Wicomico County Council promises new direction
Last night a packed house (for once) attended a Wicomico County Council meeting which was short on legislative action but long on emotion as three new members replaced three outgoing ones. These are my observations.
The meeting was essentially comprised of two rounds of remarks sandwiching the actual ceremony of Council members being sworn in and receiving their certificates. (I noticed they are similar to the ones I have for being on Central Committee; I would have expected something a little different.)
The outgoing councilman who spoke first was John Cannon, who opted to make an attempt for state office rather than maintain the Council seat he won in 2006. “I think we have done some great work over the last four years,” said John.
He also praised County Executive Rick Pollitt for doing “an excellent job” and county citizens for being “very receptive” and “very nice.” But he also pleaded, “there’s been a lot of unity in this Council…I urge you to continue that.”
Bill McCain, who only wished to serve one term and thus didn’t seek re-election, finished his service by encouraging those present to serve the community and praising John Cannon as a “good political example” of someone he could have political differences with amicably. “I leave this Council (as I started) with no personal agenda,” McCain concluded.
Looking at the situation with his usual sense of humor, David MacLeod asked, “please look up when you’re talking to me…everyone thinks I’m still looking for two votes. It is what it is.” He praised his successor Bob Caldwell as “a fine gentleman” and joked about being asked to go on Comedy Central if he didn’t win.
But he looked back at his term by recalling, “I had no idea what I was getting into when I ran for office (but) it was really exciting.”
“Wicomico County is a gift…when I finally came to Wicomico County (after living all over the world) I knew I found home,” stated MacLeod, who said he would remain available and accessible if needed.
Stevie Prettyman, who survived a re-election challenge, piped in that she would miss MacLeod for his sense of humor, Bill McCain for his influence, and John Cannon for his shyness.
After running unopposed, Joe Holloway thanked his cohorts and the voters and pledged, “I look forward to serving the taxpayers of Wicomico County…with diligence and enthusiasm.”
Sheree Sample-Hughes spoke of the “blessing and privilege” of serving for the betterment of her children’s lives and was most pleased that the current council was civil despite their disagreements. “That shows we are leaders,” she said. She also stated she’d miss John Cannon as her “tag team partner” at meetings they both attended, Bill McCain as a “big brother,” and David MacLeod for his sense of humor and keeping her motivated.
Finally, Council President Gail Bartkovich told those assembled it was rewarding and humbling to serve as Council president. And while she was sorry her departing fellow Council members were leaving, she was looking forward to “a great new Council.” She also had special thanks for her husband John, who until recently served as the chair of the Wicomico County Republican Party, for getting her started in politics.
After each spoke, we took a short break as the incoming Council was gathered to be sworn in by Clerk of the Courts Mark Bowen and then posed for pictures. (Among other places with pictures of the event is Right Coast.)
The first order of business was to elect new officers. No one objected when Bob Culver nominated Joe Holloway to be Council Vice-President and Matt Holloway nominated Gail Bartkovich to return as Council President. It’s worthy to note that their terms as officers only last until December, 2011 – by charter, each year a new officer election is held.
After the ceremony, the newly-minted Council made their remarks.
Bob Caldwell thanked his election opponent David MacLeod for an exhilarating, civil, and humorous campaign, although he pointed out in referring to a published remark by MacLeod that, ”I would be much more comfortable if he’d lost by a 2,000 votes as well.” He also wanted in his thanks to “drop three f-bombs on Council” – faith, family, and friends.
Sheree Sample-Hughes thanked her “Team 1″ and told us “I look forward to serving with integrity and honesty.”
Joe Holloway thanked his fellows for supporting him as vice-president and vowed to “bring respect to Council.” His departing cohorts were “always gentlemen,” he continued, but Joe also warned that, “we have four years as tough as the last four – our work is cut out for us.”
Bob Culver also gave thanks and reminded us, “I know why I was elected…for the business part of my experience.” He promised to “do what I was elected to do” as a member of Council.
Stevie Prettyman reminisced about the “positive energy” she felt at her initial swearing in 12 years ago, but cautioned that the economy was much better then. Now, ”it’s going to be a tough four years…we’re going to have to make some tough choices and tough decisions and do things differently.”
