Open Agenda - “Kennel Bills and Legislative Priorities” (season 2 episode 7) is now available on YouTube and PAC 14. This week’s topics include the controversial kennel bill, and the links between campaign donors and the County Executive’s legislative agenda. Connect the dots and be informed.
Open Agenda TV S2 E7: Kennel Bills and County Executive Priorities
Show Transcript
Disclaimer: The following transcript was auto-generated and may contain spelling or contextual errors.
welcome to open Agenda I'm your host Joe
White in the studio this week is Dr Joe
venosa and Mr Mike Goldberg thanks for
coming out gentlemen glad to be here
thank you so uh the first thing we need
to tackle is this uh the the kennel bill
that the County Council passed at the
February 4th meeting uh there has been a
lot of public push back uh and the and
the county executive has had uh several
public comments regarding this Joe you
you've been at the work sessions what M
the why did the council even think to
take this up well this has been an
ongoing concern uh particularly for a
property owner or at least a property
owner and others adjacent to his
property in the north part of the county
toward delmare and um there had been a
lot of concerns about safety about lack
of upkeep and they have come before the
county several times trying to remedy
the situation so I think this this was
the uh nucleus of what became this piece
of legislation well Mike you've heard
these folks I many of them are from
actually from sharptown uh they talked
about the the noise I mean you you had a
chance to to listen to these folks into
public comments part of the County
Council meetings what's been the the
sense you've gotten from these uh
private citizens well I think that their
concerns are very legitimate the kennel
owner in this case um has been cited
multiple times by code enforcement and
has actually been fined but uh has
somehow found a way to work around the
exist ing codes to continue operations
so the um I think it was very legitimate
for them to try to take some action and
to seek some kind of relief from from
the County government yeah I mean you
talk about the code enforcement
violations uh part of the problem is
that this kennel although it is
operating as a kennel they are not
selling the the dogs in Maryland they're
actually taking them into Delaware
Delware and that has muddied these
Waters very much and very purposely I'm
I'm of sure uh when you when you hear
you know folks talk about you know their
property values I know this this Rings
close with you but you know it's not as
if the County Council heard this one
week and then picked it up the very next
week correct yeah that that's correct
they had uh prior work sessions on it um
the uh the the council was aware the uh
the county executive was aware but the
county executive U Office of the county
executive wasn't particularly involved
and seeking a resolution well Joe I mean
was it the the the County's attorney
that works for the executive office they
were part of drafting this legislation
right and and at these work sessions
yeah that's what's so strange about this
sort of recent drama if you want to call
it that is there have been multiple
points in this process where the county
executive's office was fully involved uh
had Personnel staff lawyers in the room
working on it the executive my
understanding watches the council
meetings still and um at no no point had
they expressed concern well I think one
of the areas and you know I've listened
to to what our current County Executives
had to say the the County council did
make two amendments to this bill very at
the last minute and and you know quite
frankly they're a mistake right uh you
know we've talked to our sources within
the County Council and they're they're
looking to rectify this they even gave
themselves a look back after one year
but
what at the at the public hearing folks
did anybody speak out against this this
bill no and this is again the broader
context is there were Public Notices
there was obviously public hearing about
it and there was no discernable concern
by existing kennel owners that from what
I saw had ever been brought up and even
in the prior work sessions apparently no
kennel owners um appeared to testify or
to express their concerns it just wasn't
on their radar perhaps they weren't
aware but nonetheless they weren't there
and ultimately that's our goals we we
want folks just to be more engaged not
necessarily to agree with our stance on
on on whether something's right or wrong
but to come and and see this for
themselves and make their voices heard
uh since the bill has passed we we've
we've come to know that this thousand
foot amendment that was that was added
on the bill at the last minute it it's
really it's it's it would essentially
put put out of business in 3 years all
the kennel owners we currently have
right I I I believe so you got to keep
in mind that this bill was actually
drafted by the county attorney who
reports directly to the county executive
in cooperation with Planning and Zoning
they drafted the base bill that was
voted on then at the last minute uh They
called an audible during the County
council meeting to um introduce two
amendments one was to uh
create a sunset of three years basically
the sunset means you're grandfathered in
for three years but after that you have
to come into compliance which would be
impossible it would be impossible and
you know be you know very hard to plan
for the the future if you you know
needed to get funding you from a you
Bank funding in order to expand they're
not going to give you that if they they
know that you're going to be uh in
