Episode 3 Host, Joe White interviews Jeff Merritt Salisbury, Maryland
Episode 3 Host, Joe White interviews Jeff Merritt Salisbury, Maryland
Show Transcript
Disclaimer: The following transcript was auto-generated and may contain spelling or contextual errors.
you're watching open Agenda here's our
host Joe
White thank you for joining us here at
open Agenda I am your host Joe White
joined here today with our executive
producer Joe
venosa so once again our goal of this
show is to inform you about upcoming
County meetings County Council meetings
hearings that are going to come up as
well as committee meetings that we think
that would impact community life and
that you should be aware of how are you
doing today Joe I'm living the dream Joe
how are you it's great uh thanks for
coming in here today thank you so we
were both at the last County council
meeting on July 2nd and there was a
couple hearings that were uh very
prominent and I think we should talk
about exactly what was uh uh you know
what came up at those meetings the first
one was the approval of the new rules
and regulations for the county parks and
wreck uh a lot of those had not been
updated in the last 15 years so they
didn't things like drones and U
motorized uh scooters and motorized
bikes and that sort of thing uh I was at
a lot of the parks and rec meetings when
their commission was going through what
were the new pertinent rules to you know
to bring it up to date it was amazing
how much work uh uh director Miller and
his uh committee had to do to you know
to bring that up they came back in open
work sessions to the County Council and
then on July 2nd there was a public
hearing where the public had a chance to
weigh in uh we we saw several people get
up and do that the most hot button topic
was the ability to for the wear and
Carry Permits uh on Park property in
accordance with state and federal law
right the other hearing that uh that
came up was about a grant uh to to
expand uh from a promotional standpoint
at the airport to to to lure another
airline into the Salisbury W comic Ocean
City Regional
Airport uh you know I I thought that
there wasn't as much um debate about
this there wasn't as much knowledge of
this because it came up very last minute
what did you think about that I I concur
completely on that I I think and I think
a lot of people who spoke at the event
and have spoken out since that meeting
um were very much blindsided or felt
blindsided by the fact that you
basically had a very private
meeting um with business leaders about a
we week prior to the meeting and then it
was sprung up put on the agenda very
quickly um and it brings up all sorts of
questions because as as many of you at
home may remember if you've been in the
county a while we essentially did this
already about 12 years ago uh with a
different Airline where it was
essentially the same business model it
was have a lowcost carrier with out
ofate flights and ultimately that
Airline end ended up going bankrupt um
so there's a real economic argument that
I think you can make either way some
people see it as sort of an incentive to
to bring more business um I think a lot
of us however did respectfully disagree
with that on the premise that you're
sort of subsidizing among County
taxpayers uh an airline that would take
people out of the county it would I mean
it would it would take them to Florida
and for two years they're going to wave
The Landing fees at the airport those
fees go to provide fire service to the
airport part of the grant is to cover
those losses for the first two years but
I think um you know you talk about there
just not being a lot of
information if the and the Grant's not
been awarded yet so so the pledge was
it's a pledge prior to for for the local
funding correct U and and Worcester
County's pledged money city of
salsbury's pledged money uh the Chamber
of Commerce and the uh greater Salsbury
committee have uh pledged us very small
amount of money yeah uh the the hard
thing is to know where the benefits lie
and where the risk lie um part of this
agreement is there's two years that we
guarantee profitability for this airport
and or for this Airline and we don't
know what that means yeah and it brings
up a bigger structural argument I mean
there's also a philosophical one right
because what what we're having here is
essentially you know the government
picking winners and losers e
economically um you know uh councilman
Joe Holloway called it corporate welfare
and that is something that some people
certainly view it as others sort of
couch it in the language of public
private
Partnerships uh others view it as sort
of incentivizing Economic Development I
think you can look at that in many
different ways but I I do absolutely
think that the fact that you had very
little public discussion and then you
sort of had um a kind of momentum
building into the meeting without a
sense of again from the public as to
what really this was about and what what
it could mean because we are looking at
as we've already indicated you know um
we're we've lost about $2 million from
our disparity Grant right that was part
of the from the state our County
Executive in in in her decision to go
full force with this hybridized system
is probably guaranteeing us losing
nearly a million dollars a year on
average from our budget because we're
that money is more than likely going to
other sources because the hybridized
system hem for for the alcohol dis which
is related and it comes back around it
is because these decisions are are