Matt Holloway was the most brief, thanking his family and supporters and “really looking forward to working with this Council” to make Wicomico County “the place it could be.”
Gail Bartkovich promised as President to maintain the transparency initiatives she started, keep her fellows informed, and give them an equal right to place those items on the agenda which they promised their voters they would do. But this would be her one and only year as Council President as she pledged to pass the gavel this time next year.
After she finished, Gail invited us to a brief reception in the adjacent room with refreshments – not at taxpayer expense, as she reminded us.
So we have a new Council and they get down to real county business Tuesday, December 21. Indeed, it should be an interesting four years.
Top of the evening (meetings)
Originally I was going to make this a simple comment to Julie’s post but figured I’d rather have the forum to myself – she can feel free to link to my reaction.
I look at it this way, as a logical manner. The County Council meets twice a month and we have five months remaining until the general election – in other words, ten meetings.
Under the rules in place, two of these meetings (July 6 and October 5) would be held at night, with the other eight being morning meetings.
With the compromise measure, five meetings would be night meetings and five would be daytime. Right now, the difference is three meetings. Certainly that would be a better situation for some, but for me it wouldn’t be the ideal hill to die on. Even Prettyman is quoted as saying she has nothing against night meetings despite the fact she voted against the latest effort, which lost in a 3-3 tie because John Cannon was away tending to family matters.
My point is that we have a ready-made issue for the next election, and the dynamics are interesting.
The loudest opponents of going to a totally evening schedule have been Bill McCain and David MacLeod, both Democrats. We already know McCain isn’t running again, so presumably we can pick up a vote there.
Meanwhile, the Republicans on County Council have generally favored the switch. We all know Stevie Prettyman is running again as is Gail Bartkovich and presumably Joe Holloway. It leaves John Cannon and Sheree Sample-Hughes as swing votes; however, Sheree’s affirmative vote on the last proposal may be in some part because she is the first County Council member to draw an opponent in Dave Goslee, Jr.
Former Councilman Ed Taylor and newcomer Ryan Hohman are in the race for at-large County Council positions (one of which will open up with McCain’s departure) and their stance on the night meetings can be made into an issue as well.
So, I suppose my thought is not to sweat the small stuff but make it into an issue of good government where leadership on the concept can be rewarded this November at the ballot box.
Solutions to our problems
Tonight Wicomico County Councilman Bill McCain hosted a townhall-style meeting designed to solicit solutions to the county’s present and upcoming budget woes. While yesterday’s Daily Times article pointed out that McCain was looking for suggested possible fixes, many of the nearly two dozen speakers had a single message: taxes are too high and they couldn’t afford anymore increases there. “Stay within your budget,” warned resident Kay Gibson.
A number of speakers echoed their personal economic struggles; resident Ed Nelson said it well when he noted, “times are tough for everyone.”
But Bill was blunt: “you will have serious, serious services eliminated in Wicomico County” next year – “what are you willing to give up?” He continued, “we need to do things differently…unfortunately, we have capped ourselves on the revenue side.”
McCain is in somewhat of a unique position, as the FY2011 budget will be the last he’ll have input into – he’s chosen not to seek re-election, maintaining his original plan to serve one term. But he was determined to maintain his home and business here, so it’s obvious McCain is planning to stay involved. Two other council members who would presumably maintain their positions, John Cannon and Sheree Sample-Hughes, were also in attendance.
The county’s Board of Education was also a favorite whipping boy of some. Many speakers advocated the accountability an elected school board would provide.
On that note, all three Council members present were put on the spot by questioner Joe Collins, who wanted to know how they stood on an elected school board. McCain was a firm “no,” citing the “diverse” school board we presently have. Cannon and Sample-Hughes held their cards closer to their chest, with John stating a “70-30″ likelihood of support and Sample-Hughes wanting to study the particulars more – she did indicate her district was relatively supportive as was she on a personal level.
While a number of speakers commented on the revenue cap and didn’t want to see it go away, a couple observers pled for “investment.” Mark Cullen, representing the county’s volunteer firefighters, pointed out that the $4 million provided by the county covers less than half of the expenses. Instead, we’re “burning our personnel out doing fundraisers.” (Surely there was no pun intended.)