violation of code and then the second uh
part of that amendment was to make the
set back from the property line 1,000 ft
it was really completely arbitrary in in
my mind the real issue there is how much
attenuated sound actually reaches the
adjacent properties it's not so much the
distance but how much sound disruptive
sound is actually reaching them well at
the end of the day this was a mistake I
mean the County Council should not have
have have changed this in a very
arbitrary way in fact they did not even
invite Tracy Taylor green back to the
table to to to give her feedback and I
and I will tell you I think this is
where they messed up Joe I think that
they had all the musicians put in place
to hear the public have work sessions
have a public hearing they got to the
point where it was time to vote and it
just seemed like a good idea but a th000
ft setback would require 93 acres of
land and uh I think if if had anybody
done the math it would have it would
have seemed like a poor idea right well
I think you could make it and again I'm
I obviously I'm not on on the council
and um I was not involved in those
meetings but you could make the argument
that it's one of those things where it
sounds better than what it is right you
know 1,000 ft could very be could very
well be arbitrary 200 feet could be
arbitrary in the sense of how it comes
out but then as you said Mike you know
what that actually means for the
property owner the business does it
actually affect issues of of how the
sound travels that's where you actually
got to get of course I handle on the
number but even though Miss Taylor green
was not called back up Andrew Illuminati
the County Attorney was there as well as
um a representative from planning and
zoning and at the time when these
amendments were brought up they did not
articulate that they had any problem
with it and furthermore the county
executive herself was in the government
office building at this time but she was
not in the council chambers if they had
an issue with that that time it would
have been very helpful um and created
more of a Cooperative Spirit uh in in in
drafting a final Bill had they simply
spoken up they did not care or they
didn't more than likely they just didn't
recognize the problem Mike I I want to
take a break but when we come back I
actually want to play I want to talk
about the role the executive's playing
now uh what's the future of this because
I think as as small you know small
business owner myself you know I'm very
concerned of other small business
business owners as as I know both of you
are uh we they're going to need to have
their their chance but what where is the
process now so why don't we take a break
and when we come back we'll talk about
that sounds good so stay with us after
the break we'll actually check in where
the county Executives veto possible veto
as well as the choices that the County
Council may have to to to rectify the
situation so stay with us we'll be right
back
welcome back to open Agenda I'm Joe
White in the studio is Joe venosa and Mr
Mike Goldberg thanks for coming out
gentlemen still here thanks for not
leaving right so uh you know just this
past week through a Facebook live video
the current County Executive said she
plans to veto this bill uh she's also
said on other uh social media platforms
that she's actually not going to veto
the bill now she's encouraging folks to
come and probably just give the County
Council a piece of their mind and quite
honestly they they deserve they deserve
that they probably have it coming to
them yeah um but she she has made it
fairly clear that she is going to
eventually veto this and then they would
have to consider it with a veto override
which would seem unlikely um given the
the push back but why do you think she
is so concerned about this legislation
and why now Joe why don't you take that
well there's a lot of reasons but I
think there's specifically 18,000
reasons that that you could sort of
ponder as to why because her largest
campaign contributor Mr JC Richardson um
would theoretically have a lot to lose
in this proposed legislation okay now
again this is I mean he still deserves
protection too right absolutely just
like everybody else absolutely I guess
the question
becomes and this is a hypothetical but
it would be great for the executive or
anybody else to ponder this is would a
regular quote unquote kennel owner or a
citizen who's not a campaign contributor
if they had made that same uh series of
concerns known to the executive would
this massive media PR frenzy the last
couple days that we've seen would that
have happened in the same way well well
Mike you you would agree that a small
business owner like Dum marvine they
deserve that protection well absolutely
absolutely I think that the County
Council recognizes that from
conversations I've had since with
members of the council they know that
the this was an error their intentions
were good but this was the wrong
solution and I firmly believe that they
are seeking other solutions to this
problem and it's a legitimate problem um
that uh will be a win-win for everybody
uh but on the other hand I also believe
that if not for the benefit to a
particular campaign contributor that
this very well based on experience this
very well may not have been on the
county executives and I think there in
lies the well you know two things can be
true at the same time right the bill
itself right while maybe well
intentioned has this real problem within
it but on the other
hand would any of this have been an
issue had that particular
person well let's go through some other
examples I mean so if we're going to say
