There is more to life than lower taxes.  If people want the lowest tax rates in the country they should move to Mississippi and enjoy their school system, poverty rate, and level of public service.    - Anonymous Frederick County Resident

keeping a watchful eye on county governance and representation

Results significant to land use, zoning, environment, good governance, transparency

BOCC Hearings on 193 rezonings scheduled for January 2012

Board of County Commissioners Public Hearings

All of the hearings will be held in Winchester Hall, 1st Floor Hearing Room, starting at 6:00 pm. Speaker sign-up sheets will be available at 5:00 pm for each hearing. There will be separate speaker sign-up sheets for each planning region. Each speaker, whether it is an applicant or individual citizen, will be allowed 5 minutes.

Tuesday, January 10 - Adamstown, Brunswick, Frederick regions
Wednesday, January 18 - Urbana region
Tuesday, January 24 - Middletown, Thurmont, Walkersville regions
Tuesday, January 31 - New Market region
Wednesday, February 1 – snow date

November 2011 Planning Commission Hearings CANCELLED

The Planning Commission voted 4-2 to recommend that the BOCC follow the existing Comprehensive Plan (and it’s supporting land use/zoning maps)

Between June 1 and July 15, 2011 a majority of Frederick County’s Board of Commissioners accepted requests from land owners to in red. change their zoning or land use designation. The county received 194 proposals that, if accepted, would forever alter up to 15,000 acres of open space and farmland.

You have the opportunity to express your opinion at the Planning Commission’s scheduled public hearings on these land use change requests. Please do.

When? Wednesday, November 16th, 6pm | Topic: New Market Thursday, November 17th, 6pm | Topic: Urbana  THE  PLANNING COMMISSION VOTED 4-2 TO RECOMMEND THE BOCC STICK WITH CURRENT 2010 COMPREHENSIVE PLAN, AND IT’S SUPPORTING LAND USE /ZONING MAP – AND DISCONTINUED THE PUBLIC HEARINGS.  READ MORE HERE.

October 2011:

Become aware of the potential rezoning and land use changes proposed near your home:

• Open House October 19, 4:00 – 7:45pm Urbana Public Library, Small Community Room
• Open House October 25th, 4:30-8pm Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick,  4880 Elmer Derr Rd, just off 15 south of Frederick.

Keep your eyes on the Partnerships and Efficiencies Committee:  Monday, Oct. 24 at 3 p.m. in the third floor meeting room in Winchester Hall. It will also be televised live on Channel 19.

September 2011:  Rezoning discussions to start

Take a look at the acreage proposed for rezoning (map coming soon).  If you’d like more specifics click here.

June 2011:  Citizens be damned month!

The BOCC  is accepting rezoning applications until July 15th to address grievances expressed from the ratification of the 2010 county rezoning map.

June 2 1o am Winchester Hall:  BOCC passed the FY2012 budget. Read FoFC’s position on the FY2012 budget.

June 16  1pm, Winchester Hall:  Privatization discussion based upon a 30-page report prepared by consultant, Oliver Porter, for $25000.  Report is unavailable to public until that meeting – although the county will have it the day before the meeting. Read FoFC’s position on privatization here.

June 29 7pm, Winchester Hall:  Public hearing before the Planning Commission on Mitigation Fees for school construction.  Read FoFC’s position on mitigation fees for school construction here.

May 2011

5/19  BOCC to discuss changing the county comprehensive plan, public meeting 10am Winchester Hall, item G

5/17 Village Center Zoning under threat of change: would allow Jefferson Food Lion!

March 2011

3/9  Planning Commission to discuss land use text ammendments

3/1  at 7pm Public Hearing on Repeal of Countywide APFO for schools, vote by BOCC  Citizens must come to speak out!  Read more in this bulletin Your child’s public education vs developer private interest BOCC voted 401 to repeal the APFO for schools county wide on annexed land after June 23, 2009.

February 2011

2/23  1pm Planning Commission on Repeal of  County wide APFO for schools:  Planning Commission voted 4 against the new APFO ordinance, which is essential a repeal of the county wide ordinance (McClurken, Forrence, White, Floyd),  and 3 for the new ordinance, or repeal of county wide APFO for schools (Lawrence,  Wolfe, Shreve)

Privatization trip to Sandy Spring Georgia:  read about towns that are voiding contracts with the same privatizing company – and why.

