This evening, the county council will embark upon a workshop to consider legislative ideas to send to Annapolis. Don’t forget that you can email either the County Executive or your council member with any ideas you may have.
Some of our representatives shriek loudly about how everything is horrible in our fine county. Will they have any ideas to submit this evening? Late last evening we were lucky enough to receive Kirby’s legislative priorities. Read all about them here. Your Lady Yokels are on the case.
Since the council returned from their break, we’ve heard some pretty dumb things. We are still trying to recover from Billy telling us that we can safely drink from any stream in the county, when we clearly CANNOT. What misinformation is in store for our tender little ears this week? Grab a copy of your trusty agenda, pull up next to your favorite reality channel and batten down the hatches! And as always, this game is just for fun! No passing out in the alleys!
The very beginning of our evening begins behind closed doors. The council will interview a County Executive appointee. In honor of the torture this poor soul is about to embark on, who will have to endure some “interesting” questions from the entity we call Shrelauter, warm yourself up with a Secret Garden Cocktail.
Not sure why they bother calling the meeting to order since a few will never abide. We begin with public comment, some idiot either abstaining or refusing to vote on the consent agenda and then the approval of three budget transfers. No school transfers this week so Kirby won’t have the opportunity to throw out his dead horse speech about the teachers on the council lining their pockets. Oh what a shame!
Dr. Monica Grant is up for approval for the Director of the Citizens Service Director. Read more about her here.
We have one first reading on a program Regarding Establishment of a Clean Energy Loan Program for Commercial Properties. Then the council has to make some decisions.
First up is the Adequate Facilities Code. When Kirby laments the fact that his super expensive plan to fund four schools was killed, shoot back some Tough to Hear shots. It’s really becoming tiresome isn’t it?
Next up, Jerry has a plan to make zoning changes more public, so people have a chance to actually know what’s going on in their neighborhoods. “Shouldn’t” be any problems with this, but if there is, mix yourself up a B-52.
Time to decide on the marijuana pilot program. We heard some rumor that the High Sheriff was on the radio saying that prostitution should be legal, however, pot is a danger this county should never know. When we get confirmation on whether or not our top law enforcement officer really thinks a plant is more dangerous than the abuse and degradation of poor, disadvantaged people we’ll certainly let you know. For now just have your self a Elixir Bloody Mary, because we all need our vitamins.
If you have seen any of these Facebook hotel accounts, you know that the proposed downtown hotel is a touchy subject for some. However, many people came out in support of raising this tax, so we are fairly certain it’s a done deal. If the talk gets a little dicey, slam back a Stinger.
If this doesn’t get us to 7:00, Billy will complain and moan about how Bud can’t foresee the exact time a meeting will take and we’ll want to slam every clock over that head of his! Yes, Billy we all know how busy you are, and none of us gives a rat’s ass.
Billy, ranting about nothing just makes you look stoooopid.
Two public hearings on the agenda. Zoning, Adequate Facilities and Developer Rights are wrapped up all in one. The second deals with Solar Panel Installation. We’ll let your livers rest during this section of the evening. We do predict, however, that the second hearing will go smoother than the first.
Public comment and then what seems to do us in, Council Member comment. Before the C.M comment section of the evening commences fortify yourself with a Snickertini. For the only way to get through this mess anymore is to laugh.
You’ll remember a few weeks back when Kirby threw a fit about his leaseback idea not getting any traction. Somehow he thought it was within his authority to disband the entire task force. Well, Jan said no way Kirbo! Just because you didn’t get your way Mr. #, doesn’t mean the investigation process is over. So who is going to take up the torch that Kirby tried to extinguish? Today’s Political Notes answers that nicely:
Frederick County employees met with Councilman Tony Chmelik (R) this week, as plans are underway to revive a county task force that was examining options for leasing schools.
The meeting between Chmelik, Council Chief of Staff Ragen Cherney, and county finance and budget officers took place on Tuesday — when the School Build Lease Buy-Back Task Force was scheduled to meet.
Chmelik is taking the helm of the task force, which Councilman Kirby Delauter (R) said last month he was dissolving. Maybe.
Despite sending a confusing press release that he was disbanding a task force created by the county executive and notifying at least some of the members ahead of time via email, Delauter said he was not. Instead, he was no longer pursuing a specific leasing plan after the proposal was panned by County Executive Jan Gardner (D) as being too costly.