that the attention comes from a donor uh
let's talk about you know the Safari at
the Quarry in Shadow hill Oh do we have
to yes yep speaking of property values
so you know again there was noise
concerns uh no public knowledge and at
the same time although the the residents
of that neighborhood came and voiced
their opinion to the County Council they
did not actually have the same platform
with the county executive right no the
the uh the concerns fell on deaf ears
and also keep in mind that I prepared a
12 page abstract of that contract and
send it by certified mail to the county
executive so that would be very clear
what the problems are and abstracting
contracts is something I spent 35 years
of my professional life doing it I know
contracts pretty darn well fell on deaf
ears um she did not heat any of the
warnings I warned that this is more than
likely going to lose money for the
county in addition to disrupting the
quiet enjoyment of our homes and our
property values when you have recurring
disruptive events uh that are taking
place
on adjacent land you can bet your bottom
dollar that this does impact your your
your land value well let's take another
example Joe uh the Tipping fees at the
dump I mean this came directly from the
county executive's proposed budget yeah
again the County Council they have to
approve the budget sure uh there are
public hearings for the budget we were
at the public hearings for the budget
but the the Tipping fees were not
discussed in the public forum similar to
this th000 fet setback for kennels right
but the the the onus was on both
branches at that point and you saw them
get together and work are we seeing a
situation where the county Executives
lack of ability to kind of kind of stay
in those count those those meetings and
be a part of that conversation is that
affecting the rest of us in this County
I think it is because when you have an
executive branch of government that only
has certain what I would consider
special interests as the motivating
factor it means that the the scope of
attention is going to be limited right
meaning the things that might not have a
financial benefit or political benefit
uh still deserve attention and when
they're not being attended to uh you
have a real imbalance not just of how
government works but you have a real
potential for some chaos because what it
means is that a whole branch of
government is only very narrowly
examining things in its self-interest so
in in one respect you know and these
kennel owners are going to come
theoretically to this next council
meeting which is on February 18th that
it's a it's a 10: a.m. meeting to to
petition their government similar to the
way the the residents of Shadow Hills
did similar to uh the the trash
collecting companies but in some
instances you're given a platform and a
voice and some you aren't and then I
think this is where you made your point
early on right right and and again I
think it would be it's it's a it's a
it's unfortunate
um it's kind of sad I guess you could
say that the executive doesn't have open
Office hours for regular citizens the
mayor of Salsbury right has a meet the
mayor session once a month obviously the
city council and the County Council as
part of their institution have it
nothing prevents the executive office
from having that but that's not going to
happen she makes herself inaccessible
and just a great example going back to
Safari at the Quarry after sending her
this the county executive this lengthy
list of grievances with respect to the
contract for Safari at the Quarry the
response was do not contact me again
direct all future corespondence through
the County Attorney I'm sorry if you
can't take some heat from your
constituents and if your skin is that
thin in my estimation that's not
somebody who belongs in the job so I
mean it would be unreasonable to expect
our local leaders even well intention to
never make a mistake but there should be
a platform for for recourse one of the
examples that the the current County
Executive has used often is the
president and Congress or the governor
and the general assembly but local
government is meant to be more Compact
and Joe you you mentioned the mayor of
Salsbury Randy Taylor we've had him on
the show several times he's at the City
Council meetings right yeah and he
doesn't have to be yeah but I mean why
do you what do you think his motivation
is is it to be engaged or well I think
engagement is a part of it I think
obviously you want the executive branch
in there to not only know what the
legisl branch is doing but also to
report to provide feedback to
collaborate because as you said you know
local government is is not yes there are
separate branches of government
obviously but they are much more
intertwined in a daily basis they have
they they have to be I mean it's it's
unreasonable to think that Donald
Trump's going to going to be able to sit
in on Congress but at the same time that
does not mean that at a local level
whether you're the the town of sharptown
or or the city of Solsbury or or wo
County that there can't be much more
collabor
we would we would stay out of more of
these situations and to be honest with
you the County Council got us in this
one but the county executive has gotten
us into a couple other of these debacles
as well and again theoretically she's
only 50 F feet away yeah and she could
be there well she most certainly has
popped in other times and you know one
one of the things I brought up at the at
the January meeting was this second bite
at the Apple for the liquor bills and
and really what I want to talk about in
the third segment is this is an example
