Do you think the County Executive's budget is transparent and that she is being a good steward of YOUR tax dollars? Take a closer look. OPEN AGENDA (S2 E18) unravels the deceptions contained in the Executive's budget, reveals her financial irresponsibility, and exposes her disregard for public safety. Tune in and be informed.
Open Agenda TV: S2 E18 Executive Budget Tricks and Higher Fees
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. Welcome to Open Agenda.
I'm your host, Joe White. So, we're in
May of 2025, and so the county council
is in the full swing of their budget
season, and we're also seeing a lot of
action with the city council. If they
can't find one thing to fight about,
they're looking for something to sue
each other over. So, in order to talk
about all this is uh Mr. Mike Goldberg
from Delmare, Dr. Joea from Salsbury.
Sir, thank you guys. Thank you. Look,
these shows are going to have to start
getting longer. They're just getting a
laugh track, man. A laugh track and uh
maybe uh maybe an episode a day at this
rate. There's just so much to work with
these days with all the shenanigans.
Well, let's let's start with the county
budget. I mean, this is we're we're in
we're at the finish line, so to speak.
There's couple more meetings before
they'll vote on this sometime in June.
Uh we we saw a lot at the budget hearing
on May 8th. uh particularly it seemed
like the state's attorney was kind of
left out in the cold with her positions
being funded at the lowest level by the
county executive. We met um with the
county executive and her team uh I
believe it was March uh to talk about um
our requests um from a salary
perspective and operational funding um
and there were no concerns um expressed
at that time. there um was no
information provided at any point about
um you know what the plan was with
vacancies, what would happen with them.
Um certainly I've come to know as I've
indicated that all other vacancies in
the county are funded at the midpoint.
Um whereas my um ASA positions were
stripped down from FY25 funding to the
minimum. Three of the four positions uh
listed on the vacancy report provided by
Miss Oland on April 25th have been
spoken. We are now having to deal with
this challenge navigating this
unprecedented reduction in SAO vacancy
salary funding um that is inconsistent
with the executives practices um across
other departments as I am told um with
no dialogue whatsoever. Yeah, that was
pretty shocking to see Jamie Dykes have
to go there and and basically in front
of the public inform them that the
executive basically defunded uh law
enforcement through these uh rate cuts
for new hires. Yeah. Um tipping fees uh
came back up and the county council is
stating that they have no interest in
jacking these up as much as the county
executive has asked for. The public had
noticed that we wanted these rates at
$100 last year. that's been known for a
year and we've had individual meetings
with our major haulers including the
city of Salsbury to discuss this topic.
I really think that before anything else
is done at another time that a public
hearing be held specifically for rate
increases. I want to make sure that we
have an operational and solvent
landfill, the only way we can do that is
by increasing our tipping fees. But I'm
telling you, the discussion over tipping
fees has been had. What are we doing
now? $80 a ton. $78 a ton. 78 is what it
went up. So, we asked for a two-step
process of $88 in July was our first ask
and then 100 by January. But one thing I
I have heard from a couple of the
haulers is if the tipping fee increase
can be postponed until January and only
go to
88. That would help them modify their
business model because this is going to
take their business model and they're
going to have to pass it along. There's
really no supporting documentation that
these fees are needed to to run the
landfill. Well, that's the theme of this
whole circus as it as it were, right? Is
that there's massive amounts of
financial
uh desire and this is what we want, but
very little justification for anything.
Well, then you find out 9 months after a
fiscal year ends that we have 11.5
million surplus and the county executive
wants to break the revenue cap. So,
small detail, although she says that was
just a trick. We'll find out later.
