Editorials
Letters to the Editor staff@stmarystoday.com |
Kenneth C. Rossignol, Editor & Publisher |
No More New Taxes
( 3/13/2001) One of the problems with
voting for a liberal spendthrift like Governor Glendening is that he gets so used to
spending money he can't figure out when doing so is a good use of public funds and when
some spending is wasteful.
The St. Mary's Board of Commissioners has
the same flaw, a fatal flaw which the voters will hopefully cure next year in the local
elections by throwing the bums out and installing in their place people who, will like
Senator Roy Dyson, never vote to raise taxes.
With about 50 percent of all tax dollars
wasted, there is no excuse to go back to the taxpayers and ask for more. The politicians
can damn well learn to live like Kings on the King's budget they already steal from the
people. Not another red cent shall they steal from the people!
The trouble with the St. Mary's
Commissioners is that they, like Governor Glendening view every new day as a new way to
screw over the electorate with Draconian new regulations on private property or imposing
new taxes.
The Governor wants to raise the car license
plate tax by another $3 and his view is that if you want to be rescued by a Med-Evac
helicopter as a result of being hurt in a wreck on our highways, you need to pay more when
renewing your tags. This is raising taxes, make no mistake about it. Raising taxes during
this era of unprecedented surpluses is barbaric.
With the tobacco settlement money which
could be used to further fund the trauma units and choppers, along with the great surplus
in the state budget, there is no need for the Governor to be sending out our volunteer
firefighters and rescue squad personnel to lobby the legislature.
Come on Governor Glendening, why don't you
put our volunteers of the fire and rescue on the same pedestal on which you have elevated
the small but vocal minority of enviro-wackos who have you jumping through hoops buying up
the last bit of swamp land in the state?
Why is buying swamps a good use of public
funds but saving lives by properly funding the latest medical aid for trauma victims
second fiddle?
The trouble with the tax-hiking, land
regulating liberal elite of Maryland is that they put people second and bugs first. Just
wait when the West Nile virus cranks up again and the enviro-wackos will holler about
spraying of mosquitoes. These people just don't mind people dying, but you'd damn well
better not kill a stupid bug!
Governor Glendening just ought to be
ashamed of himself for making our firefighters and rescue volunteers beg for money. You
can tell he has spent all of his life surrounded by paid fire service workers.
Southern Maryland legislators should tell
the Governor to take the funds from other areas to fund the trauma centers but any
legislators who vote to raise taxes can find other employment in the next election.
Governor Glendening:
Don't Misuse Our Volunteers
( 2/27/2001) It is a shame for Maryland Governor Parris
Glendening to make the proud and valiant volunteers of the fire and rescue service of
Maryland to go to Annapolis and to the county seats to lobby for a special tax on license
tags to pay for emergency services, including the Maryland State Police Med-Evac
Helicopter.
For the volunteers to be reduced to acting as handmaidens and beggars shows what little
appreciation the Governor and his staff of elitists have for all of the hard work and
personal sacrifice our volunteers make for their fellow citizens or for the real cost
value of their volunteer effort.
For our volunteers to take their own time to attend training, sleep on duty hours at
the firehouse and rescue squad buildings, arrive at gory shootings and wrecks to give
first aid and then to have to don their best suits and go off to lobby legislators is just
to much to ask.
Gov. Glendening ought to have plenty of bucks in the state budget to take care of
funding all emergency services properly, in fact, the money is there but he wants to spend
it on all manner of ill-conceived left wing liberal baloney rather than on the vital
functions of government --- such as saving lives.
The Governor can’t justify a tax hike, even a sideways tax hike such as this, in
this time of flush state budgets and he knows it.
We appreciate our volunteers, now the Governor ought to get off his high-horse and tell
our fire and rescue volunteers he is sorry for turning them into organ grinder monkeys and
he will fund these services.
Parris Glendening, in spite of being a liberal egg-head spendthrift, has the ability to
be a good governor when he wants to be. He did a great job for Southern Maryland in
funding vital road projects to back up the Navy’s move of new units to Pax. But just
who in the hell is he listening to on this subject?
Certainly not our volunteers.
The Commie-Kazi Commissioners
(Feb. 13, 2001) The sight seen today in Leonardtown where a
decision may be made to institute 20 acre zoning is one which many people in St.
Mary’s County never thought would happen, that an elected Board of Commissioners
would rush to judgement on a decision which will impoverish many property owners by
severely reducing the value of their land.
Just like the Baltimore Colts were taken from Maryland in the middle of
the night and Richard Nixon ordered his attorney general fired, so too does the majority
of the St. Mary’s Commissioners display a "public be dammed" attitude
towards the 20 acre zoning issue.
A firestorm of opposition has been sweeping across St. Mary’s County
as the ill-conceived proposal which is supported by zoning snobs and radical elite
environmentalists who believe that the purpose of government land regulations should be
subverted to strip property owners of their rightful use of their property in order to
allow pointy headed liberals to drive through the countryside and see "green
space".
The Board of Commissioners have been testing the waters and finding that
the public is furious and organizing to meet this outrageous attack on net worth of many
small landowners throughout the county, land which has been saved for a rainy day or
retirement, but now will be sapped of all value and only the increasing tax bills will
remain, gone will be the right to build and use the land.
An upcoming Chamber of Commerce forum on the 20 acre zoning issue has
promised to become a hot rally which would likely add to the already rampant feelings of
resentment and disgust over the unnecessary record tax hikes foisted upon the citizens by
this Board of Socialists, except Dan Raley, who has fought the tax hikes.
Who would have ever thought that commissioners who campaigned on openness
in government, who promised that they would listen to the people, that they would respect
the citizen volunteers who serve to advise the commissioners, would bring about so much
harm to the county only to satisfy a few left-wing socialists who have a perverted view of
the world and while they profess to "love" St. Mary’s County instead mock
the people and look down their ample noses at the land, the customs, the language and the
heritage. These snobs now control the St. Mary’s Board of Commissioners and the end
of the line is at hand.
Therefore, it is highly likely, that today the Board of Commissioners will
take a vote on the issue and sadly, it appears that the votes are there to change the 3
acre zoning in rural areas to 20 acres for one house or even to the 30 acres favored by
Commissioner Joe Anderson, the leading commie on the Board. The enviro-whacko crowd has
even suggested 50 acre zoning as a ploy in order to appear to be reasonable by accepting a
compromise.
There can be no compromise. These commissioners, except Dan Raley, have to
go. Let these Commie-Kazi Commissioners pass any damn fool thing that they want to in the
remaining months of their term. A new board will be elected and can undo most any of the
mess this Board is creating.
Remember, they don’t want to hear from you at public forums, the
Board even sets the agenda, as they are tonight, even bringing in a choir to shut up the
public. This Board meets in secret session and illegally discusses topics not allowed
under the Open Meetings Act. This Board now has decided to move ahead with a Draconian
measure, even though 20 acre zoning has not been part of the public discussion over zoning
for the four-year process in which the zoning laws and comprehensive plan have been
designed.
This Board of Commie-Kazis’s know what is best for you and they have
taken your money with higher taxes, now they are taking your property rights with 20 acre
zoning. They allow a out-of-control dog warden to shoot family pets without cause and now
folks, that only leaves your first-born.
Throw the bums out...except Dan Raley.
20 Acre Zoning Bad for Farmers
The St. Mary’s Board of Commissioners currently is
likely to impose severe restrictions on the use and ownership of property in the rural
areas of the county, an action that they will surely take unless citizens call them, write
to them or attend meetings opposing this silly action which require 20 acres for approval
of one single home.
Understand this: the developers who own the property in the areas which
will be more valuable in which future growth will be channeled will be rewarded for their
intensive efforts over the past 30 years at manipulating the planning and zoning process.
But it is unjust for the farmers and rural property owners who have not
been focused on protecting their property rights to be short-changed as hard-core radical
environmentalists have been lobbying, promoting, and weaseling their way into the
processes of zoning review and production of the new zoning code.
There are several people worth a dishonorable mention in this process. One
is Keith Fairfax, who as the Planning Commission Chairman for a decade, presided over the
mess we now have. Fairfax failed to provide leadership to require commercial properties to
have connecting service roads. Neither did Commissioners Joe Anderson or Shelby Guazzo
when they were on the planning commission. Now the county may go ahead a build at a cost
of close to a million dollars a new service road to connect commercial shopping centers in
California.
But Fairfax sits back now and calls for raping the farmers by severely
diminishing their land value with this communist-like taking of the number of lots allowed
per parcel. Fairfax, the phony, sits back, boo-hoos and says that all that the planning
commission did failed to control growth. What crap. He voted in favor of most of it and
had a chance to do more to bring it about in a more orderly fashion.
Fairfax has a big fat government pension to live on, he doesn’t have
to sell off some land to pay for his retirement, as so many farmers had planned on doing.
The other imposter on the public arena is Donny Tennyson, the would-be
representative of St. Mary’s County farmers. This man is a tenant farmer and would
personally benefit from lower land values thus he tells the commissioners that it is okay
with farmers for the 20 acre zoning to pass. Farmers should know him as the turkey
buzzard. Watch him circle. Watch him laugh.
Joe Anderson will pander to any special interest group no matter how
small. Farmers should pay close attention to his hands, which are smooth and feminine,
indicative of his years of doing office work, avoiding real work such as farmers undertake
year round. Lady Fingers Joe Anderson will vote to take away your property values unless
he finds that farmers will suddenly take an interest in registering family and friends as
voters.