of okay we we we had legislation
introduced uh for for support for a
liquor bill and at the same time public
hearings County Council voted it down
and I and I want to talk a little bit
about how the county executive continued
to to work for that again based on the
the donor sure so so stay with us when
we come back we're going to take a look
back at the liquor bills from January
20125 and just how that process mirrors
the process we're in now so stay with us
we'll be right
back welcome back to open Agenda I'm
your host Joe White gentlemen thanks for
sticking around for the last segment so
you know it talked about the liquor
bills at the end of of the last segment
these liquor bills actually started in
2023 um they they were sent up to
Annapolis and sent back for for local
support task force was was drawn up and
and at the end of the day the the task
force decided that they would
uh allow uh restaurants small business
owners this is a good thing to to to
purchase directly from Whalers the
dispensary still stays but we saw back
in September the county executive
despite this win and I I think she
deserves a lot of credit for for helping
to get that going you know uh but
despite that her next three priorities
were again liquor bills and uh so you
know these came back up in work sessions
in December and public hearings in
January um I'm going to play a little
footage that actually talks about the
one liquor bill in particular that is
for auditing from the state uh the
liquor dispensary despite the fact in
the work session the year before there
was no issues with the
dispensary one of the first drafts that
came out you made it was printed in
there that you were requesting that a
forensic audit be done on the liquor
dispensary any evidence of any
wrongdoing crimes going on we didn't
have any evidence of that again that's
why that word was stricken from the
final
report all right so so gentlemen I mean
you you've attended many of these
meetings I mean there there there was
not support from the County Council to
support these liquor bills um the the
the county Executives reply was well if
you don't support them I'll just get the
controller myself uh and and at the the
the January the second meeting in
January I actually got up to the podium
and I I actually spoke about how like
we've already had the local debate on
this and we've decided at least for a
year and and there was a circumvention
of the
process um I think when the task force
met and the stakeholders were involved
it seems that there are a couple of
concerns we had talked about those last
meeting one of we didn't get to see that
because there were no minutes taken so
we had no idea the stakeholders of the
gsse recommended that we did this so if
we don't want to go forward with the
audit which I think is a better way to
go I will call the com controller and
per the law they can come in it's come
to my attention that our our newly
appointed delegate in Annapolis is still
working to circumvent some of that I
don't understand how anyone would ever
think that that is a separation of power
or good for transparency it is the exact
opposite of that uh Julie Jano County
Executive I just had two comments to
make really quickly um I wanted to
clarify something that Mr White just
brought up so nothing was circumvented
from this Council uh a constituent
called delegate beum and asked him to
put forward a Statewide Bill Statewide
Bill does not require a public hearing
here he listen excuse me he listened he
dropped the bill um unfortunately the C
uh the legislature decided that it
should be a local bill and I believe
that he called several of you to see if
there was consensus to move forward and
you told him no so therefore he has
pulled the bill I think this whole
discussion about the audit only came as
a result of a way to tear down the
dispensary system after the the task
force which I sat on we decided that we
were not going to get rid of this system
but there's a there's a um it looks like
a way to circumvent the system the
executive spoke on her executive
exclusive recently about the liquor
legislation passed last year and how she
was able to open the door and that she
was still working on a couple of
different angles because wac comco
county has an Antiquated and broken
system she stated that she continues to
hear from her
constituents that they are unhappy with
the liquor system in the county and she
was still trying to make it efficient if
we are still going to have a dispensary
system well the council members have
constituents too and they are reacting
to the voices of their
constituents I would bet that the
council's constituents voicing
opposition to the proposed liquor
legislations outnumber the voices asking
for changes although they may not
outnumber the campaign contributions
made to the executive yeah again I find
it ironic though that for a county
executive who is still two months behind
on getting us the financial audit of
last year's budget that she has this um
fetish we going to Annapolis and getting
the com controller to come down here to
examine the liquor dispensary seems odd
so yeah I mean you're talking about the
fiscal year 2024 which closed 8 months
ago right yeah oh I apologize so
technically 10 months late yeah but the
issue I think is bigger that she was
attempting to go around the legislative
body and how many times have we heard
the county executive you know admonish
the council that you are just a
legislative body well they are and they
have a very specific function she did
she did her best to ensure that they
could could not function as the
legislative body by going directly to