County resident John Groutt blasted the “simplistic” solutions offered by the number of “TEA Partiers” in the audience and preached “we need to invest in our children.” We also needed to address the issue of sprawl. On the other hand, it was also properly pointed out that areas which tax heavily tend to have difficulty maintaining businesses and jobs.
Most of those commenting were critical of the county’s current spending, but there were a number of good ideas pitched for consideration. Among them were:
- Hiring a full-time auditor. The problem is that the county’s charter dictates the auditor be a CPA but the salary may not be sufficient.
- Rein in the liquor control board.
- Make union negotiations public as they are in Calvert County.
- Eliminate the two at-large County Council positions.
- Eliminate the County Executive’s Public Information Officer.
- Instead of layoffs being the “last resort” they should be the “first resort.”
- Replace the revenue cap with a tax rate cap, with exemptions for those on fixed incomes.
- Rescind the increase in teacher’s retirement benefits.
- Verify that all measures called for in the 2002 Parsons study are being followed.
- Selling off any surplus land the county owns (my idea.)
- Perhaps collecting some sort of tax on property owned by Salisbury University (also my idea.)
It’s worthy of note that in the last decade Wicomico County went from having the fourth highest property tax rate in the state to the fourth lowest. And if you consider education, public safety, and public works as “core functions” of government, McCain said that we spend 76% of our budget dollars on those items.
There’s no question that severe cuts will be seen when County Executive Rick Pollitt releases his FY2011 budget April 8th. But the dialogue tonight seems to suggest that raising taxes is going to be out of the question for overburdened county residents who will likely see tax increases on the federal and state levels.
Wicomico County Council approves spending others’ money
In a hardly surprising move, the Wicomico County Council voted to accept the $300,000 per acre price for five acres across to the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center, spending $1.5 million in state money to purchase the land and put up a parking lot. The land had been used for years as supplemental parking for the WYCC anyway, but developers threatened to charge the county monthly rent and County Council chose not to call their bluff.
The vote was 4-3 to accept the offer, with Council President Gail Bartkovich and Councilmen Joe Holloway and Stevie Prettyman objecting. Previous to this vote, the Council did approve an amendment to make the purchase contingent on securing the promised Program Open Space money.
During the discussion preceding the vote, John Cannon asked whether the land was needed, but voted for it anyway based on the business interests behind it. Fellow Councilman Sheree Sample-Hughes termed her support as a “quality of life” issue. For his part, Bill McCain added the “stars are just right” for purchasing the land and spoke about the effort to secure the POS dollars – it was a “great deal.” David MacLeod cited a 3:1 ratio of e-mails in support vs. opposition.
On the other hand, “this is not a win-win situation for the county,” said Prettyman. Joe Holloway cited current economic condidtions as the reason for his opposition. Similarly, Bartkovich noted she could support this in “a better time and place” but for the public “the problem is the price.”
So now we’ve allocated the money to park near a white elephant with several weaknesses – the building is showing its age (built in the late 1970′s after its predecessor burned down in a spectacular fire), its capacity is too small to attract major sporting events and big-name concerts, and due to a legal covenant no alcohol sales are allowed on the site. In a decade or so, once regional economic fortunes turn around, the building will be a relic and the county will have this land – possibly along with another 15 acres adjacent to the newly purchased site at another $250,000 per acre.
Nor is the cost of converting the land from parking to parking factored in – the new purchase means the property needs to be compliant with new state regulations for storm drainage. Overall, the newly renovated site will provide parking for about 500 cars.
Perhaps the lot can be dedicated when it’s finished, and I have the perfect name to adopt for the new additional parking which will be used maybe 50 days a year: how about “Pollitt’s Folly?”
Eastern Shore Political Buzz Examiner
Syndicate
Subscribe to this site's RSS feed.
-
-
-
Advertise with monoblogue and you’ll reach a lot of people!
Click on the photo for details.
Link to Maryland Democratic Party
In the interest of being fair and balanced, I provide this service to readers. But before you click on the picture below, just remember their message:
Locals flock to monoblogue
Click on the photo for details on advertising opportunities.
Please note that the opinions expressed on monoblogue are not necessarily those of the Wicomico County Republican Party Central Committee, of which I'm a member. (But they probably should be.)