2/18  FoFC files request for all information on individual zoning map amendment or floating zone reclassification filed with the Zoning Administrator pursuant to Code §1-19-3.110.2.

2/18  FoFC files request for all information on Comprehensive Plan Zoning since Nov 1, 2010.

January 2011

1/31 FoFC files request for information on exchange between BOCC and Blickenstaff option or rezoning.

December 2010

December 21 8:30am: Agenda Briefing for Public Hearings Scheduled for Tuesday, January 4, 2011, at 7:00 p.m.   PUBLIC HEARING
* Zoning Text Amendment #ZT-10-05, Proposed Ordinance to Amend Certain Sections of the Frederick County Code Regarding Floodplain, Commercial and Business Schools, Public and Private Schools and Boarding Stables – Larry Smith, Planning Division

December 20 7pm: Public Hearing PATH Request – Board of Appeals Meeting regarding the PATH Request for Reconsideration, Winchester Hall

December 16 3pm: CANCELLED to be rescheduled BOCC to meet with municipalities:  discussion to include the APFO county-wide school test;  learn more about the significance of this decision to taxpayers and school renovation, and check out this fact sheet on the impact of residential growth on schools in Frederick County.

December 15: BOCC agreed to fund special study on costs for running sewer to northern annexation properties.

December 14: BOCC voted 3-1-1 (Blaine Young voted against, David Gray absent) to repeal the ethics law.  Public Hearing on January 4th 7pm, Winchester Hall.

December 11 Winchester Hall 1st floor:  Proposal to repeal ethics legislation

December 9/10 at Pine Cliff Park: strategic planning with department heads starting at 9am Thursday (all day Thursday and half day on Friday)   Commissioner Young announced creating a new position for a Special Project Manager to work directly with the BOCC, and filed the position with Mike Marschner, former DUSWM Director.  The Young Board had the option of cutting the Assistant County Manager  position – as it was left vacant by the previous BOCC (acknowledging that this BOCC wanted to CUT government) – but announced they had instead filled the position with David Dunn (Solid Waste Advisory Committee and strong proponent of WTE).  We are investigating another position created to explore privatizing government departments and tasks.

December 7 BOCC meeting: discussion on base budget, revenue projections, ethic ordinance and public ethics law, Md Open Meetings Act and Md Public Information

1. Commissioner Young started a new 15 minute program to be aired at 5:30 and 8:30 pm on channel 9 called “This week in Frederick County”.  Commissioners and department heads are encouraged to be on the show.  Robin Santangelo also noted that there are other shows on Channel 19 FCG TV “inside Frederick County, “Health” and the “Best Kept Secrets”
2. Budget discussion:  with county’s primary source of revenue, property taxes, falling with decrease in assessments (up to 26% decrease from 3 years ago), 11 million needs to be cut from budget.  BOCC to lobby delegation for more from highway user fee and lobby MACO for state school pension money – which could be as much as 9 million for the county.
3. Commissioner Shreve suggested that Frederick County doesn’t need the Ethics Ordinance, The Frederick County Ethics Ordinance prohibits all covered persons from acting in their County positions in any matter that would have a direct financial impact on them or on a close relative or business associate. Both Commissioners Smith and Shreve made comments about repealing the ethics legislation.  No motion was made on said comments.

December 2 BOCC meeting:

December 1 BOCC meeting: Robert’s Rules changed to allow the president of the BOCC to make motions.  From John Mathias, Frederick County Attorney:  ”The parliamentary rules contained in Robert’s Rules of Order cover many different types of group meetings from small entities of 3 or more members up to large organizations of thousands of members.  Some of the rules are more intended for the large organizations than the smaller ones.   The general rule prohibits the Chair from making a motion (although the Chair can ask the vice chair to preside temporarily while the Chair makes a motion).  The purpose of the rule is to allow the chair to focus more on the role of presiding at the meeting and making objective, impartial rulings on any parliamentary procedures.  Though not worded this way, the logic of Robert’s Rules seems to be that the Chair has plenty to do running the meeting without having to also make motions.    These concerns are much more prominent with a large society.  In fact, Robert’s Rules provides that for a board with fewer than a dozen members present, the Chair may make motions (as well as speak in debate and vote on motions) subject to the rule or custom of the particular board.  (Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised 10^th ed., Section 49, p. 471).    At the December 1 meeting, the BOCC, in effect, adopted a rule indicating that it would follow the Robert’s Rules guidance for a small board and allow the Chair to make motions.”

is studying ways to make smart growth development more economically attractive to the developers.