Anapolis well m i mean Joe brought this
up earlier again campaign donor is is
coming into view here I mean there are
are folks who who are closely tied to
the county executive who would benefit
from this from to see a connection here
between campaign donors and and the uh
legislative agenda for the county
executive how about you Joe connection
um I I think he could make a reasonable
argument that uh people like Mike bazard
Alex Scott folks like that uh they
certainly have a magnified voice
compared to Joe public um and I would
say that money is probably a big part of
that difference I mean I don't even
think it's political ideology cuz Mike
and I are both very conservative
Republicans uh which is you know the
part supposedly supposedly so the so is
the county executive well I think not
yeah and and and and honestly you're
you're not you have a different
political take and as we have sat around
the table on and off camera we've we've
debated many times National policy
although we don't cover that on this
show State policy City policy uh not
everything comes down to being a
Republican or a Democrat actually
locally it often doesn't yeah should
should it be taken out I mean when you
walk in as I do as a republican into a
County council meeting when you look up
there do you do you do you often find
yourself agreeing with both or either
side or disagreeing with your own party
well to the point that Joe was starting
to make I I don't think on the local
level that party affiliation has very
much to do with anything I'm a lifelong
Republican uh I voted for one Democrat
in my life and that was Henry Wade for
Dallas County district attorney of you
Row versus way that most people are
familiar with but on the local level
even though Joe venosa and I were kind
of on opposite ends of the political
spectrum and yet we have found an
enormous amount of overlap a middle
ground where we agree on many things and
so it has nothing to do with our parties
it has to do with um our concern for the
um for the health of our community and
we both have a vested interest in that
and also because it's tied into I think
the functionality of a compact
government right you have because you
have to work more intimately it it it
actually makes those shared concerns
theoretically you know more substantive
you know I think there was a time when
being a conservative meant for sure that
you were in for small government th
those aren't the realities today bar
Goldwater has been dead a long time and
uh and but small compact government
would serve our local community well and
and again you know I I think what a lot
of people realistically whether they say
big government small government
efficient government medium government
uh they tend to want it to work well so
let's talk about the work uh fiscal year
20 20 24 budget still I mean the audit
I'm sorry is still not out our goal is
for the show is to get people to be
active in the community and we're coming
into budget season people are going to
start to notice those things when the
budget season really you know happens
and at this point it's that that uh uh
that budget audit from last fiscal year
it's two months delinquent at this point
two months and we don't know when it's
going to come out cuz we've asked we we
we have uh we have asked our our elected
officials when it's going to come out
but we're awaiting additional
information from what I understand from
the finance department is it are they
simply not being cooperative are they
intentionally withholding this
information but how do we look ahead
when we don't know where we've been well
and so the the budget for fiscal year
2026 which would start July 1st is due
to the County Council on April 15 okay
that is roughly 60 days away and in that
period of time there also has to be
Revenue projections done Joe and I were
joking it's like you're all dressed up
on a Friday night you don't know how
much money is in your bank account you
don't know how much money you're going
to make next week and you're supposed to
decide if you're going to go out and
have a hamburger or a steak H how are
you going to do it I don't know but you
are dressed rather nice I have to say so
are you I think you know the face helps
but you know I I I appreciate it I I
tell you you know I think uh always
taking a chance to just up your
professionalism is is always good right
a little bit a little bit well gentlemen
I mean we are going to continue our
mission to get more people involved in
their government not necessarily to
follow our Dogma but also too to cover
the budget process which is right around
the corner correct I was harping on
dogmo with dog given the nature well you
missed a good dad J it was it was but it
was very unintentional so well I do hope
people will pay atten mentioned you it's
very important to exercise your right to
vote but if you're going to vote you
also have an obligation and that
obligation is to make a reasonable
effort to be as informed as you can we
hope that this show is helping the
public you know be informed but pay
attention don't you uh fact check this
please feel free to fact check us look
at other media Outlets i w mention any
in particular and see what the
difference is and see who the adults in
the room ultimately are going to be well
the Public's going to have a chance the
next few months to really see just how
uh how their government can serve them
trying to get through the budget season
and and and ultimately do the best they
can for the for the taxpayers so well
thanks for joining us for this episode
of open Agenda we'll be back next week
with another new
episode I know what I'm doing man