Farmers, being quiet and thoughtful people, out of their daily commune
with nature, don’t understand how crooked city people can swindle them out of their
land value.
One farmer recently said that he had been told that it doesn’t matter
if he could only get 7 lots out of his 140 acres instead of the 47 lots which he would be
entitled under the present law. He said he had been told that more high-end homes would be
built in the county in the future and the lower yield of lots from his farm when he got
ready to retire wouldn’t hold down his value.
To believe this hogwash is to believe consumers will only buy Cadillacs if
that is the only car built. Sound a little like communist philosophy? Five year central
planning? One type of commodity?
Only the free market and the location of land will dictate the value of
land, just as any other commodity. Restricting the amount of land available for
development will not create a market only for high-priced homes. What it will mean is that
only the wealthy will be able to afford land, that farmland will drop in value, that
farmers will not be able to borrow on their land because of the drop in value.
The zoning snobs who have long sought to eliminate mobile homes as the first step for
housing for the young and the poor now seek to send all new development to Leonardtown and
Lexington Park.
Were you born in Avenue or Park Hall and want to build a home for your family in one of
these areas on some land in the family? Forget it. Under the plan proposed by the current
commissioner’s hand picked pack of snobs, you will have to live in Lexington Park or
Leonardtown. Sin City or the Walled City. What a choice.
Farmers do not need to suddenly get on board a bus and go off to college
to get smart. They do need to take a half hour off and get in their pickup truck and go to
Leonardtown to the 3rd floor of the Leonard Hall Governmental Center and register to vote.
They need to pick up voter registration forms and take them home and sign up everybody
they know to vote.
Farmers need to get behind those candidates in next year’s election
who will oppose the current commissioners and vote new commissioners into office and throw
out the damn fools that are in there now, with the exception of Dan Raley, who is not
expected to vote for 20 acre zoning.
The envirowhackos have been after the farmers for years, badgering them
about fertilizer while the big counties and the metropolitan areas pollute the Bay with
great intensity as uncontrolled growth in those areas soared. After stripping away the
waterfront farmers of their great value with 20 acre zoning the zoning snobs are now out
to screw all of the farmers to the wall and the current Board of Commissioners are going
to make it all happen.
Time has come for switch to professional
County Police Department
This week’s release of overtime and pay for
many St. Mary’s deputies shows the pure folly of having an elected sheriff provide
the chief police agency for a modern growing county facing the perils of the population
doubling over the past 30 years, society being targeted by evil drug peddlers and yet
holding on to a system in which personality politics selects who the citizens look to
provide fair and effective law enforcement.
In recent months St. Mary’s County has been subjected to a slew of
lies, distortions and half truths concerning pay, benefits, duties, and hiring
difficulties concerning the Sheriff’s Department. Part of the blame for this falls
squarely on the shoulders of the St. Mary’s Commissioners for this Board was
confronted with changing the scope of the agency when they first took office but decided
to put off the tough decision it would have been to strip the sheriff of law enforcement
and reduce the office down to guarding the courts, serving civil papers and keeping the
inmates in jail --- just as most every other growing county has been faced with in recent
decades.
Charles County is lucky to have a responsible and effective sheriff’s
department but that is due to a mere 130-vote margin in the 1994 election which gave
Sheriff Fred Davis a chance to prove to the citizens of that county that he could properly
run the department while protecting and serving the public.
St. Mary’s County’s Sheriff’s Department is being run as a
three-ring circus, with the treasury opened up for daily looting by lazy goofball deputies
who excel only at bootlicking, apple polishing and brown-nosing. The more they lick,
polish and brownnose, the more overtime they get and the better duty assignments they are
awarded. Those deputies who backed Voorhaar in the last election have really prospered,
while those who didn’t, have been punished, just as Dick promised in an after the
election interview with the Emptyprize.
When another 30 percent of payroll is paid out in overtime the indication
is present that there is no leadership, no financial management, no fiscal responsibility
and no lights on upstairs. Elvis really has left the building.
How can the chief deputy get such a suntan when he has used so much sick
leave? Why does he and a lieutenant in charge of support services drive luxury Ford
Expeditions, even taking them home, even taking them out of the county when deputies on
road patrol who are exposed to being in high-speed chases with actual crooks are assigned
old police cars with over 100,000 miles on them? Why was the money spent on luxury
vehicles when less money could have been spent on first-rate police cruisers which could
have been given to the deputies who need them and the old clunkers assigned to
Voorhaar’s top bananas?
How can deputies amass so much overtime? Why don’t the county
commissioners have any knowledge of this rampant abuse of the taxpayers, or do they simply
condone this conduct?
Actually, the four commissioners who voted over a year ago to change the
way overtime is paid set this situation in motion, at the request of Voorhaar who was
acting on a campaign promise he made to get the support of the very deputies who have
benefited the most by the change.
The commissioners decided to grant Dick’s campaign promise and pay
overtime after 8 hours are worked, not after the 80 hour pay period had been accomplished.
Only Dan Raley opposed this rape of the county treasury and warned over a
year ago what would happen. Now the chickens have come home to roost and if anyone is
shocked at the pay given to these poor, poor deputies, consider this: No one in law
enforcement in Maryland looks at this department without at least smirking, most laugh at
them, and some feel sorry for the people of this county.
Now we have the results of a tarnished election process, topped off with
an extraordinary election eve event which is the subject of a federal investigation.
St. Mary’s County is paying for professional law enforcement but not
getting it. It is the responsibility of the commissioners to change over to a professional
police department and quickly reduce the Sheriff’s job down to supervising about five
deputies and part-time court security officers. And they should provide overtime pay on a
basis which is fair to all, including the taxpayers.
To provide such a blatant use of the public treasury as a political payoff
is an act of public corruption the likes of which has never been seen before in St.
Mary’s County.
Board's Budget Sham, Keystone Cops
The St. Mary’s Board of Commissioners, with the
notable exception of Dan Raley, have attempted to pull the old smoke and mirrors routine
on citizens this year as they formulated the budget and set the stage to raise taxes.
The shallow maneuvering by the Board to manipulate the school employees
and deputies in order to bring forth an overpowering display of public support for a tax
increase, which was already decided behind closed doors months ago, made a sham of the
public hearing process and the budget work session process.
The Board decided long ago to raise taxes, an action which they will make
official today. Once again, those shrill voices who always sound off in support of raising
taxes for any blank check spending that the school system wishes were out in full regalia,
with the strings to their jaws being worked by school superintendent Pat Richardson, who
is said to be close to leaving the house of cards she has built.
The school system has become the work product of paranoid managment team
incompetents with falling test scores marking the point that spending more money
doesn’t necessarily correlate to better students. There is only one asset worth
spending more money on and that is the only asset that means a damn in education: our
teachers. It is pure baloney to brag about St. Mary’s having the lowest
student-teacher ratio in Maryland when our test scores are falling. It is time we have the
best paid teachers and show our educators that the community means it when we say that our
children are our most important investment.
It is high time to just say no to the bumbling Sheriff of St. Mary’s
who couldn’t find a bleeding elephant in a snowstorm, to shift to a professional
county police department and end the hijinks of the out-of-control senior deputies who run
the Keystone Cops Sheriff’s Department like their own private bar and country club,
excluding women, blacks and other minorities from employment, promotion or choice
assignments. When Voorhaar says that St. Mary’s has trouble recruiting, he is half
right. But when he says the reluctance of qualified applicants is pay related he is wrong.
All he has to do is look in the mirror and he’ll see what a laughing stock his
department has become to law enforcement officers around the nation. Why would a young
person want to sign up with Laurel & Hardy when they can go to first rate police
agencies around the nation?
Voorhaar has recently given two $40,000 Ford Expeditions to his senior
officers when former Sheriff Wayne Pettit only gave the department’s oldest vehicles
to his staff commanders, leaving new police cars to the road patrol officers who needed
them. Pettit, much criticized in these pages, to his credit, never squandered money on
pricey 4-wheel drive luxury vehicles. Rather than propose ludicrous police taxes like
Voorhaar has, Pettit always turned back surplus money each year to the county.
Funny, they never mentioned this 4-wheel luxury vehicle waste and abuse of
the taxpayers while the FOP brigade of barflies and wives were moaning for salary
increases for deputies.
Voorhaar’s staff officers use of these vehicles for hunting and
fishing trips and to carry around golf clubs no doubt is facilitated by the taxpayer-paid
for tinting of the glass so citizens cannot see these important implements of law
enforcement: golf clubs, hunting gear, tree stands, fishing rods. Voorhaar’s top
captain has such a suntan from his outdoor activities, early in the spring, that to think
he ever spent a day this year in the office pouring over paperwork would be sheer fantasy.
Voorhaar is never there and neither is Doolan. Elvis clearly has left the building. If the
FBI ever comes for this crowd, they better get a map of local golf courses.
Waste a penny more on the Sheriff’s Department? No. It is time to
dissemble the agency and create a new police department, hire a qualified chief and get
the politics out of law enforcement in St. Mary’s County. We are paying for a police
department and getting a national embarrassment.