essentially deciding to defund our
budget to some extent and maybe it's
it's a bit of a radical view on my part
but you know if you are the County
government wouldn't you want to preserve
money that you'll need for your
community yeah I'm Jeff Merritt's going
to be on our uh show later on and I'm
going to ask him some of those questions
directly yeah but also encourage you uh
to to attend the County Council meetings
a lot of of uh the decisions for this
have not been made final really it was
this was a pledge for money yep um so
the the next meeting is going to be on
Tuesday July 16th at 10: a.m. um so come
out make your voice heard at that time
and for the record uh uh councilwoman
Cheney Shields was absent uh the vote
for uh awarding this $50,000 pledge uh
councilman Holloway voted against it the
other five council members did vote for
it uh of course uh Miss Janie Shields
was was not there so um uh so talking
about the next County council meeting
July 16th 10 a.m. uh one other
interesting meeting and our we our guest
last week was uh Josh Hastings and he's
uh The District 4 County councilman he
is on the natural resources advisory
committee on the same date or actually
I'm sorry on on Tuesday July I'm and I
apologize it's it's actually the 16th m
the same date as the County Council
means at 10:00 a.m. the natural
resources advisory committee is meeting
at at 2: p.m. in room
306 I looked at their agenda it's mostly
it's a very generic agenda old business
new business updates from this person I
don't know what the updates are about I
thought Josh was a great guest on our
show and it really spoke about how how
concerned he is about the economic
well-being of the county but also the
Environmental uh not just the
environmental issues but the
conservation of our Rural Life and its
connection to the jobs and businesses
exactly in the Heritage here right um I
think this is the committee that if this
is important to you you want to keep an
eye on it's definitely something that's
getting my attention and uh I hope to be
able to give everyone an update here
next week yeah and related to that real
quick to S of show you how these things
merge and this will bring us right back
to the airport issue is you know one of
the discussions that's also happening is
the eventual expansion of the runway at
the airport which is going to happen
more than likely be about 2 years but
one of the issues is is because there
has to be a coordinated effort uh to
essentially relocate an endangered
species of salamander yeah over in that
swampy area that lives in a swampy area
so that that's a great example where
literally you know in real time you are
seeing sort of the economics
environmental impact issues species
preservation all literally coales in the
same physical spot so our guest today uh
after we come back is going to be
councilman vice president of the council
actually Jeff Merritt uh we're going to
discuss with him operation we care which
is a organization very near and dear to
him the hybridized liquor dispensary the
referendum that's going to be coming up
in November as well as the airport Grant
uh and we'll find out what else he has
to say thank you Joe for joining me uh
we'll be right back after
this welcome back I'm your host host Joe
White joined today with our guest
councilman Jeff Merritt who's the vice
president of the W Comico County Council
thanks for being here today thank you
thanks for having me so um councilman
mayor tell me a little bit of why you
decided to run for the County Council in
the first place I Joe I really I just
wanted to help
people um I've been doing work my whole
life in
various projects and
Ventures that basically solve problems
and figure out a better way to do things
and how we can help people so you just
were elected by your federal fellow
council members as the vice president of
the council how's your role changed if
it has at all so uh I think I have a few
more meetings to attend okay but uh you
know it's not a bad thing you don't do
do this two days a week huh uh no okay
not not hardly yeah I didn't think so we
we have Council meetings that last well
more than four hours so I've been to a
few of those yeah yeah so tell me a
little bit about operation we care I I
know that's not part of the County
Council but I know that's something
that's very near and dear to you yeah we
um we started that back in 2007 uh at
the time the Salsbury National Guard
unit was deployed to Iraq and we wanted
to send them packages for Christmas and
it wasn't a real big organized effort uh
just a dozen people and we packed 60 or
65 boxes and sent them off and had no
forward plan no money no
plan and here we are almost 18 years
later what's the one request or maybe
one piece of feedback like the item you
put in there that shocked you like
what's the one thing that you thought ah
they won't care but then they did oh
that's easy um Fisher popcorn okay well
that would be one of my favorites too
yeah yeah so that and that's pretty cool
because uh whether you're from this area
or not you might have come to our area
and been to Ocean City and the boardwalk
and bought Fisher popcorn and it just
kind of brings back some memories I
think for those men and women who are
over there doing all the hard work that
we're also lucky to not have to do
having just that chance to have a little
bite from home probably means so much to
them when when you get something that
you weren't expecting from somebody who
you don't know and will likely never
