. It also will give the county an HD channel. Kirby thinks it’s unethical that Jan took money from Comcast (note to selves: check Kirby’s donation list) even though she was not a part of the negotiations . And for that reason he will not vote for this “tainted” agreement. Attorney Chomel reminds them if they don’t vote for this, it will be VERY expensive for the county and therefore the tax payers. Sometimes you have to work within the system you have. Passes 4-3.
Tax rate is going to stay the same. $1.06. Tony, Billy, and Kirby vote against this. Presumably because they want it lowered. Which is very curious since they go on to lament the fact that the Fire Department needs more money. How do numbers work again? Jeeze people! If we cut the tax rate that’s less money! So, you cannot advocate for that and then lament the fact that we don’t have enough money!
Anyhoo, we are off to the approval of the FY 2019 budget. Tony puts forth a motion to strip $3 million for the non-uniformed county employees’ raises. Even though their salaries, like the fire fighters, are below par. The biggest problem with all of this is that the council can’t do this. And Tony knows it! He wants to, as Jessica puts it, rob Peter to pay Paul.
We can’t take money from one group of county employees to fix another. And the council can’t move around money period! Though we agree with Tony’s general premise that something needs to be done to strengthen the pay of our firefighters as they are essential to the safety of our community, this isn’t the way to do it. Billy offers no good commentary, so we’ll skip over the fact that he basically called Fire Chief Tom Owens a liar when he stated that firefighters got vacation time. We are friends of our firefighters and hope that Jessica’s suggestion that they be given collective bargaining rights sees fruition. Kirby jumps in to tell us that his alternative budget would have cut out all that environmental crap that we are paying too much money for. Ignoring the fact that many of us would like to keep the environment in good shape AND many of these mandates HAVE to be funded due to state and federal laws. We are pretty sure he’s been told that about a gazillion times before. Tony’s motion fails.
Jerry then makes a motion to put $8,000 back in the budget due to Kirby’s Emmitsburg sidewalk fiasco. Jerry’s motion passes 5-2.
FY 2019 Budget passes 4-3! Thank goodness that Bud is back!
Emergency Management Assistant Director position is funded. Hopefully this helps. Passes 7-0.
Kirby and Jerry’s joint tax credit passes 7-0.
There is a hearing on a very nice development that will include some affordable workforce housing and some nice amenities! We love to hear about nice things! And we got to see Mark Long, candidate for at-large county council and a representative of Affordable Housing give testimony! This tax agreement is passed 7-0.
Ethics hearing also goes nicely.
Public comments are pretty tame, except for Kirby who uses this as a chance to grandstand about the Bussard Brothers and their not being fined, but how it’s going to put them out of business. But blah, blah, blah. There’s only so much energy we can give to these dead horse arguments.
This week’s council agendais SUPER ambitious! So instead of alcohol we are going to suggest some funny sodas to drink. We need all of our Yokels alert and ready to vote next month!
We are going to skip the part where Billy votes against the agenda, abstains on the budget adjustments, and then maybe votes for the minutes and maybe doesn’t. Because…we are tired of him and if Facebook likesare any indication, we won’t have to put up with the likes of him much longer.
The council has lots of county executive appointments to fill, plus a separate motion to fill some spots on the ethics board. We know from past experience that Kirby gets triggeredwhen he hears the word “ethics”, so if he should have any objections sip on a Mr. Aahh!
It’s also time to vote on Jerry and Kirby’s merged Senior Tax Credit bill which we predict will make it through. Afterwards Bud is going to make a motion to create a workshop on school construction fees. A contentious issue in these here parts.
Finally, we wrap the evening up with two public hearings. The first one concerns a tax agreementand the second…..uh oh! is an amendment to the ethics code!!! If this doesn’t go well, sip nicely on your Zombie Brain Juice. Since that’s what we are all in danger of becoming soon.
frederick local yokel 