After the creation of a professional police department, the new chief
could make recommendations on pay increases, but first, let’s get the police force we
are already paying for. Voorhaar and his deadwood posse of his dozen dummies can stay and
work the courthouse while the great majority of the deputies who cringe under the mental
midgets of their hierarchy would be able to walk tall as they serve the public in a new
police department.
Cutting out all of the politically motivated and unnecessary spending
which this Board has approved would provide funds for significant raises for our teachers.
This Board could do the right thing, but they are on a fasttrack to failure by raising
taxes, supporting Voorhaar’s lunacy and ignoring the chance to make our teachers the
best paid in the state.
North Beach Pole Tax Designed To Keep Blacks Off of Town's Beach, Pier
North Beach Mayor Mark Frazer
and his town council have imposed a $2.50 per person, per fishing pole tax on the use of
the fine North Beach pier effective May 15, 2000, according to signs posted on the
pier.
The tax does not apply to residents of North Beach nor those under the age of 16.
Thus if you are a senior citizen who served this nation in war, live outside of North
Beach and want to come out and enjoy a few hours fishing, you are limited to 2 poles and
have to pay a tax on them.
Pretty soon they will find a way to tax you for standing on the end of the pier and watch
the expensive boats glide up to the new lower level pier the Council is planning to
build. There is nothing wrong with keeping rowdy groups under control and orderly,
but the people fishing are well behaved and present a threat only to worms and fish.
The NAACP won't do well with a boycott of this town as that is exactly what many say
is behind the new pole tax, to keep blacks out of the town and off the beach and pier.
The town has accepted money over the years from the State of Maryland for the pier
and cannot charge for the use of the pier for fishing. Fishing license funds were
earmarked for fishing reefs and fishing piers around the state and created money for piers
and to impose another tax on the use of the pier is outrageous.
Just as other taxes on election day polls were designed to keep out blacks from our
electoral process in past decades, this new wimpy tax is nothing but a dodge for a bunch
of racist elitists who are not happy that they have been able to ban all fishing and
crabbing along the shore line of the Chesapeake in both Chesapeake Beach and North
Beach, but now will be able to use an artful dodge to drive the public away from the
public use of the pier.
Mayor Mark Frazer was a Calvert County Commissioner when the Board banned all
fishing along the seawall in Solomon's after business owners complained that blacks and
Asians from the DC area were taking over the place.
The State of Maryland needs to take strong action to end this pole tax or make the Town of
North Beach ante up and pay back every cent of state funds which have been to
improve not only the pier, but the boardwalk, the roads, street lights and all other
public facilities. The taxpayers of Maryland should be allowed to use any of these
facilities without any such racist-oriented taxes to keep some citizens from enjoying what
all citizens paid for.
Open Up Myrtle Point Park So Public
Can Have Access To Waterways;
Keep White Neck Creek Wharf Open to Public
The St. Mary’s Commissioners are
currently considering a proposal from a former Democrat County Commissioner to sell him a
public landing located at Bushwood. This same Board of Commissioners who is weighing this
decision to further erode public access to the water just one year ago shelved a plan for
the 192-acre Myrtle Point Park which would have provided facilities to fish, swim and boat
for all of the many tens of thousands of county residents who do not live on the water or
have access to our wonderful rivers, creeks and the Chesapeake Bay.
The wharf on White Neck Creek located next to
the shuttered old Capt. Sam’s Restaurant, known also in past years as T’s Cove,
has been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair by a Parks and Recreation Director who
has been more intent on serving the selfish interests of the neighbors of Myrtle Point
Park who don’t want people of color using the park and also the mean-spirited radical
environmentalists of the Potomac River Association who want to use your tax money to buy
such wonderful parcels of land such as Myrtle Point yet fight tooth and nail to keep
taxpayers from using this property.
This Board apparently is hell-bent for leather
to cater to the interests of the few in their decisions since taking office, while using
the public treasury and public property to pay off political favors, making themselves
worthy repositories of allegations of being Good Old Boy backroom politicians.
While the former Republican Board of
Commissioners set a new record for conducting secret sessions, doing the public business
away from public view, this Board of 4 Democrats and 1 Liberal Democrat masquerading as a
Republican, is quickly establishing a record as abusive of the public process as their
erstwhile predecessors. It appears that in St. Mary’s County that politicians of both
parties find violating the Open Meetings Act to be as easy as doing the dosey-do.
At the recent public hearing on the White Neck
Creek wharf, dozens of citizens showed up to voice their concern about the loss of yet
another public access point to the water.
The answer of what to do should be so obvious
to the Board that they would have refused to even contemplate this outrageous scheme.
First, they should demand an accounting of the Parks Director to answer for why the wharf
has been allowed to deteriorate to the point of disrepair where planks are dangerous to
walk upon. Second, they should politely refuse the offer to sell the wharf and instead
negotiate with the owner of the closed restaurant to buy his property and turn the
facility into a worthy community water access park.
Having a place for landlocked citizens to fish
and crab, for watermen to continue their decades-long use of the wharf, for citizens to
launch their small boats and for those who just want to sit on a bench and contemplate the
beautiful scenery should just be a no-brainer. But apparently there is a lack of
brain-power on this Board. Why else would we see the Board scrap the master plan approved
by their predecessors for Myrtle Point and leave the county with no plan to develop any
recreational use of the park?
This Board is simply sneering at the public by
their actions, giving lip service to open meetings, reducing access to the water for the
general public, falling over themselves in an attempt to manipulate the treasury for
political purposes and contemplating such ridiculous ideas as moving the county’s
airport runway to allow a motel to built in the existing flight path.
The Board has nearly three years left in their
term of office and if they try real hard they can find ways to limit almost all public
access to the waterways.
The Mad Hatter, St. Mary's Aiport,
Jim's Secretary and Lift and Thrust
Why would a secretary for a department head
all of a sudden have such compelling credentials in the area of airport management to
qualify her to be the only candidate around, indeed the best candidate around, to run the
St. Mary’s County airport?
Just a month ago, the argument was made to the
Board of Commissioners to increase the grade level of the position of airport manager from
a grade level 8 to a grade 11. The Board was told that the increase was necessary as
otherwise the county would not be able to attract a qualified candidate for the job. The
Board of Commissioners, the all-knowing and all-powerful group of politicians caved in,
after all it’s only tax money and there is more where that came from. The vote was
4-1, with only Common Sense Dan Raley voting nay.
The truth of matter is that when the job came
open just over a year ago, there were a host of qualified applicants, folks who have had
aviation experience in air traffic control, flight operations and other fields connected
with aviation at Pax River. One person who applied last time was a retired Brigadier
General. This time around, 26 people applied.
But, just as in Alice in Wonderland, the
Wonderful World of Disney Government in the Walled City of Leonardtown found that the only
person qualified among the 26 who applied was the secretary to the county’s
purchasing director, Jim Haley.
Sounds like Monkey Business, looks like Monkey
Business and just like Gary Hart, the once-upon-a-time presidential candidate who was
caught being photographed with a show girl on a boat named the Monkey Business, this
latest episode in county government seems just like more Monkey Business. Just like a
duck, it must be Monkey Business.
So Jim’s secretary gets a new job, gets a
$10,000 raise and the planes take off and land more efficiently at the county airport.
Remember, flight has a lot to do with lift and thrust. Perhaps this new assignment of
personnel has a lot to do with lift and thrust, airplanes will now get off the ground
faster, stay in the air longer and land with a more satisfying feeling for all aboard.
The County Airport will be better and
remember, this is a good thing.
When the final story on why this job was given
out the way it was is revealed, we may learn more about lift and thrust, but in the
meantime, remember, Dan Raley voted against this sweet deal to give Jim’s secretary a
$10,000 raise.
This is just the latest chapter in the
shenanigans accomplished by this Board at the airport. The first stupid thing they did was
to change the name of the airport, to name it after a valiant first aviator of the county,
a nice gesture indeed.
But it was idiotic and simply a
patronizing effort on the part of Tommy Mattingly, who, indeed is a nice guy. But when it
was pointed out that all aviation maps now will carry the name of some chap named Duke,
instead of St. Mary’s County, the flyers won’t have a lot to go on, creating
confusion.
They could have named the terminal after Col.
Duke and the airport name could have stayed the same but Tommy must have made a
promise to somebody and Viola! there is it is.
We no longer have Duke’s Bar but we have
Duke’s Airport, the home of thrust and lift.
Chris Brugman Just Doesn't Get It
About Drunk Driving
Even after all the warning that came with from
a press onslaught of Y2K drivel about how many law enforcement officers would be prowling
Maryland highways, wouldn’t you know 157 drunk Maryland drivers were nabbed by the
Maryland State Police on the first weekend of the year.. That figure does not include
those drunk drivers who were hauled in by county police and sheriff’s departments
around the state. Just the state police.
The State Police had just over
1,200 troopers on the roads, making one wonder exactly what in tarnation the other 1,043
were doing that night if only 157 DWI arrests were made but, what the heck, finding six
drunk drivers, on average, in each of Maryland’s 23 counties isn’t a bad haul,
especially considering that traffic was so light on New Years Eve that some compared the
evening to traffic flow one would see during a heavy snow storm, making the apprehension
of drunk drivers even more difficult.