She's used to tricks. As taxpayers, we
just love being tricked by our
government. Taxed and tricked all at the
same time. Um, you know, let's talk
about the director of of of uh public
works, uh, Mr. Mustafa. uh he he left he
resigned his position less than 3 weeks
or less than four weeks into Mhm. and
and this was this this was a a
department head that the executive's
office came to the county council and
asked for a raise above the at the
highest level of the the range. There
was a uh a vacancy for I think four
years for that position and I think he
lasted four weeks. Yeah. Well, and
there's a lot behind this and and I
really think when you start looking at
like u Tim Bosman left the local
management board. When you look at even
Matt Litel, I mean we spoke a lot
against the confirmation process. We had
no issues with Matt Litel himself. Uh
but the you know our county executive
has lost three major department heads.
The head of the local management board,
the deputy director of administration,
and now the director of public works. So
Mike, I mean talk about the Verizon
building for a second. I mean, you and I
have kind of watched this unfold um for
the last year and a half. It's again one
of those situations where it's a a deal
too good to be true seems to come up and
and we've bought in we bought in in 2024
at the tune of $3.6 million and now the
county executive has come back with a
budget of $2.75 million just to renovate
the building. And you used to secure
loans for folks. Uh, I mean, would you
would you do a loan for this? Yeah. Heck
no. I mean, we're not even talking a
renovation here. We're talking interior
improvements, tenant improvements
essentially to meet the needs of that
partic particular tenant. Got to keep in
mind this is a public health building.
It's not the Taj Mahal. It doesn't even
have to be the highest level of
finishes. It should be a fairly low what
I would call a contractor grade of
finishes. But under no circumstance
should tenant improvements be costing
about 75% of the acquisition cost for
the property. That number is so wacky
that you know just no you
serious commercial lender would would
take that seriously. All right. So wacky
Dr. Venosa we got to get into the uh
city of Salsbury. Uh we're looking at
maybe a second lawsuit. Uh yeah. So uh
Mr. Nick Simpson, fresh back from a trip
to Milan, um, Italy to some Taylor Swift
concerts, uh, has recently announced the
possibility that his firm uh, will take
the city of Salsbury to court over a $4
million um, set of funds that supposedly
was specifically uh, set aside for the
hotel project that they are working on
on lot 10. So, this was the the the lot
10 that that former mayor Jake Day
basically gave away as part of the whole
downtown parking lot giveaway. Correct.
Correct. Um, another giveaway was the
Marina Landing. I mean, that was that
was given away for a dollar. Correct.
What's interesting about both of Well,
one is a lawsuit, one is a prospective
lawsuit. It hasn't been confirmed yet.
Although, I think the reason why that
was leaked to the media was because this
is my own personal belief. I believe
that they're using that as a threat to
get what they want. Uh but both the
company that is suing for the Marina
Landing um property and Memphis Capital
both have some financial problems. Uh
Memphis Capital has a lean uh due to
unpaid furniture in the Ross building.
Okay. And then of course the uh issue
with uh the company in Marina Landing.
They're I believe I I believe they're a
Baltimore based company. They need more
of those big checks from Mayor Jake Day.
you know, they look nice unless you
know, you're not getting one. But
ultimately, um, they're it's my
understanding. They're they've been
found to be not in good standing. Okay.
So, it's interesting to sort of see why
this is happening right now and and
ultimately who is directing these
particular
uh decisions to push lawsuits. So, right
now we're they have that hanging over
their head. There also is the the big
increase in in fees for water and sewer,
which nobody's talked about. And and
then we have, you know, City Council
President Deshawn Dowy, who's who who
seems every time him and Randy Taylor
speak, it's both of them get their
feelings hurt. Yeah. And I would throw
Vice President Angela Blake in this if
if if anybody wants to watch the latest
city council meeting.
Um it generally goes fine. It's
relatively civil in the context of our
local government, but uh toward the end
of that meeting, it went off the rails
again with with I think a very childish
display by uh the vice president. But it
is almost as entertaining as the Jerry
Springer show at times. I I used to say
this to people. I said, "If you ever
feel bad about yourself, you have low
self-esteem, watch the Jerry Springer
show." Now I tell them, "Watch the city
council meeting." Well, and look, we we
brought up three things with the city
council. We didn't even talk about a
crosswalk, but you know, that's that's
the number one thing for most people. It
was interesting though because for all
the online, you know, sort of outrage
there there were two people that spoke
at the last meeting. Um, you know, it's
my understanding that there are still
discussions behind the scenes on that.