Maryland Sustainable Growth Commission: how can we encourage infill?

How do we persuade more people and businesses to choose existing communities when they choose where they will live, work and invest?

Can we encourage development in places that are targeted for growth and revitalization by streamlining the development approval process in those locations?

What is the best way to implement sustainable growth policies in rural areas of the State?

Read minutes from the last meeting here.

Many of the County employees and other speakers brought up excellent points, and substantiated their points with ample amounts of evidence, analysis, and experience.

Some of the main points that have been brought up and supported multiple times throughout these first two hearings include the following:

• The County can often provide services more cheaply than contractors have in the past, and the switch to providing these services in-house often results in great savings.
• The financial problems which the County is facing are not as dire as the pro-privatization Commissioners have made them out to be, and there are many ways that the County could save money and get our finances back on track without dismantling the government.
• The Porter report which the BOCC has used (until today – explained further down) as the only piece of literature presented to the public in support of this privatization plan was riddled with errors, and provided absolutely no sources, background data, or methodology of any kind.
• Private contractors often time experience high turnover rates, and provide a lower quality of service than County employees can provide.

Some other information that FoFC delivered to the public at today’s hearing:

• When talking about requirements for the private sector (in the event of an implemented PPP)  to rehire a percentage of County employees or to at least give County employees the chance to be interviewed for their old job, Blaine Young was quoted as saying “But the fewer requirements that are included, the greater the cost savings would be.”
  • So while Commissioner Young may insist that he cares about County employees to their faces, when he is elsewhere the Commissioner feels comfortable stating that County employees aren’t even worth the money it would take to pay an interviewer to talk to County employees about filling their old jobs.
• In a response from Oliver Porter to my request for more (any) data and information regarding his sources and adjustments behind the cost-savings projections listed in his report, Oliver Porter said the following: “I can appreciate your desire to get into the details of our analysis, but I think that I must decline to do so.”
  • It would seem that Mr. Porter has received his $25,000 from the BOCC, and has no further interest in our County.
• During the time period of a few months in which the Ethics Commission granted Commissioner Delauter an exemption from the Ethics Ordinance, and allowed Delauter’s company to accept County contracts, Commissioner Delauter took full advantage. Three County contracts, signed by Blaine Young and awarded to Kirby Delauter, worth the amounts of $70,347.31 on December 22nd, 2010, $130,657.40 on February 11th, 2011, and $88,220.66 on March 10th, 2011 were given to Commissioner Delauter before the Ethics Commission decided that this behavior was unethical.
  • What’s going to happen if Commissioners Young and Delauter are successful in their privatization efforts, and they are in charge of giving out County contracts?

We would like to thank all of the County employees who have not only worked hard for our County for so many years, but have taken the time to put forth so much extra effort in an attempt to show the BOCC that this privatization plan is a mistake. Friends of Frederick County is honored to stand by our County workers and help force our County government, and three of our Commissioners in particular, to rethink this issue of privatization on a foundation of facts, reliable research, and time-tested experience.

And eight hours (counting both hearings) of testimony against this plan has paid off in some small way. The BOCC has finally voted to take Oliver Porter’s report off the table! While this is definitely good, on the other hand, now there isn’t anything on the table at all to back up this privatization plan. A true testimony to how much work the BOCC has put towards understanding the issue, with the exception of David Gray, who suggested a Master’s thesis as a good source at the end of the hearing today (which focuses on Sandy Springs and points out many of the pitfalls to a PPP setup).

We can keep this up! The last two hearings are at the following times:

Thursday, July 21 at 1:30pm, Winchester Hall (1st floor)

Tuesday, July 26 at 7pm, Winchester Hall (1st floor)

And an hour before the July 26th hearing there will be a rally held in front of Winchester Hall for anyone who has been given reason to harbor reservations regarding the privatization plan! I encourage everyone to attend!