It would be great to see the State Police declare an
ordinary weekend night a special drunk driving awareness night and flood the state’s
roadways with the same manpower, with the goal of each trooper making at least one DWI
arrest. Some troopers, like Chuck Goldstrom, Ronald T. Best or Mark McLean can bring in as
many as 3 DWI drivers in one shift, so with 1,200 troopers working on a typical weekend
night, those Maryland drivers who regularly drink and drive would have something new to
think about.
Some folks complain about how cops will sit about a
block from a bar at closing time and then wait for drunk drivers to drive by and then
pounce on them. Wow, what a deprivation of constitutional rights! One local chap, our
friend, fellow columnist and former St. Mary’s county commissioner who has a local
talk show and who was arrested for DWI about a year and half ago, was all in a dither last
week on the air about such "police abuse".
What a load of crap.
Take a look at the logic of criticizing the police for
waiting for those who have been sitting on bar stools all night long to get behind the
wheel and drive. Since the policy decision has been made to take drunk drivers off the
road, exactly where does this convicted drunk driver with a microphone expect the police
to sit? At a church on Sunday morning and wait for those who have consumed communion wine
at Mass to drive away with an imperceptible amount of alcohol in their system or should a
cop sit near the notorious drug-infested Hole in the Wall bar in Hollywood and wait for
inebriated patrons to drive their pickups away from that hell hole, weaving their way down
the highway? Chris doesn’t think the Callaway Club is good for the county, and it
isn’t, but then again, that’s a black bottle club.
It’s easy to see how Chris Brugman would feel
drunk drivers who leave bars at closing time should get a free pass from the police. He
clearly has not made the decision to never do such a thing again. That is a real shame,
considering that when Chris was three sheets to the wind and was wrecked by a Washington
Post newspaper carrier, Chris was hurt so bad he lost three weeks from work and suffered a
lot of pain. But he healed up and was able to go back to work earning a living for his
young family.
Given his considerable talent to sway public opinion
with his bright wit and good conservative values, Brugman would be in a position to sway
more of his contemporaries to make the right decision to not drive after drinking. But
Chris just turned 32 years of age, the prime time age in St. Mary’s County for
driving drunk and for dying while driving drunk.
Lets hope Chris makes the right decision and instead of
making jokes about belonging to DAM, as he said last week on the air, a group he called
"drunks against MADD", perhaps he will just grow up and encourage other young
men to go out, have fun, down their brew and then call a cab.
Chris told his listeners that he fears this is all
about bringing back prohibition. Nothing could be further from the truth. It should be
very easy for Chris to get this message.
Being against drunk driving is all about being
pro-life.
A Grimm Decision by
Board
The recent decision by St. Mary's Board
of County Commissioners to split the responsibilities of the Planning and Zoning Director,
Jon Grimm, and to give the inspections and permits hat he has worn to Harry Knight will
soon be come to seen by many as foolhardy.
Only Commissioner Daniel Raley questioned why the Board
decided on this venture, apparently having conducted all discussions of the event behind
closed doors. Raley questioned that if the Board was going to cut away the permits from
Grimm's job, why didn't his contracted salary drop in commensurate proportion.
That was a good question, but one which you can only
expect to come from a small business owner who has to wonder why such an inefficient
decision has been made.
The real story behind this move is why Grimm is even
being kept in his job.
County Administrator Mort Smedley is a nice guy who is
prevented from doing his job by an autocratic commissioner president and a Board which,
with the exception of Raley and Mattingly, do everything they can to micromanage the
county government.
There actually was a day in St. Mary's County when the
county was run by the county administrator, but no more. For the record, it was the Board
composed of Larry Millison, Manning McKay, John Knight Parlett Sr., Ford Dean and also the
Boards elected in 1978, 82 and even 86. But after Buddy Loffler and Babs hit town, the day
was over when the county was run without interference from petty politicians anxious to
thwart the will of the majority of the Board.
But now, with Gypsy Joe Anderson, Julie Jubilee and
Shelby The Adjuster Guazzo, the majority is in the county building most every day running
everything behind closed doors and violating the Open Meetings Act at every opportunity.
It is quite a shame that we have Grimm being kept in
his job. There was a majority of the Board in consensus to fire Grimm and get rid of this
incompetent super-bureaucrat who has put the average citizen through hell when it comes to
their property and dealing with the zoning office. There is not likely a more arrogant
bureaucrat in America than Harry Knight and the best hope that frustrated St. Mary's
Countians have for getting rid of the current Board in the next election is simply to keep
Knight in place, sneering at citizens, hiding from them decisions made about their
permitting process.
You have to hand it to Grimm. He outsmarted Frances
Eagan, but then again many people did that. When then-Commissioner Eagan voted to keep
Grimm and not go along with Larry Jarboe and Chris Brugman in dumping him, she warned him
to straighten out. As soon as the ink was dry on his contract, Grimm was out in public
sticking his finger in the Board's eye, leaving Eagan fuming. She should have known
better.
Now, this current Board kept Grimm in place. It is easy
to understand why developers like Sonny Burch like Grimm kept in his job, they have a lot
invested in him over the years and they can get what they want. That isn't bad, mind you,
but Burch and his contemporaries shouldn't benefit from a system which is tilted towards
some citizens while giving a rough time to all others.
Government is supposed to be dished out in equal
measures to all citizens.
That is the ideal, it has really never happened in St.
Mary's County, but it would be nice if just once we tried it.
There is Hope for Justice
in St. Mary's County
It is an extreme privilege and honor to
be able to sit down and write these words for your consumption, whether you relish these
reports, disdain them, disregard them or wallpaper your living room, or even parakeet cage
with these pages.
If we are doing our job right, we are enraging the bad
guys and bringing hope to the hearts of the little guys of this area with the printed
word.
The last time this writer published an editorial in
this space, the apparent lack of any real or visible progress in the investigation of
those who ran amuck on Election Day, 1998, in St. Mary's County was noted, with some
discouragement.
The Election Day activities concerned law enforcement
officers allegedly raiding news stands in an organized effort to prevent the readers of
this newspaper from reading two revealing stories about two candidates for elective
office.
Now we are able to report to you that a distinctly
remarkable amount of progress has been made in the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe
of the matter. Sources have informed ST. MARY'S TODAY that a Federal Grand Jury has begun
hearing from those with information about the alleged civil rights violations which took
place on Election Day 1998 and at other times and involving other victims, all as a result
of organized efforts of those sworn to uphold the law in St. Mary's County, Maryland.
Many of you who read this newspaper have expressed your
shock at the way news stands were stripped of this paper in that raid in an effort to
swing the election. Many of you have expressed the view that the raid was an outrageous
act committed by cowards who abused their authority and intimidated clerks as they
gathered up all of that day's edition which had been distributed to news stands. Many
people in St. Mary's County have said that while they are outraged at what took place,
they are afraid to publicly express themselves and expose themselves to retaliation from
armed law officers.
The response of citizens to such fear of intimidation,
while lamentable, is understandable.
But let the message go forward now, that federal
authorities, namely the U.S. Attorney and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are
investigating with due diligence in this matter and anyone who wishes to cooperate with
the investigation need only contact these officials at the FBI office in Baltimore at
410-281-0385.
No longer will the bullies with badges continue to
escape responsibility for their actions as the feds are beginning to hold their feet to
the fire and to enforce the rule of law in St. Mary's County, Maryland, showing that once
and for all, that the Constitution of the United States of America does apply here, a
thought and belief that has been seriously questioned over the years.
St. Mary's County has many proud traditions and
admirable qualities but the detrimental abuses conducted by illegal acts of law officers
and others has brought nationwide attention to their dark deeds and doubt as to whether
justice will prevail.
It is the distinct honor of this publisher to inform
our readers that there is hope for equal justice for all in St. Mary's County. It is with
a great sense of responsibility that this publisher and editor is able to bring forward
another edition of this newspaper to our readers with a message that there is a light on
the horizon for the future of democracy and that those who have engaged in Nazi-style
suppression of the news will pay a dear price for their outrageous actions.
There is a long road between the beginnings of a Grand
Jury hearing testimony and the indictment and conviction of those found by a jury to have
committed wrong doing, but the process has begun.
Just remember what those who eventually are brought to
justice did to bring this probe about. This humble newspaper, which it's enemies profess
to never read and who tell all who will listen, that no one else reads it either, had gone
to press and was distributed to your local news stand on Election Eve with news of two of
the candidates on the ballot. These law officers who were involved swept out across St.
Mary's County in an organized raid and acted to keep you from reading the newspaper and
then making up your own mind about their candidates.
These candidates and their supporters feared the
decision you would have made if you were able to read the newspaper. Not only were the
First Amendment rights of this newspaper violated, but also the same rights of all of our
readers to be able to make decisions on how to vote based on what they read in the
newspaper of their choice.
If the detractors of this newspaper are right and no
one reads this newspaper, then those involved in the Election Day Raid have put themselves
at considerable legal peril for absolutely no reason at all.
Good health, success and happiness are wished to those
who are seeking the establishment of Truth, Justice and the American Way in St. Mary's
County, Maryland.
Spineless Board & Eco-Whackos Conspire
To Keep Public Out of Myrtle Point
The St. Mary's Commissioners now have
shelled out $925,000 more of your tax dollars for land which they say they will use a
portion of for a park. The total land area is 19 acres, located next to Great Mills High
School.
For more than 20 years there was a county park behind
the high school and boasted basketball courts, a ball diamond and an outdoor
amphiatheatre. The park was demolished and the land given over to the high school which
needed the land area for expansion and relocation of the school's football field.