So, I I guess in the end, um, it's
important to sort of look at what
actually happens versus what allegedly
happens. Well, while you're being
distracted by the show, somebody's got
their hand in your back pocket pulling
your wallet out and raising your taxes.
Well, and and I think this is the basic
thing that the citizens at least in
Solsbury need to know is that for all
the discussion for all this other stuff,
in the end, regular people are are going
to have to pay 6% more for their water
and sewer. And a lot of that is
basically because, and you can watch
city council meeting where they say
this, it's to pay the debt service. A
lot of that debt we acrewed, why?
Because we subsidized a lot of high-end
projects that have yet to come to
fruition. And we have more on the way.
And we have more on the way. So, uh, in
order to talk about these actually very
very serious topics, uh, I want to bring
in Jim Atkins from Mardella, I want to
talk about the county, uh, budget
process because, I mean, he does not
really miss very many meetings and he
also is somebody who's willing to dive
into the budgets, the the the not the
minutia, but the details. So, when we
come back, we're going to sit down with
Mike Goldberg and Jim Atkins, and we're
going to start diving into the county
budget process. Stay with us. We'll be
right
back. Welcome back to Open Agenda. I'm
your host, Joe White. So, we're in May
of 20125, which means the fiscal year 26
budget, which would start July 1st, is
in full swing. Lots of budget meetings,
hearings, public comments times. We
wanted to update everyone on that. In
order to do that, I brought in Mr. Mike
Goldberg from Delmare, Mr. Jim Atkins
from Mardella. Thanks for coming out.
Sure. Sure. The both of you attend many
of the count county council meetings and
are both uh very well uh aware of the
budget process and some of the
challenges that we're facing uh whether
it comes from the state or or
internally. A lot of information came
out of the the May 8th budget hearing.
Um start with Jim. I want to start with
you. Let's talk about the payraises that
were proposed by the county executive
versus the signals that the county
council was was giving everyone over
what they feel like they'll do. Yeah. A
lot of it was uh of course they talk
about the employees of the county would
receive a 3% cost of living increase
that would become effective on July 1st
and then on January the 1st they would
receive a 2% raise to give them a total
of 5%.
However, when you got into the
department head functions, you had
proposed raises anywhere from 10% to 31%
for department heads. And uh as the
state's attorney pointed out in her
budget hearing, she had some assistant
states attorneys that they had actually
decreased the their money from last
year. Now you say they, but you're
talking about the executives office. The
executives and the budget process that
she touts that all the departments come
in and and sit down and they talk and
agree to all this. My biggest problem
with the raises is number one, if the
employees are only worthy of a 5%
increase in the county, then the
department heads are worthy of a 5%
increase. They should get the same
thing. Even the ones that's getting the
5% raise. Okay. Oh, absolutely. They're
worth more money than 5%. That's what
I'm saying about morale and fairness.
But it looks to me like when you go
throwing out 27% raises and 31% raises
to some people and somebody else is
getting a 5% raise that that just causes
issues. The argument that was made and
and I don't agree with it, but the
argument that was made by director of
finance was that some of these folks in
their department head are way behind
where their salary structure should be
and the employees are also I would agree
there. Yes. Now, it was also brought
back up through this hearing and this is
where you get a lot of this really good
information is some of these folks have
moved into that department head role
that they're supposedly so far underpaid
just in the last two years. Some have
maybe been there for longer, but some
have moved there recently. So, it wasn't
as if they were hired for a job and not
given a raise for the last 15 years.
Right. Well, it seems to me like when
you listen to the budget hearerings and
they talk about
raises, they talk about three different
subjects. They talk about the Bolton
study, which gives you the low, middle,
and high range. They talk about tier
raises. And then they talk about annual
raises. Well, you've got to decide which
one of the three systems you're going to
go with. You can't pick and choose out
of each one because as they're doing
right now, they have some employees that
they claim are above the max and Bolton
for for Bolton for Bolton and and that
they say these
employees will not get a raise this
year.