meet the um impact on your morale
um is pretty significant yeah yeah so
you know some there's some been some
very technical new aspects of County
life and one of them has been the new
hybridized liquor dispensary system uh
it just went into effect July first but
this is something that's years into
making and I was hoping you could
explain a little bit just how that
process worked how long has it taken and
what does it mean well there's been an
effort made over the past I don't know
how many numbers of years uh to do this
um for whatever reason it hasn't gone
through uh last year a task force was
put together uh organized by the greater
Salsbury committee and the Salsbury Area
Chamber of Commerce and on that task
force was uh representatives of all the
stakeholders in the community that this
legislation would impact the the
nonprofits the large Barn restaurant
owners the small Barn restaurant owners
um uh the liquor store operators the the
private liquor store owners and we
wanted to get a sense of if if this were
to go forward what what impact would it
have both immediately and down the road
so I it was nine months long and I sat
on there representing the council and
director of administration bunky lman
sat on there uh representing the
executive office so it was good now one
of the one of the comments that got made
at the county executive and and delegate
Carl anderton's press conference that
concerned me and I've heard concerns
many citizens is this appetite to now
expand this hybridized system and even
even possibly to the effect that we're
going to have more liquor stores in the
community um you were on the task force
what what's the feedback you you saw in
the task force for that that that was
pretty discussed really early on and
there really
wasn't it seemed a lot of support for
any additional liquor stores in the
county okay uh the comment that was made
on more than one occasion in the task
force and at Council meetings from both
the public and members of the council
was we don't want a liquor store in
every corner like some of these other U
communities have um so I you know not
sure where that's going to go but it
didn't seem like there was a lot of
support for it and and I don't I don't
think we we really need to go in that
direction
I think if you have a viewpoint on how
you feel that should go uh there are
public comments times at the County
Council meetings the next meeting is
July 16th at 10: a.m. come make your
voice heard okay the the the other
subject that's come up is the the budget
was passed in June um it it took a lot I
mean there was a lot of moving pieces
here yeah one of the comments I've heard
come come out of the executive's office
this is the largest budget ever um can
you speak to that really how much did it
go up and and what parts of it actually
caused it to go up uh it it did go up
and it is the largest budget in the
history of w Comico County but we can
say the same thing last year and I went
back 10 years actually and I stopped
counting after 10 years but we can say
it for each of the last 10 years and
it's not due to any one particular thing
other than inflation okay um
basically the cost of doing business
whatever the business is whether it's in
Private Industry or government it costs
more now than it used to what role has
the benefits uh the cost of benefits
like every business is is is feeling
what what role has the cost of benefits
for providing that we should provide for
the County Employees what what part of
the budget has has contributed to that
part of the increase so the the health
insurance as you can expect goes up
every year it's four five six 7 8% so so
that's an increase right there there's
some uh mandated efforts coming down
from the state level the the family
medical leave plan which uh has been
delayed now twice but it will be
implemented the end of
20125 unless they delay it again that's
going to impact our budget too so you're
probably going to break another record
right uh it's likely yes yeah um so
we're going to take a break uh we want
to find out a little bit more about pton
Historical Park and pton Hall when we
come back uh councilman Merritt will
still be joining us and we'd like to
talk about the referendum and a couple
uh items coming up through the uh
airport and as well as uh some other
Council business uh on the way will you
stick around and join us absolutely all
right we'll be right
back nled along the banks of the yico
river just 3 miles from downtown
Solsbury pton historical Park provides a
window into 18th century Plantation life
on the Eastern Shore in addition to the
restored Colonial Plantation buildings
you can also discover 4 and 1/2 miles of
walking trails brackish water marshes
forests open space and Scenic views of
the Y Comico River also available are
picnic areas with grills fishing ponds
public restrooms and a nature center the
900 acre Plantation known as pton Manor
was purchased by Isaac handy and his
wife and shield in
1726 50 years before the United States
became a nation they thereupon began
building the now restored Manor House
known as pton Hall which was completed
in 1741 with the skills and labor of
approximately 20 African slaves the
handy family grew tobacco for export to
England as well as a variety of food
crops for their own consumption and for
shipping to markets up and down the
Eastern Seaboard they also operated a
lumber mill Main contained fruit
orchards made cider and Brandy and miled
grain Additionally the handies were part