Now with the use of 5 acres of the old Hill's Trailer
Park which is adjacent to the school, the county will be able to restore public park use
in the Great Mills area.
With the nearby opening of the Chancellors Run Road
Regional Park in 1990, the closing of the old Henderson Park was not a severe loss, but
any loss of active park facilities is always a matter of going in the wrong direction when
the considerating of the value to society of keeping kids working up a sweat instead of
dealing in mischief.
However, in the entire California area there is not a
single park facility which can be used, other than the very small Town Creek tennis court
facility.
The last Board of Commissioners paid $1.2 million for
the Myrtle Point Park and a group of insidious eco-whackos, the Potomac River Association,
have mobilized their socialist and far-left elitist friends to apply sufficient pressure
to the present Board of Commisisoners to retract the active use plan for Myrtle Point, a
plan which would only have used a small fraction of the total 192 acres.
Why? Because these eco-whackos live near the park and
don't want anything developed there. For the past 30 years, these folks from the PRA have
fought off any plans to develop Myrtle Point but in 1992 they duped many in the county
into supporting their plans to try to have the county buy the land for use as a park. The
public rallied to the cause and the old Board supported the purchase of the land. But
after the land was purchased, the PRA went about a dark and dirty task of lining up the
votes to deny the use of the land to families and children. The PRA doesn't want any
active use of the park, with its 2 miles of shoreline. No boats, no fishermen, no ball
players, no kids, nobody.
This is sheer insanity and selffishness on the part of
the PRA.
No one advocates the destrruction of any wetlands, any
old Indian village site or cutting down marshes or forests.
But there are weed infested and briar choked old
tobacco fields on this longtime waterfront farm that should be cleared out and ballfields
installed.
How can St. Mary's County have a 192 acre waterfront
park and fail to install a bountiful supply of waterfront activities at the park?
It doesn't make any sense at all. The reason the park
is not and won't be built up with waterfront or sports fields is that a mean bunch of
insidious eco-whackos don't want it and a bunch of chichen manure politicians are afraid
of them and won't go ahead and do the right thing.
In Defense of the First Amendment,
Contribute To Our
Legal Fund
There aren't too many folks around that get as agitated
about the First Amendment as they do the Second Amendment.
Some who want to control and ban all guns are really
raising cain these days as they seek to use the recent tragic events of troubled teens
shooting up their schools or Nazi psychopaths shooting children at a day care center as
the rationale for trying to revoke the Second Amendment guarantee of citizens right to
bear arms.
Others who reject the arguments of those who want to
ban all guns point out that in states where wearing concealed handguns has become legal,
that street crime has dropped, evidence that criminals stop their attacks on the public
when the public is armed. Opponents of more gun registration laws correctly point out that
in all of the recent cases of mass killings, those who perpetuated the insane slaughter
violated numerous gun registration laws which are already on the books.
Advocates of new gun restriction laws such as Maryland
Governor Parris Glendening now call for "smart guns". Besides the temptation to
point out an obvious oxymoron, what the Governor proposes is even more insane. Were the
Governor to own a gun which could be fired only by his own hand after recognizing his
fingerprint on the trigger, he could find himself in a bit of a problem should he and his
wife be accosted by a burglar in their home. If a burglar attacked the Governor as the
chief executive reached for his gun and then held a knife in the air, ready to bring it
down into his chest, the First Lady would not be able to pick up the gun and shoot the
burglar before he could stab her husband. Why? Because if the Governor has his way, a
Smart Gun could only be fired by the Governor, not his wife in order to save his life.
The debate will rage on forever. The Second Amendment
to the Constitution has been assuring Americans of their right to own guns from the first
days of our nation's independence. Each time a whacko picks up a gun and mows down people,
this debate will once again reach a crescendo, then, like an exhausted hurricane, will
disappear on the horizon only to show up again next season.
In this area there exists a constant debate over
growth. Naysayers who dislike everything which can be construed as progress have changed
from the committed environmentalists of the Potomac River Association who opposed the oil
refinery at Piney Point in 1974 to nattering nabobs of negativism who oppose everything
and anything, including the use of Myrtle Point Park by children and families. Others
favor a balanced growth to the area, providing jobs, opportunity and opening up
competition to provide retail shopping here in St. Mary's so shoppers don't have to travel
to Waldorf to find the selection of stores that they want.
As people debate guns and growth, the very first
guarantee of freedom which protects this debate, which allows citizens to stand up to the
power of the Governor, who is convinced he is right, is our First Amendment.
The Governor of Maryland, who has been a benevolent
Governor to Southern Maryland, quick to recognize the need to accommodate the growth here
which has come with more units being assigned to Pax River, has recently taken
extraordinary action, seizing the power to make laws from the legislature and appointing
himself King Water of Maryland, bringing down the wrath of government upon scofflaws who
violate his conservation edicts. Glendening's encouragement of putting neighbor against
neighbor with reporting of water usage on lawns or washing cars has a SS ring to it all.
In the meantime, science has been bent by bureaucrats
who owe their jobs to the Governor, to fit his hysteria.
What protects this newspaper to stand up to the
heavy-handed over use of executive power by the Governor? The First Amendment, for the
first of our Bill of Rights protects not only the individual's right of free expression
but also the freedom of the press.
This past November, freedom of the press came under
attack in St. Mary's County when two local officials and their henchmen, St. Mary's
deputies, fanned out across the county and swept news stands clear of this paper,
intimidating clerks into selling them all of the stack of papers on the stands, unloading
news boxes and even stealing bundles of papers which had been delivered to stores.
While the outcome of a criminal investigation is
awaited, this newspaper must engage those who acted in the middle of the night, much like
Adolf Hitler's Gestapo, in court, to punish them for their attempt to silence this
newspaper and to show others who may contemplate such action in the future that this
conduct cannot be tolerated.
Protecting this right in Federal Court by bringing
action is expensive and beyond the reach of this newspaper. Therefore, our readers are
requested to make donations to protect the First Amendment in St. Mary's County. Mail your
donation to: ST. MARY'S TODAY Legal Fund, C/O Alice Neff Lucan, Esq., 4403 Greenwich
Parkway, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20007-2010.
The rights you act to protect are your own, regardless
of which side of the issues you find yourself. Law enforcement officers must not be
allowed to decide what you may read.
Do Deputies Have The Right To Determine What You Read?
Will Voorhaar and Fritz Step Aside
To Assure Public Trust?
With the passing of the Fourth of July, marking the
223rd anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence by 56 brave men from
the original 13 Colonies, we have the remarkable recent event of a most intolerable act
that threatens the freedoms won by our forefathers hanging over St. Mary’s County
like a terrible storm.
This past Wednesday, the national network show Good Morning America
followed on the heels of WUSA Channel 9 and The Washington Post in probing the organized
effort of a group of St. Mary’s Sheriff’s deputies who, with the knowledge and
consent of their boss, went out into the community and stripped news stands of this
newspaper the night before the election last November in an attempt to change the outcome
of the election in the races for Sheriff and State’s Attorney.
In addition, three months after the election-eve rampage over the 1st
Amendment, we have had the incredible charges leveled at the State’s Attorney by the
victim whom he was involved with 34 years ago. The women of St. Mary’s County
understand Carla Henning Bailey, soon so will the men.
Sheriff Richard Voorhaar has acknowledged that he recognized that these
deputies took the action of snatching up newspapers in reaction to criticism offered about
their boss in this newspaper and his conduct of the law enforcement activities in recent
years.
The deputies also sought to ensure the election of a candidate for
State’s Attorney who would not challenge Voorhaar to act in the public interest and
coordinate his narcotics investigative efforts with those of the Maryland State Police, as
the outgoing State’s Attorney, Walter B. Dorsey, had done.
What these deputies conspired to do was to deprive the citizens of St.
Mary’s County who wish to read this newspaper the opportunity to do so before voting.
Since mail subscriptions are not delivered until midday, after most folks have gone to
work, those newspapers were not available or to our readers who customarily buy the paper
on the newsstand and who cast their ballots on the way to and from their jobs.
Thus, just as swarms of fascist storm troopers crushed freedom in Europe
more than 50 years ago, in a haunting reflection of Nazi nightmares, St. Mary’s
Sheriff’s deputies and their conspirators swept across the Mother County of Maryland
in order to defraud the voters of a news story they feared so much as to inspire them to
such drastic action.
They did this in contrast to the great traditions which have been the
hallmark in this county, a land which is famous for having setting forth the first and
only Colony which proclaimed Religious Toleration as the law in first days of our
existence and 21 years ago elected the first black man to the office of Sheriff in this
state.
These deputies, armed and carrying badges, are all known to local store
clerks as being "the law". It does not stretch the imagination to believe that
any clerks who considered or attempted to resist the orders to sell these law enforcement
officers their entire stack of newspapers found themselves under considerable pressure to
follow the orders of the deputies to sell them all of that day’s edition.
Why is it important that citizens understand their rights under our
Constitution and the Bill of Rights? Because understanding of these rights brings about
champions who will work hard to preserve those rights.
The 1st Amendment is not the exclusive property of those who publish the
printed word, although it is a shield against the forces of darkness who would strike a
death blow to all of our freedoms.
Rather, it is the embodiment of our freedoms, the freedom of choice
exercised whenever a reader selects which newspapers or magazine to read.