Well, what kind of motivation is that
for an employee? And I think what the
council wanted was at least a cost of
living adjustments. That's one of the
things that was addressed. Give give
them the cost of living increase, which
is 3%. Because if you don't, you're
actually decreasing their pay. Their
their spending power has decreased this
year and it's going to decrease next
year. But I think we need to
differentiate between a cost of living
adjustment, a COLA, than a meritbased
increase. You know, you can't avoid
giving cost of living adjustments. As
inflation increases, you as you just
mentioned, Jim, you're you're you're
behind the eightball. You're you're
losing ground. But just to give raises
for the sake of giving raises, I I've
got a problem with that. In the private
sector, you get a merit raise. And I
think the you know government sector
needs to reflect that just you don't get
a trophy just for you know participating
well and and in the private sector a lot
of times merit raises are capped at like
say 10% even when you change the
position. It's not that they're saying
look you're only going to make 10% more
the rest of your career but they break
them out. And I think this was the the
argument that the county council came
back to. They asked the county executive
and the director of finance to come up
with a more of a two or threeyear plan.
So if some of these folks need to be
moved up at a significant level, it's
done in like 9% stages, not all at once.
Because once we agree to this, the
taxpayers, we're on the hook the next
year. So, if the economy really falls
apart in some way, but you can't you
can't and you're right, but you can't
have merit raises and get increases
without evaluations of your employees.
This county raises this county does not
do evaluations on their employees.
They do length of service and and annual
raises. They don't evaluate people. Talk
about a lack of motivation. Yes. Yes.
It's, you know, and that's the
fundamental difference between the
government sector and the private
sector. Exactly. And as I've said many
times before on the show, without a
profit motive, you have an inefficient
system. And well, let's talk about the
raises from the other side. I mean, so
we have another uh we have our state's
attorney and she's a constitutionally
elected official and yet the county
executive chose to fund three of her
vacant positions that you know folks
have decided to leave, take other
positions elsewhere, move them all the
way back at the base and and and Jamie
Dykes talks about this. There was
meetings back in
March. Promises were made, at least
conversations were had. budget comes out
in the middle of April. Bam. It's just
there. Yeah. So, if we're going to if
our county executive is going to worry
about a a deputy director of
administration, which doesn't exist
right now, and that getting that
position raise, why wouldn't we want our
prosecutors to to have at least a middle
ground? We would, of course. Look, I can
understand where it's very difficult to
attract an attorney, you know, who's
gone through years of schooling into a
job such as being a assistant states
attorney or a prosecutor. They're not
going to make as much as they would in
the private sector. So, you know, it has
to be the type of person who is
motivated by passion, I think, more so
than money, but they have to have a
certain amount of money to to uh
maintain a a good standard of living.
But to actually reduce the funding, you
know, makes me wonder, does our county
executive really care about public
safety? Well, it makes a camera roll in.
It makes you wonder because in the last
two or three hires that the county has
done, they have come in there with
department heads and directors and said,
"We need to pay this person above the
mid-range." The last example being the
director of public
works. He was hired. The job was posted
at, I believe,
$145,000. They came in when they put him
in front of the council at
$161,000 because that's what he said he
needed. So, you know, it must have been
hard to calculate that when he only
stayed for three weeks. Yes. I wonder if
that was uh how that how that turned
out. That that probably took some uh
some calculator math there. Yes. County
Executive's budget has increased from
2024 to now over $100,000. What's the um
breakdown on the increase in that? And
now it's going up to 805 $85,000. So
we're talking $100,000. So, the the
tipping fees at the landfill, the
council has has uh signaled that they
are unwilling to just spike those up as
if as the as the once again the county
executive put a big spike in there. Once
again, there's really not a lot of
information that shows why. And once
again, as in last year when all this
happened, there was no
communication with the trash disposal
haulers. They didn't see this coming
again. And they they came to the council
last year and it all got worked out with
the council, the executive and and the
disposal companies. Yeah. And the
understanding was that there would be
discussions this year before it
happened. Well, guess what? No
discussions. Just crickets. Huh. Just
here we go. Here. Well, all right. So,
crickets. Um the Verizon building
probably has some crickets and uh and
really expensive crickets and we're
finding out now. You know, we we're
going to show some footage of how this
process started. In January of 24, so
we're talking almost 18 months ago. Uh
John McClennon from SVN, who's a
commercial real estate developer, came
in and spoke to the county council at
the request of the health department and
the executive's office. Um the first
item on the agenda tonight is a public
hearing on the purchase of real property
known as 1401 Mount Herman Road,
Salisbury, Maryland for use of the Wcomo
County Health Department. Matthew
McConna, the health officer for Wakcomo
County. John Mlelen with SVN Miller
Commercial Real Estate.