owners of several ships which were used
to transport the plantation's bounty to
far away markets throughout the 1700s
tobacco was the plantation's primary
cash crop the dried tobacco was packed
into large barrels known as Hogs heads
which were rolled down to Mulberry
Landing Warf at the water's edge over
what was known then as the Rolling Road
the Hogs heads of tobacco and other
Plantation products were then loaded
onto scows and moved to ships anchored
in deeper water for transport to their
destinations the driveway used to enter
the park was once part of that Rolling
Road and at low tide you may be able to
see remnants of the malberry landing
Warf which was built in
1746 and is the oldest documented
bulkhead WARF in the United States by
the 20th century the manor house pton
Hall had fallen into disrepair and by
the 196 s had become uninhabitable but
in 1963 the decaying buildings were
transferred to the pton hall Foundation
along with 262 Acres of the plantation's
original acreage after doing meticulous
research the pton hall Foundation
restored the manor house to its original
condition right down to the paint colors
and Furnishings pton Historical Park is
open all year From Dawn till Dusk the
manor house is open to the public on the
first and third Sundays of each month
from May through October between the
hours of 1: and 300 p.m. Private Tours
can also be arranged and several public
events and festivals take place at the
park from Spring through fall for more
information visit the W Comico County
recreation parks and tourism website or
pton Hall foundation.com
what an amazing part pton Park is I can
tell you that I've been on the nature
trails I've been in the manor house and
uh if you haven't been there yet or you
haven't been one of the festivals there
you're really missing out councilman
mayor thanks for sticking around and
joining us absolutely thanks so you were
one of the council members who voted for
the referendum in November to switch us
back to a County Manager form of
government I'd like to hear a little bit
about why you voted for for that
referendum to pass well before I was on
the council I did a lot of work in the
arena but not necessar fairly
front-facing so I was pretty aware of
the ongoing issues between the various
Executives and the councils for whatever
reason and it it seemed like it had a
common denominator which was things
weren't getting
done um things were taking too long
things that should have got done didn't
get done uh costs were escalating
because of legal fees going back and
forth um so that was one thing
um cost is another one uh
transparency uh things that I've watched
over the years um things could have
definitely been more transparent public
could have been included on a lot more
things uh that they weren't included on
and and just I guess going back to the
efficiency
um things were just like I said taken
too long to get done to get to the
finish line and can we build a better
mouse
trap after 18 years I I think so it's
just I think we just have to admit that
not pointing the finger of blame in any
One Direction it's just not working like
we want it to I think one of the most uh
poignant aspects of this is we've had
four different types of County
Executives we've had we've had a
business owner we've had an Insider like
an in interim John pida we've also had a
career bureaucrat I mean Rick pilot I
mean this is this is what he does and
now now we've had someone who's an
educator MH when you look at some of the
problems we're dealing with in
2024 they do not all Circle back to our
current executive many of them uh lack
of development of certain Parks or use
of open space money to maybe over
utilizing some other areas they they
Circle back to all the different players
over the years and uh how do how do you
feel you talk about transparency how is
the public able to to have more
transparency with the County Council
versus any executive not just the
current one well with the County Council
everything's going to have to be done at
a meeting that's open to the public and
there's going to be public hearings work
sessions that are open to the public uh
unless they're closed for whatever
reason now the closed sessions are
usually closed because there's a legal
or a Personnel or human resources issue
and that's that's obvious but most of
the things are done in public view so
you can be part of the process well one
of the other arguments I've I've heard
is that the executive is the the most
prominent place to get things done and
if we use an example we talk about the
airport Grant uh could you explain to us
who Tony Rudy is and how what's your
relationship with him not personally but
professionally and how that might change
as a county manager or a council manager
type of government well Tony Rudy uh
he's the director of airport operations
and um we have a great working
relationship our airport is a great
place it's part of the whole Economic
Development jigsaw puzzle here in wac
Comico County so it's very important
that we support the airport and and its
operations to the level that we can uh
obviously if we had a a blank checkbook
it would be a different story but we
don't and I think everybody's feeling
that pain right now if the if you if you
didn't have a county executive would the
the grant the the uh the grant that just
got passed or or applied for I should
say uh and the County Council just voted
at the last meeting to to pledge 50,000
towards this grant would that Grant
still be able to be applied for even