Gardner, at the time, said she intended for the task force to continue its work — with or without Delauter on board.
What do you mean? Work is going to continue with or without our precious # at the helm? So just because his one idea didn’t pan out that means the task force should continue investigating other ways of bringing down school construction costs?
We don’t understand this world of logic and problem solving y’all are throwing our way. Perhaps we’ve been stuck inside the Shrelauter echo chamber a little too long ourselves.
The council reconvened at 7:00 for the public hearing to extend the fee in lieu of building Moderately Priced Dwelling Units (MPDUs). This is being done in order to allow time for the completion of a housing study. This ordinance was set to expire in September but will now be continued until June 30, 2017. There was a nice presentation from Jessica, Milton Bailey (the new Director of Housing and Community Development) and three members of the public in support of the extension.
No takers for the public comment.
Jerry starts out the council member comments tonight. The new paved path is officially open through Middletown Park. There will be more information about his new bill concerning notification of re-zoning. And, he encourages people to get out to their local carnivals to support the firefighters.
Tony passes. In fact we did not hear a peep out of him the entire evening.
Jessica thanks the people who came out for the public hearing and praised the upcoming Ballenger Run project for including affordable rental units in their development plan. She also thanks everyone for having patience with the council as they modify their procedures and processes. She hopes they can continue to have positive dialogue.
Kirby congratulates the Thurmont Little League for making it to the State Tournament. Makes us aware that Little League is not only about winning but also about learning how to lose gracefully. Huh? We can only hope our beloved # learns this lesson himself. Very, very, soon.
He also discusses the new hotel bill. He has some issues with the stormwater management (shocker) and parking. He hasn’t gotten the answers he wanted from the city so he wants to know why are we pushing this forward.
Billy piggybacks on Jessica’s appreciation of people’s patience with the council. But of course, he’s going to complain about the time schedule again. He doesn’t like that the meeting begins at 4:30 and then the public hearing is to begin at 7:00. Tonight’s meeting was short enough for them to have a 2 hour break and it’s ridiculous! Unless and until Billy can predict how long the meeting will last, for we have seen some short ones and some that run all the way up to 7:00, he’s just blowing a lot of hot air. It is more convenient for the public to schedule it this way because then you know what portion of the meeting to show up for. But his time is way valuable people!
No more valuable than anyone else’s Batman!
M.C. talks about the extension of the bike path out to Rosemont Ave and commends the first graduating class of community health workers. These graduates will go out in our community to provide health care in those regions of our county where people don’t readily have access. A good program indeed.
Bud asks Chief of Staff Cherney to help Kirby get the information that he was seeking about the hotel. Mr. Otis also talks about the grant to Hood’s nursing program and the re-establishment of the I-270 coalition. He finishes up by reminding us that the Fireworks in Baker Park will be held on July 24 and a Veteran’s Rally in the Valley will be held on July 30 at the fairgrounds.
We don’t know if the regular video person at FCGTV is on vacation, but whomever is doing it this week gave the Yokels a heart attack. After pouring a much needed cup of coffee one of your brave Yokel ladies clicked on the video archives. She was very dismayed to see that last night’s meeting registered at 6 hours long! Now we love our readers and want to keep y’all informed, but we have things to do! Thankfully the time stamp was wholly inaccurate and we came in at 45 minutes.
We start off with the agenda vote with our favorite useless at large council member voting no.
We finally have a pre-meeting public commenter! It’s Patrick! If you know Patrick, please invite him to like our page. He congratulates Jenkins on the large heroin bust. He is very pleased with the new council form of government. He wants to refresh everyone’s memory of what it was like during the dark days of the BOCC. He very specifically tells folks to delve into the November 24, 2014 meeting to see how they operated. (Look away folks!) We love his final suggestion. Anyone who has been found to have engaged in human trafficking should not be eligible for election to county offices. We are behind that 100%!
Budget adjustments- 6 for 1 abstain. (Guess who!)
No comments on the police grant.
Approval of past minutes by all.
Resident agent designation will officially be the county attorney. Billy interjects by asking how will the council will be notified of lawsuits since it hasn’t been in the past. There is some discussion about how most of the lawsuits don’t have anything to do with the council and those that do are forwarded. Somehow we don’t think this will be enough.
1st readings go off without a hitch. 3rd reading is put aside until later.
Public hearings on Spring 2016 and Sewage Plan. No public comment and it’s approved.