Julie Jaredo County Executive. Lman,
director of administration. Thank you.
All right. So, good evening. um wanted
to come to you before before you tonight
and give the public an opportunity to
hear more about the proposed purchase.
So, you've got the property located on
route, as I mentioned, it's 34,000
square ft on two levels, full elevator
access, multiple stairs, multiple
entrances, could allow for separate
functions. New 2020 HVAC system. Roof is
approximately 7 years old. We have had
it inspected. I'll touch on that in a
few minutes. The contract price at 3,650
is $108 a square foot. Verizon has
vacated the building or has largely
vacated the building, but uh their lease
does run through October 31st of 2025.
They are required to pay rent for that
amount of time. The county can collect
the rental income during a planning
process. We've done we've been through
some due diligence. As you know, the
property went under contract uh on
December 22nd. We have till February
20th for a 60-day due diligence. Uh
closing could occur anytime before March
21st. The inspections we've completed so
far is a roof inspection, HVAC,
elevator, structural, plumbing,
electrical, generator, and an
environmental phase one. Nothing that he
considers a glaring problem. Appraisals.
Did you get appraisals? I did. I just
forgot to mention that property has
appraised at
$3,920,000. There should be some rental
surplus. The county should see a surplus
um especially for an unoccupied
building. This might be a question for
the executive's office or Matthew. How
about
retrofitting operational or whatever you
want to call it? I've not talked with a
engineer or architect yet uh in regards
to that. Um but the way it's structured
um there's main uh concrete and steel
structural columns throughout the
building. So everything else is pretty
much can be retrofitted as long as you
don't mess with those in integral uh
structural pieces. Um so it should be
easily retrofitted. It should be easily
completed once we sit down review about
what space is needed and how it will be
designed for efficient flow and activity
desk and oper um office equipment and
all that. You don't have any prices on
what that's going to be or anything.
Mainly we probably be bringing a lot of
that that equipment from our current uh
facilities. So, we already have that in
place
off the um John, you say we're going to
get rent from the three from Verizon.
So, when you take that off of the
purchase price, what's our what's our
price going to be? Uh I had that in my
prior folder. The total revenue over the
next um well, starting January 1st, we'd
take a little bit off, but starting
January 1st, the total revenue from
Verizon's $1.7 million. But they're
going to pay us over. They're going to
pay you. Yes. Out of that, I project
about $300,000 of expenses. A
million4 would be the the net revenue to
the county against So, you're you're
going to go in with about a $2.2 million
purchase price on a they asked to
purchase this building for a little over
$3.6 million.
The selling point is this rental income
that we were supposed to receive from
Verizon for the next 18 months as a
county about 1.4 million well 1.7
million minus about 300,000 in operating
costs down to about 1.4. We're finding
out now that they they need the in the
budget they requested $2.75 million
uh in renovations and the money from the
lease just went into the general fund
and has been spent. Well, it's pretty
hard to track that that uh rental income
when it's just going into a general
fund. You know, you have to segregate
projects. You know, the money for this
project comes from here. It goes out
there. I mean, that's just basic good
business and cost accounting. But
really, what really disturbs me about
this at a 3.6 million acquisition cost
and then a 2.7 million, you know, price
tag for interior improvements. Now, this
is a building that already, it's not a
cold, dark shell. It already has
interior finishes.