When that right to read what the reader chooses is taken away either by
those who burn books or abscond with all copies of a single edition of a publication, then
the 1st Amendment has been violated. That it be violated by those charged with enforcing
law and order is intolerable.
There are those in St. Mary’s County who say that they don’t
care about what took place on election day. While under our constitution, they have that
privilege to have that opinion, their opinion does not wipe away the rule of law.
What the deputies did was illegal.
It is up to the FBI to discover the truth and present that evidence to a
federal Grand Jury. With proper evidence of the truth of what took place on Nov. 3, 1998,
prosecutors need to act to protect our basic right for all us to determine what it is we
will read. We cannot yield that right to deputies.
Our law officers also need to be shown once and for all that in our
society we give them special powers to keep order and that when they abuse those powers by
bullying Americans and stripping away our right to choose to read newspapers of our
choice, it is time for them to be removed from office.
While we don’t expect a lot from the corporate outlet of Whitney
Communications and Chesapeake Publishing in St. Mary’s County known as the
Enterprise, which was once a proud and venerable newspaper under the former ownership of
Charlie Molitor, their silence on this issue transcends competition and their attitude
towards this publication which has stifled their growth in the past ten years. On this
issue, their failure to condemn the acts of their political lackeys Voorhaar and Fritz
shows once again how out-of-touch they have become. They depend on being spoon-fed the
news by the pair and are afraid to criticize them. This is quite a come-down for that old
broadsheet.
There are those who think that there is a vendetta by this newspaper
against these two officials. Those persons who believe that should consider why Fritz and
Voorhaar and the deputies acted in the way they did on election eve. The Constitution of
the United States protects the right of this newspaper to criticize in any way the actions
of these bozos. Call it a vendetta if you wish, but it simply is free speech.
In order to maintain the public trust in law enforcement in St.
Mary’s County, Sheriff Richard Voorhaar and State’s Attorney Richard Fritz
should step aside and appoint their chief deputies to run their offices. Failing that,
they should be suspended from office.
Myrtle Point, A Park, Not A Bug Farm
(6/29/99) The St. Mary’s Commissioners
contracted with a consultant to create a master plan for development of Myrtle Point Park
which would use the property in the best way possible, as if he had never had any
instructions from the citizen volunteers on the Board of Parks and Recreation or the
commissioners.
The Board threw out the original master plan, due to the pressure of
extreme evironmentalists and radicals, along with a band of snobs and elitists who own
property around the parkland who wish to exclude all active uses of the park.
Now the Board will be given the new plan, concocted by an out-of-towner
who has already been tainted by the pushy and mean old geezers of the Potomac River
Association. These old farts are America’s worst examples of grandparents. They
don’t want the following uses of the park: a fishing pier, a boat launching ramp
facilty, a boat rental facility, a canoe launching facility, a boat ferry dock to recieve
passengers from future trans-Chesapeake ferry service, baseball fields, soccer fields,
picnic pavilions, football fields, basketball courts, tennis courts or any other active
use of the park.
Why do these old geezers hate kids? Why do these retired Navy Captains
have such disdain for the working folks of America who would like to use this 192 acre
park which has been paid for with taxpayer funds to keep the beautful waterfront park free
of development and allow landlocked folks without water access a way to use the water and
other recreational activities.
Fritz Should Pass Polygraph to Prove He Is Not A Rapist or Resign
For the Record:
There have been a
number of folks who weren’t paying attention at the time of the election last fall
who are wondering about the chain of events which led up to election day disclosure of
Rick Fritz’s guilty plea to charges of having sex, along with two other young men,
with a 15-year-old girl, who was too young to give consent, and who now claims to have
been forcibly raped by the trio.
10 days before the election, a Fritz supporter called this newspaper and
asked why we had not printed a report on the drug arrest of Fritz’s opponent in the
election. This caller was told that the arrest was well-publicized when it happened about
25 years earlier and it was hard to imagine that everyone didn’t already know about
it. The next day another Fritz supporter called with the same question and was told that
if one candidate had his criminal history explored in the waning days of the election that
both should as rumors of a criminal charge about Fritz were around.
On Sunday, the Fritz supporter said he had talked to Fritz about the
matter of bringing up both criminal backgrounds and Fritz asked that this not be done. It
was pointed out to the Fritz backer that his campaign had already photocopied a news
clipping of Mattingly’s pot arrest and passed it around some church suppers, so all
was now fair in love and war.
On the following Tuesday, on Oct. 27th a brief reference was made to the
spectacle of the candidates for State’s Attorney comparing criminal histories.
Nothing more as space was limited to more serious topics. That day on a radio interview
show, where the two candidates made an appearance, a Fritz supporter called in to press
the point and embarrass Mattingly, who responded by saying he would be willing to compare
criminal backgrounds with Fritz. Fritz then made the comment that the crime to which he
pled guilty had been a matter of consensual sex.
On Friday of that week, a copy of the court record was obtained for the
first time which showed that Fritz entered a guilty plea to having sex with a child and
been sentenced to 18 months in prison, a remarkable qualification for the office of states
attorney that he had omitted from his campaign flyers.
On election day, Fritz and deputies who supported him, swept the news
stands so readers could not read for themselves the photocopied court records that showed
Fritz was charged with having sex with a minor child, who was not old enough to give
consent to sex.
What Fritz did at the age of 18 was not the issue.. But what the
52-year-old candidate and now, state’s attorney says and does, does matter, and Fritz
lied when he said the girl gave her consent. She was too young to give consent and he
should have said so on the radio the week before the election. But the truth wasn’t
on his side and he knew it.
Now that the victim in the case has broken her silence, she tells the
story of forcible rape at the hands of three young men..
One of Fritz’s compatriots in what he called "consensual
sex" is nowhere to be found.
The other one told this newspaper a year ago that he was profoundly sorry
about what had taken place when he was 17 and he has lived a far different life since. He
did not elaborate on what took place, but he did not call it consensual sex. He brought
the subject up as he wished to know if it would be a topic he would be asked about should
he run for office. He was told that questions about what he would do in office were more
important than what he did as a teenager. The topic was never brought up during his
election campaign and he lost the race he contested. He never claimed to have had
consensual sex and his court records were not and never will be available to inspect as he
was charged in juvenile court in the same matter as Fritz was charged as an adult. It was
only this April that the victim told her version of what had happened. Should this man be
a candidate in the future, he will be asked about what took place.
Now that Carla Henning Bailey has come forward and told how she was raped
by Richard Fritz and two others, and proven to be a credible witness, Fritz has only his
own campaign tactics to thank for the revelations.
But Carla Bailey, if she is telling the truth and Richard Fritz is lying,
has disclosed information that did not come out for the public on election day. This
newspaper told you on election day that a 15-year-old child could not give consent to sex.
Carla Bailey is telling you that she was forcibly raped.
Richard Fritz cannot now be charged with forcible rape now that Carla
Bailey is available as a witness. Why? It would be double jeopardy as elements of the
crime of forcible rape were already pleaded guilty to by Fritz. He cannot stand trial
again.
Thus St. Mary’s County has a State’s Attorney who stands charged
by his victim with being one of three men who held her down and raped her --- taking turns
raping her. The women of this county deserve to know whether or not the chief prosecutor
is a violent rapist.
Therefore, Richard Fritz should submit to and pass a polygraph examination
conducted by the Maryland State Police. If he is innocent, he should welcome the
opportunity to prove it. If he is guilty, or refuses to take the exam, he does not belong
in the office of State’s Attorney and should resign.
Drug task force unravels
Why Do Sheriffs’ Dick Voorhaar & Vonzell Ward Have So Much Trouble Telling The
Truth?
In 1994 when he was running for the
office of sheriff, Dick Voorhaar said he was in favor of the department he wanted to lead
becoming part of a joint task force with the State Police and the State’s
Attorney’s Office.
Last year, during his effort to retain his elective office, Voorhaar
claimed that he was going to join in with the State Police in conducting a joint criminal
investigation task force, where detectives from both agencies would pool their resources
and information to solve crimes which take place in the area.
Voorhaar kept neither promise.
In 1995, amid much fanfare, Voorhaar, Calvert Sheriff Vonzell Ward and
Charles Sheriff Fred Davis, along with the state police, got together with a combined drug
task force. Today, that effort has been dissolved, due to the decision made by Ward and
Voorhaar.
But Ward and Voorhaar have not come clean with the public about their
pulling out of the task force.
Voorhaar, who played up his decision to join with the State Police in a
combined investigative unit let that cloud of smoke blow over the electorate until ballots
were cast and nothing has been heard since then.
Too bad, since it was the State Police who had to come in with their cold
case squad and put together the case that the Sheriff personally blew with his bellicose
lies and blatant interference with a murder investigation, all due to his elevating
politics above justice for a murdered child.
While Voorhaar continues to play hide and seek with drug dealers, never
really rounding them up, the children of this area remain the prey of those evil
predators. God only knows what is causing Ward to play Step and Fetch It to
Voorhaar’s Barney Fife.
If Sheriff Ward would lie to high school students about an nonexistent
wife and nonexistent child, he would continue to lie about a nonexistent drug task force.
Pre-Plan Your Kid's Funeral?
Memorial Day weekend is a good weekend
to die...but only for old soldiers who have lived far beyond their glory days and now are
looking forward to meeting their maker. It is fitting that they die on a weekend which
memorializes the service of those who have given their lives for America.