I would also encourage everyone to watch the public hearings online on the Frederick County website if you haven’t seen them already.

The July 12th hearing can be viewed here: http://frederick.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=5&clip_id=2790

And the July 19th hearing can be viewed here: http://frederick.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=5&clip_id=2803 (if you are interested, the comments from FoFC begin at approximately 3hrs:50mins).

For your reference, the Frederick County contract numbers for the contracts that Commissioner Delauter received are 340L-SW (the Dec. 22nd contract), 186K-SW (Feb. 11th), and 322A-SW (Mar. 10th).

If you have any questions, or you would like hard or digital copies of the contracts or any other information, e-mail me at davidboston88@gmail.com.

- David Boston

Commissioner finds friends in opposition to budget by Margarita Raycheva and Sherry Greenfield

Staff Writers

Frederick County Commissioner David P. Gray (R) does not stand alone in his opposition to the county’s’ $449 million budget for next year.

Friends of Frederick County is backing Gray’s concerns about the way commissioners developed the fiscal 2012 budget, and is questioning if commissioners gave residents a real opportunity to participate in the process.

While Friends of Frederick County typically focuses on land use, land preservation and sustainability issues, it also advocates that residents become involved in government affairs, said Janice Wiles, director of the nonprofit.

And the group is concerned that the public may not have had all the information it needed to understand the full impact of commissioners’ budget decisions, Wiles said on Tuesday when she met with Gray and a few other concerned people about the budget process.

“There is a need to get the information to the public,” Wiles said.

One of the main concerns of the group was the way commissioners emphasized budget shortages, and talked about a structural deficit and financial difficulties, when in fact the county expects to finish fiscal 2011 on June 30 with a $20 million surplus.

In addition, the fiscal 2012 budget is nearly $11 million more than fiscal 2011.

And yet the majority of commissioners chose to move forward with cuts, pulling $2.3 million from the federal Head Start program, $125,710 in funding to the grant-in-aid agencies, $179,359 to non-county agencies, and either eliminated or downgraded 175 county positions, which saved $8.4 million.

In addition, the county cut $850,000 in health programs and $300,000 from nonprofit agencies.

“It’s not that we don’t have the money … It’s all about the choices that commissioners made,” said Wiles, adding that her group will gather information and educate the public about the true impact of such cuts.

“We hope to be able to air some of these grievances,” Wiles said. “We hope to be able to be more ahead of the game in the future.”

Gray agreed, and said he will continue to hold forums with residents, speak up at meetings, and try to help residents understand the impact that the decisions made by the commissioners will have on their lives.

Gray said commissioners oversimplified the budget and did not give the public enough time to offer input. He also criticized his colleagues for not spending enough time discussing the budget and suggested that Commissioners’ President Blaine R. Young (R) made every budget decision with unconditional approval from commissioners Kirby Delauter (R), Billy Shreve (R) and C. Paul Smith (R).

He said the budget released to the public this year lacked comparisons to previous years, and didn’t allow residents to analyze and compare it to past budgets.

Gray, who has helped craft and adopt 16 operating budgets in his tenure, said he even had difficulty finding the full budget information. “We have kept this information too far away from the public,” he said on Tuesday. “I’ve just never seen anything … like this before.”

Young agreed with Gray on Tuesday that commissioners could have used the additional $11 million in spending to balance the budget. But that would not have resolved any of the county’s long-term financial problems, he said.

Commissioners wanted to bring the county onto solid ground financially, and the only way to do that in the long-term was to eliminate some recurring expenses, he said.

Young said that much of that additional $11 million was created by cuts the board made in March. Commissioners decided to put the money back into funds that would make the county more stable financially, including a fire tax fund, a debt service fund and the county’s fund for retiree health benefits.

“If you don’t care about the budget structurally, they are right,” he said. “But to me that would have just been kicking the can down the road.”

Young also said that commissioners have always had time for public comment at their meetings, and residents can contact them if they had any concerns. He said the board this year had the same opportunities for public comment, input and response as it always had before.

Gray raised similar concerns on June 2, when he became the only commissioner on the board to vote against the fiscal 2012 spending plan.

Gray said that in years past, budget discussions took place in open session and over several months. Commissioners would debate each budget decision before voting.