I I'd be hardressed to to justify
spending what we're talking about
75% of the acquisition cost and tenant
improvements 2020 um6 the majority of
the funds um there actually all the
funds that we're requesting for the
health department is for the actual
renovation of the Verizon building right
now this has in there um concept of
possibly putting in a second elevator
and or expanding the elevator that we
currently have because we're the
elevator that we currently have is
relatively small. Their original request
to administration had the elevator out 3
to four years and um we decided that
that didn't seem appropriate to renovate
the whole building and then tear it
apart again too. But if we ultimately in
the next two or three years find the
funding to expand the campus like we've
talked about and put some of the fritz
stuff at the Verizon location, then
those would be things that would be
transitioned to other needs. But we
wanted to put them on here because the
flooring at Fritz um some of it's
original. So again, because at this
moment we don't have on the plans when
we're looking
to expand the Verizon location to take
those services on. Those are on here.
The funds that we're getting from the
lease is $54,000.
I didn't bring those numbers with me, so
I honest that's one number that doesn't
stick in my head. So I guess my question
is where's the money? What those money
those funds go into the general fund?
Could they be used to offset the cost of
the building renovation? Well, I mean,
any general fund money is available for
us to do renovations. So, those are
revenues that are part of the general
fund which then flow into the
availability of PIGO funding.
You got it under general obligation
bond. You you're bonding that money.
Well, I think what Jeff's meaning, could
we reduce the amount of the bond by
using the revenue from the Verizon
building? Well, I mean, that that is an
option that we could take. Um roughly
$50,000 a month for two years. That's
$1.2 million. So that would be uh that
has that will it is funds that have will
have will be reflected in
um we didn't have it very long when
we're doing the June 2024 fund balance.
There's been discussions well let's just
set this money aside to reserve it for
this. Well sometimes it's easier just to
use the money that you currently have
than creating another pot to have to
keep track of. But these funds came in
and we used them for our current needs
and thus we will have future needs that
we will have to fund. But doesn't it
show a truer cost of a project if you're
taking monies that you're earning from
that source, i.e. the Verizon building
and using it to offset a offset
renovations. You can
say, you know, so this project's only
cost us this much because we use the
revenues that we got from the the rent.
I mean, you that's we could do that.
It's a whole county and the whole county
pays everything, but it just seems to me
like shows a true cost of what what a
project is. We can say I can easily show
that ultimately the county collected
this amount of money and we are
renovating to this level. Do we want to
put those restrictions on ourselves when
we have needs in the fiscal year that
the money came in on? My recommendation
would be no. My recommendation is is you
use the funds that you have to pay the
bills that you have and then you look at
your future revenues to see what bills
you have for there.
Personally, I think it's absolutely
astronomical that we're asking for $2.7
million to do renovations on a building
we spent about $4 million for. If we'd
known that, we would have been spent 7
million for a brand new building and
gotten a nice probably a nice brand new
building. I I found that very
surprising. So, if you can get us an
itemization of that, I don't think we
have it yet. And we won't until we
honestly, we won't have an itemization
until we have um the architectural
plans. Um again, this is being funded
out of fund balance. It is not intended
to be funded out of a um actually no,
this one is being funded out of general
obligation bond. we will not have that
bond. Um, by the time we are ready to
finalize the dollar amount for the bond,
we should have a better idea as to the
architectural estimate as to whether or
not the $2.75 million is appropriate um
for that bonding. You should be looking
at something like 15 maybe 20% tops uh
in tenant improvement cost relative to
the acquisition cost. that those numbers
are way out of whack. Well, here's the
other issue that goes with
that.
