If you read the paper you know that people in Frederick County are roaring mad with decisions

made by the county commissioners that will affect their safety, health and welfare. And it s not just one bad decision but many of them. There is a clear pattern and plan to the actions taken by the current board. The goal is make it easier for developers and their friends to make money regardless of the consequences. This objective is cloaked in Tea Party rhetoric about big government hurting the common man, but in the end the working men and women of this county are getting steamrolled by the current Board. The process is beautifully orchestrated. First, the commissioners executed critical process changes to make it easier for Blaine Young to ram through whatever legislative changes his cronies want. This is followed by a few cheap shots designed to scare families with two working parents, and then a systematic dismantling of a series of hard earned taxpayer protections put in place over the past 5 years to make sure that the costs of economic growth are not all foisted on working families while developers and their friends skate off with all the benefits. Remember during the 2010 BOCC campaign when Blaine Young, Kirby Delauter and Billy Shreve inaccurately labeled local government officials as inept liberal spendthrifts who lacked consideration for the Frederick County citizens? Now elected, these commissioners are turning their backs on promises to voters, pandering to special interests, and unraveling laws aimed at making elected officials accountable to the public interest. The thoughtful and moral governance of the previous Gardner Board is now, sadly, scrapped in favor of a leaner, meaner government bent on cronyism.

Several cases in point.

In early December 2010 the new Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) agreed to change Roberts Rules (standard operating procedures used all over the nation) to allow BOCC president, Blaine Young to make a motion. Sounds insignificant, but it was critical. Normally, the chair cannot make a motion, which means that the chair cannot control the agenda and that other members of the board have to be educated on the issues enough to make motions and move things along. In practice, changes and decisions on key proposals happen in rapid fire succession and because BOCC members Delauter and Shreve are rarely educated or knowledgeable enough to craft a motion, failing to change the rules would have made it much more difficult to move the developers agendas. Blaine Young, in contrast, is knowledgeable and can make the motion knowing that Delauter and Shreve will vote in his favor. With the rules changed, he can propose changes that favor special interests, follow the game plan devised by his land use attorney network and he is guaranteed two votes from Delauter and Shreve. Public discussion, background study and your tax dollars be damned.

 In early 2011 the Young Board declared Frederick County s ethics ordinance too onerous and tried to repeal it. The public rebounded with vengeance saying ethics are a good thing and necessary to prevent public corruption. For example, Frederick County government entered into 3 contracts with Commissioner Delauter s private construction firm since he was sworn in; those contracts are under investigation by the Frederick County Ethics Board. Ethics policies are a good thing to prevent corruption! In February the new BOCC majority moved ahead with changing the form of government in Frederick County. Why? To consolidate power. The goal: to install a county executive form of government with Blaine Young as County Executive. Plain and simple. The irony is that this form of government will raise taxes, cost far more than the current government, create duplication of offices and departments with one for the executive and one for the board, and in general make things more expensive yet harder for citizens to engage, and much easier for developers and the lobbyists to manipulate. The Young Board slashed Head Start, decrying a $23 million shortfall. In reality there was an $11 million surplus and drastic cuts were absolutely unnecessary. Cutting Head Start, cutting support housing and the Religious Coalition and firing county employees when revenues are up shows outrageous disrespect for hardworking, taxpaying, county residents who depend upon the BOCC to protect their interests. Head Start employees now make a fraction of what they were paid before, many struggle to get by. The Young Board has begun to privatize our local government. The BOCC is on an ideological vendetta that switches the entire framework of our county government to the private sector. Privatization means that Blaine Young and his Board are now free to funnel taxpayer money to their good old boy network through contracts and outsourcing. Who pays? We do. Outsourcing government jobs will wreak havoc on residents who live and work here for our local government. These are the people who ensure our quality of life and service our community and deserve our support not a kick in the rear in favor of outsider interests. And then just last week the BOCC voted to override the current ordinance that protects our public schools from overcrowding and replace it with a developer funded (and controlled) school construction fee option. What are the odds that the developers supported a plan that truly guarantees adequate schools for our children when big development projects overwhelm them? Those are the rules we had in place. You can be certain that the developer s new ideas will shortchange your kids. Commissioner Young is now turning his energies to fostering more sprawl and traffic gridlock in Frederick County by spackling over our long range growth plan. The 20-year comprehensive plan was thoughtfully executed by the Gardner board, with input from Frederick County residents, landowners, and other key stakeholders often shut out of the rezoning process. The bipartisan plan was developed over 2 years with hundreds of public meetings in a transparent process. It was a masterpiece, fair and balanced, as Blaine s favorite, Fox News would say. It focused our development in growth areas where county services were affordable, it favored job growth in a diversity of sectors (and not just

construction) and made great strides at protecting the land values across the board. Blaine Young s campaign promise was to consider changing a handful of zoning on properties he felt unfairly altered. Last month Commissioner Young invited rezoning applications; as of July 15 there were over 200 applications. Hardly a handful! Rezoning will allow more housing development, increased traffic, overcrowded schools, overtaxed water and sewer and increased taxes to provide additional services for new residents. The new BOCC is pushing forward with an executive form of government in Frederick County, another move by the Young Board for unchecked rule and decision over how our tax dollars are spent. The citizen push to vote on the next charter board was a cry for greater democracy at a time when our voices are drowned out with falsehoods and power mongering. While Blaine s Charter Writing Committee is working hard to appear transparent and make friends around the county, we know this is his PR charm fully engaged to market how his proposed changes will benefit all of us. I don t trust there will by any benefits to my family, my friends or any of you who aren t in the ring of power .

Blaine Young and his cronies are having a field day at the expense of county citizens. They know exactly what they are doing and it has nothing to do with protecting the interests of the average taxpayer or retaining a high quality of life for county residents. But you do have to hand it to him, he was elected by developers and special interests, and piece by piece he is delivering the entire county to them on a silver platter. Janice Wiles, Frederick County citizen