Three proposed charter amendments:
Notice requirement shrunk to 2 days from 2 weeks to change a bill.
Notice requirement shrunk to 2 days from 2 weeks to make a change to the budget.
Council given until May 31st to review budget.
No one came to comment. July 19th will be the third reading and then it has to be sent over to the Board of Elections by mid August to be put on the ballot for November. Citizens can also propose amendments. Mid August date still applies. Check with the BOE for the petition process.
Votes to go into closed session to interview County Executive Appointments. 7-0. This is new since Billy usually votes against it. We still haven’t cracked the code when it comes to his voting process.
Then here we are folks. Council Member comments. It’s a mixture of all we have to be proud of in this county and also our greatest shame.
Jerry goes first. Announces that the Frederick Food Bank is in desperate need of donations. Walking trail through Middletown Park will be officially opened on July 12. Brunswick has officially been designated an Enterprise Zone by the state. Reminds people to support their fire companies by attending carnivals and thanks county employees for helping him work on bills that he will propose in the future.
Jessica thanks Angela Spencer for her work on the Human Relations Commission. Encourages the public to follow all their local boards and commission.
Kirby remarks on the heroin situation here in Frederick. Another young person has succumbed to this drug.(Yokel aside- We do need to do something about our heroin problem (NOT NARCONON) and it’s going to take the whole community to brainstorm some solutions to this problem. Hopefully community involvement in tackling the heroin problem will not involve the toe stepping on law enforcement as Kirby claims studying human trafficking will do.) He then talks about three bridge dedications to our military heroes. One that recently took place and two that will occur in the future. We lady Yokels are 100% for honoring our local service people. We did see some disturbing intel on what took place at the first dedication. Some folks only wanted to invite people who were of their political persuasion and were miffed when those of other political philosophies showed up. FOR SHAME! Hopefully those involved in this disgusting behavior will not repeat it at the upcoming dedications. Then there’s the predictable rant against County Executive readings in which M.C. will address in her comments.Now it’s time for the wedding venue debacle. So Kirby’s argument is that since some county facilities aren’t up to code (his words) then what’s the prob? Why can’t private businesses violate them? From what we understand the buildings are being demolished because the actual owners of the land wanted them torn down. We don’t know what kind of government official advocates that a business continue violating safety laws because no one has been hurt yet!
He’s having a meeting today at 1 pm with the BOE and Rick Harcum to talk about his public funding idea of schools.
Tony is going to have a Town Hall in Urbana in the next 2 weeks. Date to be determined.
Shreve wants to know what kind of venue the council will have to address public needs. This is because of his complaints about the landfill. We thought it was adequately explained to him that he needs to address the public concerns by writing a bill and then having public comment on said bill, but he sat up there and called that process elitist again. So we don’t know what else to say. He then goes onto congratulate FCPS for winning a public relations award and we can barely believe our ears. But the award was partially given because of the Classmates for Life video competition. So that was really just about him.
M.C. Keegan-Ayer wasn’t going to comment, but Kirby’s statement changed her mind. She points out to him that the council has a workshop on each of the County Executive’s proposed bills before they get on the agenda. So that would be the appropriate time for him to voice his concerns. Kirby tries to argue the semantics of this, is quickly shut down. Because big surprise he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Bud talks about a brainstorming session about the new Veteran’s treatment court and reminds everyone that Frederick will have a fireworks show on July 24.
July 12th is a workshop and July 19th is the next legislative day.
These two are much cuter than the two who should be wearing them.
Pre-meeting public comment has no takers…again. Billy starts right in on the agenda. Moves to remove the item concerning appointments to the ethics board. M.C. initiates a discussion with County Attorney Chomel asking if they remove the item would be they be able to discuss it later on. The answer is no, once an item is removed you can no longer talk about it. Billy then suggests to remove it and then to put it back on the agenda later for discussion. Chomel says, and I quote, that it would be “cumbersome and futile” to remove an item just to put it right back on again. And, oh, how we laughed, and laughed because cumbersome and futile is the perfect description of Billy’s style of governing.
We fear that Billy is also confused about when he should say no and when he should abstain. He gave a hearty no to the agenda, but an abstain to the consent agenda and then a yes to the meeting minutes, which is a departure from his usual fashion. It’s hard to keep things straight when when you don’t have a real consistent philosophy.