2.75
million
to renovate this
building, but there are no renovation
plans. There are no drawings. There is
nothing. There's just an ask for
$2.75
million so we can and they and they
asked for this initially in December of
last year. Yes. Without having done a
needs assessment first and as as you
mentioned Jim there are you know there
are no preliminary architectural plans
for the tenant improvements. Well, okay.
So, here's one thing I I hope that
taxpayers out there can can really put
their heads around is the fact that the
the executive's office wanted to bond
this $2.75 million renovation. The
county council made it very clear last
week they are not they have no intention
of bonding $2.75 million to do this.
What director of finance Pam Olan asked
the council to do is to bond $3 million
of other capital projects that are in
the executive's budget that total $9
million. Okay? They're going to bond
that to leave this money open out of our
savings account. So you're talk you
could be talking about the the water
tower in Pittsville. You could be
talking about uh some of the sanitary
district work that they're that they're
looking to do in Parsonsburg. A lot of
people don't even know we got one coming
to Parsonsburg. They will when we start
getting water bills in Parsonsburg. But
this is the shell game. And I want to
remind everybody just two months ago our
county executive was proposing to break
our revenue cap to the tune of $3
million. So, if council's interested, I
would request we consider at least
moving one or two projects and you take
out the one, but that leaves us the
opportunity to then have some fund
balance available. Again, if council's
interested in cutting that, I would ask
that we consider shifting a couple
things over. We might want to make that
recommendation because it'll probably
get cut. Why why is it you would propose
to raise people's taxes two months later
have a proposal to renovate a building
without plans to then be like well just
go ahead and borrow the money somewhere
else that way we have it to spend. I'm
going to say no let's not have it to
waste.
Well, the breaking the revenue cap is a
very interesting thing because the the
county executive on another
broadcast made the statement that she
never planned on breaking the revenue
cap. In her words, it was a bait and
switch for the council. Okay. She wanted
to bait them.
get everybody all upset about breaking
the revenue cap. And then when she came
in to present her
budget, she enjoyed sitting there
watching the look on the council's face
when she said she had had a balanced
budget and had fully funded the board of
ed plus given the board of ed more
money. Her words exactly bait and
switch. You look up transparency on in
the dictionary. Bait and switch is not
is not under is not the definition of
transparency. What I don't understand is
you were so kind to the state's attorney
as she sat here and told you we're
hiring these people. We need to do this.
I'm asking for the same kindness. You
keep saying we weren't we're not kind to
you. What? You're not kind to me. You're
not kind to me. I really do hope people
remember cuz she started election season
now. I mean it's we're still a year and
a half away. She's already announced
she's running. You have someone who I
mean, she's an English teacher who says
she doesn't like math, who has shown in
the in her career that she's not very
good with money. And she's playing games
with our money. Yes, she is. And that's
taxpayer money. It's not government's
money. It is our money. She's talking
about co-mingling funds here. Um, makes
it very difficult to do accurate cost
accounting that way. makes that shell
game very easy to play and that's not
transparency and she simply is not
negotiating with the council in good
faith when you play these kind of games.
We're talking about taxpayer money.
Don't play games with it. Do the right
thing. In Wakamaku County, we pay the
highest income tax rate, piggyback tax
that the state of Maryland allows. And I
I know there's no way the state of
Maryland's going to allow us to reduce
our income tax rate and still give us a
disparity grant. So, we're kind of we're
kind of stuck there. But given the fact
that we're all paying this high rate,
the one thing we do have in this county
is the revenue cap that keeps and and
even if you don't own property, it keeps
it down for businesses. It keeps it down
for renters. It it's a it it does find
its way into other parts of of the
community. But then when you have
someone who is willing to just play
games with the numbers, turn numbers out
18 months after or I'm sorry, 9 months
after a year ends and then also talk
about bonding one project to actually
pay for another. These are not things
that normal people would do. Well, it's
certainly not the the type of financial
practices that a conservative should
ever dream about. You know, busting the
revenue cap, trying to find a way to
raise our taxes. How is that
conservative? Well, since you brought up
the magic word, transparency. Yeah. I
want to get into transparency just for a
second. Sure. At the last council
meeting, I made a request in in the
public
comments that when the public goes
online to look at the county budget, it
is a 50page county budget. The county
council has a
242page budget to look at.