without a county executive yeah and
would Tony Rudy be or someone in his
position be the person who would who
would lead that charge like he is now
yes well and for the grant just so the
Public's aware uh Worcester County which
is a commissioner form of government
they also U donated
$50,000 the Town of Ocean City donated
$25,000 so and their mayor is more
ceremonial than than actual correct yeah
yeah so we're we're still working
through some of the other processes like
uh like landfill tipping fees and the
sanitary District that is currently in
the process of being set up would you
speak a little bit about uh the role of
the County Council and how are we going
to keep this process transparent for the
public going forward well the Sanitary
District um has to be created as part of
the water sewer master plan and that's
ongoing right now actually sounds like
we're having a meeting next week about
that uh what that's going to look like
and the people that are going to be on
it um the it's going to be a
long expensive process but on on a high
note we are farther along now in this
process than we have been in 60 years
and you say long give me a idea of what
what what do you mean is
long it's going to have to be done in
stages so I we've been told that the
first stage could be 5 to 7 years the
entire package for the whole County
you're probably looking at 25 years okay
I've heard even as long as 60 or 80
years is part of the plan yeah it it's
going to depend because it's not all
going to be funded by the county there's
going to be state and federal funding
mixed in with all this too and and what
that's going to look like we're still in
the infancy of that whole process but it
it's going to we're going to have to
start there's two uh two areas right now
that have have been identified as um
immediate need which is uh in the
Parsonsburg Old Ocean City Road area and
out in he Mella and the the Parsonsburg
area specifically you're talking about
in the Chesapeake Heights area Pacific
Avenue longan City Road and the problem
there is the the lot the Lots there are
so small that if the septic system fails
there's no room to put another drain
field you don't have the distance
anymore corre by the new regulations
right I think one of the interesting
aspects of of what council May is
talking about is if we keep the County
Council making these decisions for us
you want him to know exactly how you
feel about your position or how this
might impact you you can find him at
every Council counil County council
meeting you have your chance to get up
and speak during public comments but
councilman Meritt tell us a little bit
how how can someone reach you uh via
email uh how would they how would they
reach out to you I know you respond very
well to email so all the council members
are are very responsive uh we have
County emails we have phones
uh they can contact the council office
and and get to us that way uh the County
council members are all uh part of
various boards and commissions of
different things in in the county and we
attend all the meetings um we're we're
very accessible I I'm not the only one
that does this on the council we don't
ask what district you live in if you
contact a County council member with a
problem
that whoever that person is is going to
work for a solution that they're not
you're not going to get the answer
you're not in my district I'm sorry you
have to call somebody else we don't do
that absolutely I've heard that time and
time again from from every single one on
that count of council yeah well in our
last segment we're going to ask
councilman Meritt to spend three minutes
at the microphone to speak about
whatever he's passionate about stay with
us we'll be right
back thanks for coming back
now we have three minutes with
councilman Jeff Merritt you're the you
have the floor all right well thanks Joe
um I'd just like to say that um I I
think all of us are probably not in the
place where we want to be with all of
this back and forth um but we are still
getting a lot of good work done for the
county um the property tax credit for
the firefighter Fighters volunteer
firefighters and the lady's auxiliary we
were able to get that through we're
working on the water Sewer Master Plan
again that's that's been in the works
for 60
years
and the the lior bill that's was tried
last year it didn't um it got to
Annapolis apparently it didn't have
local support so it was not supported it
got kicked back and they made another
run at it this time through a task force
which was which was good it was good
they did it that way um there are a lot
of good things going on in the county I
I wish that we
could not have so much time with the
lawyers um it would allow us to get more
things
done I didn't do
this for me I didn't do this for the
money I didn't do this for the
recognition I did this to help people um
it's what I've done my
life uh solve problems of one form or
another and a lot of challenging
situations and uh I I like helping
people work through problems and and
come to the solution because there's
always a solution but the solution
requires a discussion if you don't have
the discussion you're not going to get
the solution so that that's why I've
done it well thank you for being here
today thank you for joining us with
councilman Jeff Merritt we'll be back
next week with updates from the County
council meeting meeting and any
committee meetings with minutes have a
great day we'll see you next week
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