The current board released a balanced budget March 8, three months before its adoption. A public hearing was held in April, but attendance was sparse, especially compared to similar hearings of the past that filled high school auditoriums and attracted dozens of speakers.

Gray’s colleagues took exception with his accusations.

“I didn’t vote for anything in lock step,” Delauter said at the June 2 meeting. “I have my own mind and I vote my own mind. You’re really putting some things out there that are misleading. Even being here one day a week, my business is taking a hit. We can do this one day week. It’s not rocket science.”

Delauter, who owns a construction company in Emmitsburg, reminded Gray that he, along with Shreve, Smith and Young were elected to bring more jobs to the county and cut costs. “What we were brought here for was to streamline the process for businesses, and that will bring in more revenues,” he said.

Smith agreed. “I’m in here virtually every day and I’ve spent a lot of time going over this,” Smith said. “The big picture is the budget, which I support. With the economy the way it is we have lost many revenues. These things contributed to our problems. We’ve had to make some tough decisions. You either increase taxes or cut programs.”

The budget is based on the property tax rate holding steady at 93.6 cents per $100 of assessed value. Constant yield, the rate the county would have to charge to collect the same amount of property taxes next year, is 96.6 cents.

mraycheva@gazette.net

© 2011 Post-Newsweek Media, Inc./Gazette.Net

http://www.gazette.net/article/20110608/NEWS/706089346/1016/1016/commissioner-finds-friends-in-opposition-to-budget&template=gazette

A film directed by Josh Fox, winner of Special Jury Prize-Best US Documentary Feature-Sundance 2010, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. “The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The HALLIBURTON-developed drilling technology of “fracking” or “hydro-fracking” has unlocked a “Saudi Arabia of natural gas just beneath us. But, is hydro-fracking safe?”

Post film discussion led by sponsors  Citizens for the Preservation of Middletown Valley and the Sierra Club.

where:  CHRIST REFORMED CHURCH,12 S. Church Street, Middletown MD

Government Frederick, Maryland

Winchester Hall / 12 East Church Street Frederick, Maryland 21701 CONTACT: Robin K. Santangelo Public Information Officer 301-600-2590

TTY: Use Maryland Relay rsantangelo@FrederickCountyMD.gov

March 24, 2011

Citizens encouraged to provide feedback…

COUNTY TO REVIEW FOREST RESOURCE ORDINANCE

FREDERICK, MD — The Frederick County Community Development Division has initiated a review of the county’s Forest Resource Ordinance (FRO) as a result of feedback from the business and development community and other stakeholders. The county invites citizen feedback in order to get a complete understanding of the issues prior to developing recommended changes.

Review of the ordinance has been included as an issue and opportunity to be addressed in the county’s Business Friendly Action Items list and generally fits in with the various goals and objectives identified in the county’s proposed Strategic Plan.

The FRO is codified in chapter 1-21 of the County Code and is intended to ensure that new development occurs in such a manner that the conservation, protection and planting of trees to produce forested areas is accomplished.

Comments received to date indicate a review is needed of the mitigation requirements, consistency with state and federal requirements and standards, bonding requirements and process and procedure improvements.

Comments may be provided to Principal Environmental Planner Michael Wilkins, Community Development Division, 30 North Market Street, Frederick MD 21701 or via e-mail to mwilkins@FrederickCountyMD.gov.

A concise summary of each issue must be submitted, and any background and justification statements or proposed language is encouraged. The deadline to provide comments is Friday, April 22, at 4:00 p.m.

The division will hold meetings before making recommendations to the Frederick Board of County Commissioners in the next few months.

For additional information, contact Mr. Wilkins at 301-600-2329 or Director Gary Hessong, Permits & Inspections Department, at 301-600-1172 or via e-mail at ghessong@FrederickCountyMD.gov.

The Containment Laboratory Community Advisory Comittee wants to know what’s on people’s minds about the labs.  Find out more about the committee, its purpose and scope, and about the labs here..  Sign up to be notified about the monthly public meetings, forums and other oportunities to participate. All meetings are open to the public and will be televised.

There will be  forum at City Hall at 6:30 pm on April 5th to hear from the community what they hope this committee will accomplish for them.

Read more.