So the citizens are looking at 192 less
pages than the council members detail of
detail of where the money's being spent
and how it's going to be spent.
And when the finance director was asked
the possibility at next year that the
public be able to see the entire budget
that the council sees. Their response,
and this is the second time this
response has been used in the past
month, is the charter states that the
executive can present the budget in
whatever manner they choose to present
it. The presentation of administrative
costs that are part of a fund is um
allowed to be decided by the government.
And per our charter, it says the
executive is allowed to present the
budget in any form she he or she would
like, which means you're not going to
get to see it cuz they're not going to
give it to you. You're not going to get
to see all of it. And that's
transparency. It's the mushroom theory
of management. Keep you in the dark and
feed you a lot of them. Well, you know.
Yep. Well, and you know to taxpayers out
there who don't want to sit through
50page budget or a 242page budget, folks
like Jim are an asset to the community
that they'll go page through it. And if
you just go to the county council
meetings uh and listen to public
comments from someone like him or some
of the other folks and there's
definitely areas that all of us dive
into the details more than others,
you'll get a general sense of whether or
not your your your tax dollars are being
uh accounted for. I got the the the
impression that the council wanted to
see the whole budget posted. So they're
they decided not to. the council sent
the letter to the finance director and
the response was it's the executive
makes a decision how it's put out. So,
she's made this decision. They've made
the decision. Folks, we're going to need
you to remember not getting it. Yep.
This is this is a decision she's made.
Well, thank you both for coming out.
Thanks for covering this and uh we'll
we'll keep everybody up to date. The
plan is for them to approve the budget
at the second June meeting, but I'm sure
they're going to have more more
hearings. Thanks for watching this
segment of Open Agenda. We'll be right
back.
The upper ferry operates on the Wcomako
River and connects the west side of the
county on the peninsula between the
Nantacoke and Wcomamo rivers to Eden,
which is situated south of Fruitland,
thus bypassing the big city. The upper
ferry is one of two public ferry boat
operations on the Wycom River and is the
first place to cross the river south of
Salsbury. The upper ferry helps to
reduce traffic congestion near downtown
Ssbury where if not for the ferry, one
would have to cross the river on the
Route 50 or Fitzwwater Street draw
bridges. The ride across the river is
very short, only about 2 minutes, but
you'll be able to enjoy a pleasant view
while avoiding city traffic. The upper
ferry is a small vessel with a maximum
capacity of three cars, six passengers,
or 10,000 lb. The ferry boat runs along
a heavywire cable beneath the water
surface. So, if you're boating on the
Wcomo River near the upper ferry and you
see it underway, please come to a full
stop and wait because the cable is
pulled up to the surface as the ferry
boat cruises along and can snag your
outdrive or propeller, creating a
dangerous situation for both you and the
ferryboat alike. The ferryboat has the
right of way at all times and is
privileged under the inland navigation
rules as a vessel restricted in its
ability to maneuver which is visibly
indicated on the fair's mast head during
daylight hours by three vertically
aligned geometric black shapes depicting
a ball over a diamond over a ball. After
dark or in conditions of limited
visibility when the day shapes can't be
easily seen, you'll see three vertically
aligned lights on the mast head
configured as red over white over red.
Before your boat continues its journey
up or down the river, it's best to wait
until the ferry lands on either bank to
ensure everyone's safety. There's no
charged ride on the upper ferry, and it
runs 7 days per week year round, but is
closed on county holidays. The fair's
hours of operation are adjusted
seasonally, and there are times when the
boat is out of service for repairs or
when weather or river conditions cause
operations to be temporarily suspended.
So, it's always best to check the Wcomo
County Department of Public Works
website before leaving home or you can
call the Ferry hotline at
410-5432765 for a status report. This is
Mike Goldberg for Open Agenda.
I know what I'm doing, man.