But this holiday is not a good time for young people to
die, not for them, not for their families, not for their friends.
How can parents safeguard their kids? Certainty not by
trying to keep them locked up or isolated from the world, for it is access to the world
and the knowledge of how to be safe which will protect them from inevitable dangers.
Parents of teens can either plan for success or plan
for a funeral. It is really that simple and which way it goes depends, on a large degree,
to how well a parent has prepared their kids with advise, instructions, admonitions and
blessings.
Parents need to give their kids a car or access to one
when they turn 16. Kids should get a learner's permit at the earliest possible opportunity
and then when they have achieved that first life-goal of which they are so proud, they
need to spend every available moment chauffeuring their parents or grandparents around the
area.
This is a critical time, it is a time when the teenager
actually appreciates their parent, grandparent or aunt or uncle. They actually think you
are smart and it is time the adult can use to the best advantage to talk about defensive
driving, about not starting off at a green light when it turns, but looking first.
This is the time when an adult has the attention of a
teen and can get across the message of survival, how slow works as good as fast and to
underline the importance of courtesy.
This is the time you can spend to help preserve life,
that of your teenager.
The next step is to severely restrict the ability of
you teen to ride with other teenagers.
Just because the State of Maryland has seen fit to
license your teenager's pals doesn't mean you need to rubber stamp that decision. If you
provide wheels, love, threats and guidance to your kid, but then your kid gets in another
kid's vehicle who hasn't had any such treatment and hurls down the highway at 100 mph into
an oak tree, what have you accomplished?
Nothing.
A life time of preparing your child for the wonders of
life comes to a screeching, gory halt when blood and bone smash into bark and splinters
amid a shower of glass and metal.
Do you really think the undertakers want kids in their
establishments? Not a chance, they have kids of their own and they are sick of the teen
carnage.
The parents who work in the shock trauma centers are
worn out from the emotional distress of yet another young person coming in on a helicopter
from such unnecessary crashes as took place on Rt. 235 on Thursday after school let out at
Chopticon.
Don't let your kid ride with another kid until you are
convinced that teen driver is a safe operator. Don't let your kid's pal be the conductor
on the last train to ever leave the station.
When your kid starts driving, set daily limits on where
they can go, forbid them from carrying passengers without prior approval, ban trips after
dark, ban trips out of the county or on the beltway, unless you are with them.
Ask your teen to be on their honor to not play the
music in the car for the first six months.
Impossible?
Not worth trying?
Exactly what is your child's life worth? Certainly,
these simple steps are worth some of your valuable time to implement.
As last of all: Just ask the parents and families of
those killed in January by Michael Vito on Rt. 765 in Lusby about whether a parent should
provide a fast car to a 17-year-old. While it is true that any old jalopy can be sent to
deadly speeds by a lead foot, you don't have to think too hard to figure out what a
Canary-yellow 5.0 Mustang is all about. It's all about impressing your friends with how
fast it goes.
The failure of Calvert County State's Attorney Bobby
Riddle to properly hold the other 17-year-old who was drag racing with Vito accountable
for his actions is reprehensible.
Plan for life, or plan for death. One or the other is
in your future as the parent of a teen driver..
How Can America Hope to Keep Guns Away From Kids When We Can't Keep
Them From Buying Beer?
While parents, educators and
law enforcement officers all over America as well as Southern Maryland are wringing their
hands over how to keep guns out the hands of teenage psychopaths, here in this area we not
only can't keep booze out of the hands of kids but the police are caught selling alcohol
to teenagers.
With recent enforcement actions in St. Mary's and
Charles Counties taking place far too seldom, the lax atmosphere, which is the fault of
police as enforcement is their job, has caused widespread noncompliance and makes booze
readily available for our underage young people.
Is it a coincidence that there is no law enforcement of
alcoholic beverage laws during election years when influential license holders can throw
key political support to the challengers of incumbent Sheriff's? How can an organization
such as the Fraternal Order of Police commit such a bone-headed act as the sale of booze
to a kid to take place right under their noses, in a room full of cops?
Why did St. Mary's Sheriff Voorhaar remove a very
effective alcohol enforcement officer the year prior to the election and put a lazy deputy
in his place, which led to a complete collapse of the voluntary compliance which the first
officer had organized?
When will the liberals realize that no matter how many
laws this nation passes to restrict guns, that if we can't keep booze out of the hands of
kids, it is a lost cause to think we can ever keep guns from them --- especially when the
FOP is selling booze to teenagers.
The Charles and St. Mary's County
liquor boards need to take their jobs seriously and began taking stringent measures to
discipline those who sell to kids by increasing fines from $500 to $5,000 and revoking
licenses for good. With a serious penalty, license holders will then act to require a
proper identification. The police also need to crack down on kids who use fake ID's to
attempt to purchase alcohol.
...and if the FOP had an ounce of shame over allowing such an embarrassment to take place,
they would immediately close to the public and only serve their membership, which, of
course is the reason they built a lodge in the first place, not to open their doors to a
bunch of cop-wanna-bees as "associate" members.
Tudor Hall Convention Center Should Be Approved
Today the
St. Mary's County Board of Commissioners will finish with their annual budget. Among the
proposals for spending is an important item detailing a $3 million contribution towards a
convention center in the proposed Tudor Hall project in Leonardtown.
Each year the St. Mary's Commissioners fund a haggle of
employees who huddle in an office marked "economic development", a crew that
easily eats up at least $250,000 of revenue and never are able to show any economic
development for which they have been responsible. They set up card tables and fancy photo
boards with promotional material about St. Mary's at various bureaucrat beach parties in
Ocean City and make very earnest reports each year to the Board, but mostly their chief
product is hot air.
Now the Board has a golden opportunity to make a
difference in bringing about a significant giant step in economic development for St.
Mary's County, a genuine, first-class convention center.
Already the nattering nabobs of negativism, which are
composed primarily of the mean old geezers of the Potomac River Association, the same
group opposed to families and kids using Myrtle Point Park, are beginning to toss spears
of opposition to the Tudor Hall project. St. Mary's County is cursed with a bunch of
arrogant, well-off federal retirees with so much time on the hands to be able to organize
cell groups of socialists to oppose every opportunity to advance the county and to support
the base.
A case in point was the opposition that PRA leaders
gave to the widening of Rt. 235, a project they endangered again last month as they
threatened to litigate against the First Colony developer.
The Tudor Hall project is worthwhile as the Board will
see immediate benefit from real estate taxes from the homes that are built, from the
increased tourism to the county associated with the conventions booked at the facility,
from the increased number of overnight stays that are taxed at the center's hotel as well
as the other county motels and hotels which will fill up due to the convention center's
activities.
But the principal way that the facility will pay off is
that St. Mary's County will have a way to host conventions here as the joint services
fighter project moves forward, a critical defense department initiative to reduce
spending.
Pax River has natural advantages in many areas over the
west coast in the decades-old struggle over which area will be ahead of the other when it
comes to testing for the Pentagon. But in the convention-hosting arena, our side has been
deficient.
The proposal for Tudor Hall now has common sense
factors such as the supervision of the Maryland Stadium Authority, others are needed such
as the county adding it's own member to the board of directors of the project and
stipulating that the Leonardtown Administrator not be designated as the executive director
of the body, as it would be an outrageous conflict of interest.
There will not be many such opportunities for the Board
to act to approve a project as vital for the future of St. Mary's County as the
designation of $3 million to the Tudor Hall complex.
Promises Made, Promises Kept...now for Myrtle Point
(May 18) The above words were
emblazoned across a banner held aloft over ceremonies marking the beginning of the
widening of Rt. 235. They are an accurate summary of what has taken place in regards to
the chief transportation artery leading to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station.
Governor Parris Glendening has come through like a
champ for Southern Maryland with funds for school construction and transportation. His
commitment supporting Sen. Roy Dyson's bid to preserving future options for the old
railroad right of way as a light rail corridor is yet another example of his understanding
of the problems affecting Southern Maryland.
Governor Glendening came through with the first
critical support of the purchase of Myrtle Point Park, he has aided efforts of Congressman
Hoyer to bring new units to Pax River and to prevent the loss of jobs as the Pentagon
deals with shrinking defense budgets by closing and consolidating bases.
With the commitment made to this area by the Governor,
at every step of the way, he has proven that he truly is the best governor Southern
Maryland has ever had.
How we deal with our schools, our critical
transportation network as well as our quality of life by building a waterfront park at
Myrtle Point accessible to families, youth sports and the best fishing in the middle
Atlantic states are all facets of a community that are examined by the base closing
commission process when critical decisions are made which mean life or death for a
community.
Governor Glendening has come through with funds for our
schools and roads and now it is up to him to provide the necessary leadership to our local
officials to make them understand the importance of a well-designed and implemented master
plan for Myrtle Point which will create an active park for youth sports, recreational
fishing on a pier as well as boat launching facilities, while respecting the natural
beauty of the 218 acre facility.
The Governor has been referred to as the education
governor. With his commitment to light rail, road construction, smart growth planning and
the new terminal at St. Mary's Airport, he should also be called the governor who got
Southern Maryland moving, or the Go-Governor.