Some very nice representatives from FCC came before the council to discuss the budget of their fine school. We learned that there will be a small increase in tuition and no increase in student fees.There seems to be some loss in the dining services department and this is where the talk gets a little dicey. Kirby and Billy want to know why outside companies are not being considered. Well, the nice lady tells the story of how they looked into outsourcing the child care center and found that it was not feasible. And holy moly, I guess not everyone is on the privatization train. She even goes on to say she does not want to privatize the custodial or dining services because she would like those people to keep their jobs. Hurray! The only one to vote against the budget in the end was Billy.
Billy is the sole abstainer on the two appointees to the appeals board and then we are on to the real drama of the evening…ethics.
Let’s start off in praise of the four women who sat before the council this evening. They kept their cool under some really trying circumstances. We have seen a few of these ladies speak in their roles as representatives of the League of Women voters. Every single time they have been articulate and well just awesome. Tonight was no different.
The discussion centered around the pilot program to chose people to sit on the ethics board. It was determined that in order to sit on the board, you would have to prove yourself to be non-partisan. There are a few criteria to prove this: You cannot have held public office in the last four years, served on a central committee for the last 10, have aspirations to run for office or have been involved in a political campaign. They would also like representatives from the two local universities, the United Way, the rotary club and the Unitarian church. The Unitarian church was chosen since it encompasses a variety of faiths. The potential members would only be interviewed by the nominating committee, not the County Executive or the County Council, with final approval from the Executive. If you remember the beginning of our post we spoke of Billy trying to remove this agenda item. It was because he thinks the council should interview the members of the board. The ladies vehemently disagree with him as do the other members of the council. It shouldn’t be difficult to grasp the concept as to why an ethics board should not come before the council. Shouldn’t be being the two key words.
But of course we all know who is going to throw the biggest fit.
We’ve written before of Kirby’s Pavlovian response to hearing the word ethics, and tonight was NO different. Our esteemed council member has a suggestion as to a new question that should be asked of our potential ethics board members. Are you ready?
“If your decision is overturned by Executive Order, how will you react?”
BAM! Take that Jan! But seriously people, how long is this going to go on?
Kirby continues by saying the reason you don’t have people lining up to be on the ethics board is because they are afraid that every decision they make will be overturned by Queen Jan. One of the patient nice ladies disagrees completely with this theory to which Kirby tells her you can disagree but thems the facts. Jerry ventures out into the choppy waters to get clarification as to when the County Executive can issue Executive Orders. This causes our dear county contract-less council member to then scream: All the time! But no the answer is she can only make an order when the issue comes under the Executive’s power. Like county contracts. Kirby tries to say what she did was illegal, gets shut down again, but hey why let the facts get in the way? We keep forgetting he’s the only one in possession of the real facts.
Billy tries to disparage our fine ladies. Proclaims that two of them were involved in a lawsuit against the county. So how can they be non-partisan? And we do not know how these ladies keep their cool, but the one he seems to be addressing asks him directly to what he is referring to. Oh you know, proclaims Shreve. Well, no, no, no. The fine lady tells him that she was never a part of a lawsuit but a representative of a position for the League of Women Voters. And she wasn’t even a part of the ethics nominating committee so the big gotcha moment that Shreve thought he had totally blew up in his face. You know what Billy, citizens can have a position on a piece of county legislation with out it being a partisan affair. You know what else is a popular non-partisan affair in these here parts? Lamenting the legislating style of one Billy Shreve. The new members are appointed 6-1.
The final observation of the evening comes during County Executive appointments. Billy doesn’t like the fact that one of the committees, concerning loans, does not have an expiration date. He tries to put forth a motion, that M.C. tries to parse for him. It’s here that Jessica interjects telling M.C. that she shouldn’t have to make Billy’s motion for him. He is instructed to write his motion down and his reply? He doesn’t need to write it down two other people are doing it already.
Last night was Kirby’s chance to educate the community about his lease back school idea that he’s been cagey about these past few months. You can watch it here if you want the full experience. Up on the dais with Kirby was local business man Randy Cohen and who we must assume are the secret developers. One was John Garner (not 100% positive of his last name as it was hard to hear and not restated, but it is NOT Daniels) who didn’t speak much, and Jeff Pacy of Municipal Acquisitions. Since Jeff Pacy did a majority of the talking we think its relevant to share how his company describes itself:
So the gist of the presentation was this:
-We can make all your wildest school construction dreams come true!
-Why have 2 schools when we can give you all four? Plus shiny new laptops to boot!