Now it is time to get serious about Myrtle Point. It
would be a travesty to allow elitists who live adjacent to the park boundaries who are
allied with the radical environmentalists to succeed at their conspiracy to block families
and children from activities which should be located at Myrtle Point.
These fanatics and neighborhood snobs do not want folks
to fish at the park and have thrown up all manner of wild ideas in order to cower the St.
Mary's Commissioners from making the right decision on the park. Proof of that contention
lies with the current board scrapping the master plan which was developed by the citizen
volunteers of the Parks and Recreation Board. A public hearing process developed a plan
which saw major recreational components planned for the park eliminated as
"compromise" was reached with the elite and the radicals.
There can be no compromise with these mean old geezers,
they just don't want kids, families or people of color at Myrtle Point and they will throw
up any phony excuse to get their way. They are retired, rich, insenstive, smart, mean,
tough and determined to get their way. Like spoiled children, they need to be disciplined
by a tough task master.
Since Gov. Glendening supported the purchase of this
park along with bringing about the purchase of Chapman's Landing as a major commitment to
saving waterfront from development, he also deserves the designation as the Parks
Governor. It is now time for him to stand tall on Myrtle Point Park. We don't need to keep
this park as a bug farm for the geezers.
These radicals sure aren't like any grandparents most
of us remember.
These elitists are snobs and selfish, not generous and
caring for kids who need more playing fields and landlocked citizens who cannot afford
access to Maryland's finest waterways. These geezers have theirs, they are the classic
gotminers with their waterfront homes and sailboats tied up to their docks. They have
fought a bitter battle to keep Myrtle Point as a taxpayer supplied buffer zone for their
own homes.
It is high time that elected officials in St. Mary's
County stood up to these old farts and sent them off to the senior centers where more
humble and down to earth senior citizens can teach them how to be nice to kids and the
less fortunate.
SHA Needs To Tend To Dangerous
Intersection In Front of Farmer's Market
( May 11) The time has come for the
Maryland State Highway Administration to recognize the need for an advanced re-engineering
of the intersection on Rt. 5 in Charlotte Hall that is the entrance to the Farmer's
Market.
Two years ago both Senator Roy Dyson and
then-commissioner Larry Jarboe requested SHA to survey that intersection as well as the
one in front of the Mechanicsville Post Office for ways to improve the traffic flow and
provide for a safer way for motorists to make turns at both locations.
The answer from SHA was to post a few signs calling
attention to the presence of Amish and Mennonite horse-drawn buggies and to paint lines on
the road in front of the Farmer's Market which supposedly would guide traffic on what
maneuvers would be possible.
What a lot of hooey.
The signs are nifty and fit in nicely with the Amish
and Mennonite heritage of the area while the painted lines in the intersection in front of
the Farmer's Market are ludicrous. The lines are as if some dolt came out with a paint
bucket and painted footsteps on a sidewalk and expect pedestrians to step only in those
pre-designated spots.
In case the SHA genius who thought that one up still
suffers under the delusion that the painted lines work, then perhaps he or she needs a
lobotomy....or already had one.
St. Mary's County, the State of Maryland and the
Tri-County Council all throw tons of money into the sky each year in the name of economic
development to improve the lot of farmers, to increase tourism and to advance the local
economy. These goals are all achieved every week in the private sector by the owner of the
Farmer's Market and all those who buy and sell at the busy 45-year-old facility.
In recent years the county government has attempted to
set up two farmer's markets, spending tax dollars in the process. Neither is remotely as
successful as the Charlotte Hall Farmer's Market, which exists without any county funds or
support.
But when improvements in traffic control is called upon
for the State of Maryland to make which would enhance the safety of thousands of visitors
weekly, some lines painted on the roadway is the pitiful answer.
Yet another fatal crash took place two weeks ago in
front of the Mechanicsville Post Office. The wreck was caused by a vehicle which was
attempting to cross the intersection, a maneuver which would be impossible if channeled
turn lanes were installed.
How many more lives will be lost at either intersection
because of the failure of state officials to mandate prompt and effective solutions to the
congestion caused by increased tourism and trade at the Farmer's Market and increased
traffic destined for Pax River?
The SHA needs to get busy and give these problem
intersections immediate attention.
The government can never attain economic development
but ignoring governmental responsibilities such as traffic control at such busy locations
as these two places is simply whistling past the graveyard.
Why Move The Library Away
From Those Who Need It?
( May 4 ) This past week the St. Mary's Board of
Commissioners made it as clear as mud that they intend to let the Lexington Park Library
Task Force come to their own conclusion about a new site for the library which doesn't
need to be moved in the first place, except for the desires of a bunch of snobs, racists
and old biddies.
The task force can either select the site the
Board wants to buy next to the high school or they are going to get slapped around, which
probably would be good idea, given the racist motivations behind moving the library.
The best place for the library is right where it
has been since 1959 when the building was built as a wonderful effort of a proud post-war
community.
But now that the neighborhood has changed from
white to black, the snooty teacup balancers of the ritzy neighborhoods don't like getting
out of their cars and having to rub elbows with the steerage classes at the Lexington Park
library. Thus the clamor for a new house of knowledge.
But the debate is not out in the open. The
limousine liberals are talking about everything but race as they try to get the county to
splurge on new digs which will suit them.
The federal government is spending millions to
build a new Post Office across the street from the existing library as part of a
multi-government effort to rehabilitate the old downtown Lexington Park. One of the
options for shutting down the black library is to build a new white libarary across from
the existing Post Office, while the new Post Office is being built.
Next to the library at Nicolet Park would be a
swimming pool which elements in the county fear will be a black swimming pool, while
others want the pool located on Chancellors Run Road where there are no sidewalks or
shoulders upon which children could walk, but that pool would likely be a white swimming
pool, for that very reason.
But others say that Chancellors Run park has
maxed out and there isn't room for a major aquatic center.
Why can't the county build a swimming pool
center at Nicolet Park where people can walk to it and have parks personnel manage it
properly so no one or group of people, whether they be categorized by race or wealth,
dictate to others the use or abuse of the pool?
Why can't a branch library be built closer to
the homes of the snobs and leave the Lexington Park library alone where it is or at least
locate it next to the pool at Nicolet Park?
Why not leave the 19 acre proposed purchase of
land next to Great Mills High School for future expansion of the school or for a middle
school site?
Don't hold your breath waiting for local
government to behave fairly or with any inordinate amount of common sense. The
commissioner board is like summer salt-water taffy. It's tough until it starts melting in
the back window of the car on the way home from the beach and then it pulls in every
direction by anyone who grabs on.
Glendening Right On
Restricting Tobacco Funds
(4/28/99) Last week Gov. Parris
Glendening announced that despite a last minute agreement to break the filibuster on
raising the tobacco tax, that he didn't intend anyone to believe that he would allow funds
from the gigantic tobacco company settlement with the states to be distributed to farmers
who still grow tobacco.
The Governor said that to use those funds to assist
tobacco farmers sustain current price levels would be insane. He is right. The money being
forked over by the liars who run America's tobacco firms should go to helping those who
have become afflicted with the various diseases caused by smoking, not to aid in the
production of the weed.
Those who continue to choose to smoke and continue to
choose to grow tobacco are on their own and should not benefit from either the taxpayer or
the tobacco settlement funds.
Southern Maryland farmers will continue to grow
tobacco, as is their right and their heritage, and there will always be a market for the
particularly fine grade of tobacco grown here. Tobacco is a legal substance and no one
should or has a right to interfere with the livelihoods of those who raise it. At the same
time, farmers in the tobacco business ought to keep a close eye on the market.
Farms in this region are small in comparison to the
large corporate farms of the Midwest which are able to produce a more competitive crop of
every grain.. Our farmers can make more money off of tobacco than any other crop and as
long as they can do so, we shall see the standout leaves growing in local fields and
hanging from barns.
The settlement money can do a lot more good funding
research, paying for medical services and alleviating the pain and suffering of those with
cancer and heart disease.
The Governor's tax on tobacco he tried to get through
the General Assembly was an unfair burden on those who smoke and the efforts of Senator
Roy Dyson and Sen. Mac Middleton were responsible for cutting the proposed tax by
two-thirds.
But on the settlement money issue, the Governor is
right. Price supports go against the free enterprise system and should only be available
for crops that feed people, not that kill them.
Deputies
Under Criminal Investigation Should Be Suspended
(4/28/99) In major
law enforcement agencies when officers are under criminal investigation, those officers
are suspended, either with or without pay, until the conclusion of the investigation.
According to published reports, a
Federal Bureau of Investigations probe into possible criminal conduct by at least a half
dozen deputies is under way. In order for the public to be assured that they are being
served by law officers that they can trust to properly serve the citizens whom they are
sworn to protect, these deputies should be suspended by St. Mary's Sheriff Richard
Voorhaar.
If the investigation clears the
deputies then let them come back to work, but in the meantime, the public needs to be
assured that those involved in criminal conduct or those who may have abused the authority
granted them by the citizens should have their police powers suspended, their badges and
guns taken away, and let them be put on ice until the probe is completed.
Sheriff Richard Voorhaar and his top
cronies, who call themselves 'The Posse' need to be held accountable for their actions.
For now, they ought to be benched. Voorhaar is accountable to no one. Instead of
suspending these deputies, he actually has promoted three of them while they were being
investigated, in direct violation of his own personnel policy.
Open Debate Might Not Be
Pretty But It Was Public</ | 