-Yeah, our numbers may be off, but who needs accuracy?
-Opportunity costs of not doing this are tremendous! This will attract new teachers for how can they resist all the new buildings! (Somehow we think salaries are a tad more important).
-Yes, we must make a return on our investment and you will pay millions upon millions more than if you used a no interest government bond. But how do you expect us to compete with that?
-Prevailing wage and we assume county ethics laws would not apply to privately built structures. Hmmm.
So it kind of sounds like in order to get all these schools at once we would be paying this company millions upon millions in extra cash over the next 30 years. One of the Yokel’s favorite county employees, Rick Harcum, very politely tells Kirby and friends that as a numbers guy it just doesn’t make any sense to pay this kind of money when other, better options are available. Jan also makes sure they know that because of our AAA rating, we can borrow money at the low rate of 2.62% which throws their numbers off even more. We also hear from the COF of FCPS who has to correct some of their math on the portables. Overall, we sensed an enormous amount of skepticism from those who asked questions.
Excepting of course Billy and Tony who got up there only to try and showcase the positives of this idea. Their questions were transparent and frankly too embarrassing to even speak of.
So after months of build up, Kirby didn’t do a good job selling this idea. Says there will be another workshop, but we doubt it will lead to anything. We need good ideas on how to finance everything we need, and sorry #, but this doesn’t look like it’s the one!
So most of the evening was tame. We smirked at the fact that no one showed up for the before meeting public comment. Billy couldn’t round up just one of the watchers? Lots of presentations tonight. Maryland Association of Counties, Solid Waste Commission and the Agricultural Preservation all expanded our knowledge of our fine county. We are breezing through all this, however, because the meat of the meeting, the crazy of the crazy was in the council member amendments.
We will try to walk you down the path of what happened. But it’s confusing, so don’t feel bad if you get lost. Yesterday we posted about Tony’s amendment to increase the County Executive’s pay. Kirby had a Facebook fit over it and Tony decided to say a few things about it. However, he decided to pull that amendment. Now, remember that readers. He PULLED the amendment. Well, now Billy was not having any of that. He wants to talk about an amendment that is not going to be put forth and he’s going to talk about it real good. So Tony puts the amendment back on, even though he doesn’t want it anymore, and Billy goes on this whole cray cray time discussion. He finds it funny that people are upset that the teachers are the lowest paid in the State but no one is lamenting the fact that they are the lowest paid officials.
Kirby then goes on to say that if you are getting into politics for money then you aren’t doing it for the right reasons.(We know people, we know). But the gold star of the evening goes to M.C.. She asks Tony if he asked the County Executive about this before proposing this amendment. He gives a snarky, “Why should I?” Uh, we don’t know, because she would be the only person thus far that would have an opinion as to whether or not the salary matches the expectations and skills required of the job? But no, Tony accuses M.C. of playing politics. So for keeping your cool in an unbelievably difficult situation, Council woman Keegan-Ayer, you deserve a Yokel tip of the hat:
And, in the end, Tony pulls the amendment…again. Incidentally, just like he pulled his first and sixth amendments, which concerned compensation for council members. Let’s reflect a moment on his desire for minimal government–as far as he is concerned, he would do his job for nothing. Yet, somehow if you care to step through the looking glass with him, he will go to bat for a concept he would ordinarily want to dismantle.
It’s time for Kirby’s amendments. Jerry’s face kinda sums up this section of the evening:
Keep in mind folks, Jerry is a seasoned high school teacher. So it must take a lot to get his feathers ruffled.
Kirby plagiarized one of his amendments from Cecil county. And then couldn’t remember his reasoning behind proposing three members of the council be able to make budget decisions (oh we are so sure). Weird. There are three in a group of stooges. We thought three was the magic number. Since memory failed when he was pressed to defend these shenanigans, he decided to pull the amendment. Whew!
Now Billy wants to make it clear that if a council member changes their political affiliation and then leaves the council, the central committee of the party that the elected official ran under should be allowed to choose their replacement. How timely. And we must ask here, why is an elected official allowed to be the chairperson of the central committee. Wouldn’t it be a total conflict of interest for Billy to appoint someone to sit up there with him?
To go back to our title, during council member comments, M.C. hands out summer reading pamphlets to all of the council members. Well, one of the pamphlets fights tooth and nail to prevent itself from landing in Billy’s hand. We understand, summer reading pamphlet, we understand.
frederick local yokel 