Barrie Tilghman, PooGate, and Putting Lipstick On That $80+ Million Pig

We’ve Heard All This Before

“Ahead of schedule and under budget.”  How many times have we heard outgoing Salisbury Mayor Barrie Tilghman and her ace partner-in-crime Gary Comegys make that claim regarding the city’s new waste water treatment plant (WWTP)?  Unfortunately for the water and sewer ratepayers (and possibly the city’s property tax payers), the facts are starting to “leak” out.

I’m reminded when SbyNEWS‘s Joe Albero revealed to the public that Salisbury was operating an illegal sludge lagoon at the WWTP.  First, the Queen of Barrieland denied it.  As pictures kept coming, she admitted that the lagoon was there, but everything was legal.  When the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) came forward and said that the city did not have a permit for it, Tilghman said that it was a minor technicality and that it wouldn’t cost the taxpayers a dime.  Finally, Salisbury citizens had to pony up for a nice fine.

It all started Monday morning with Councilwoman Debbie Campbell’s appearance on WICO‘s Bill Reddish show.  Reddish asked about the problems with WWTP and gave Reddish some straight answers.  This was followed by Campbell posting correspondence from city administrator John Pick on her own website.  This was followed by a scathing story on SbyNEWS.

Tilghman couldn’t run.  She couldn’t hide.  So what did Barrie do?  She blamed someone else.

It’s Those Dirty, Rotten Bloggers

Contrary to popular opinion, Barrie Tilghman isn’t stupid.  However, Tilghman possesses a limited number of tricks in her shabby little bag.  I’m reminded of a line from the movie The Hunt for Red October, when Jonesy tries to explain an anomaly in the USS Dallas’ sonar:

When it gets lost, it runs home to Momma.

To Tilghman, “Momma” is “those dirty, rotten bloggers”.

Tilghman believes she has scored points in the past by attacking “the blogs”, particularly Joe Albero.  Unfortunately for Tilghman, Albero has evened out his tone over the last few years.  Plus, Tilghman appeared to be reluctant to attack “bloggers” since her own son wrote for one.  But seeing her tenure end on such a bad note, and possibly destroying the candidacy of her chosen successor Gary Comegys, Tilghman has decided to “run home to Momma”.

She did so by blaming “bloggers” for printing “privileged” information that was “leaked” by two members of the city council.  Tilghman thought that she had hit a home run.  She smeared councilwomen Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen with false statements and she got to kick Joe Albero with his grandson sitting in the room.  With Laura D’Alessandro of the Daily Times faithfully taking dictation, Tilghman actually believed that the ball would leave the park.

There were just a few problems.  Cohen had nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, to do with the information getting out.  Campbell readily admits to discussing the subject on WICO with Bill Reddish.  She readily admits posting a series of emails from city administrator John Pick on her own website.  She may have even given the information directly to Albero (or he could have gotten from Campbell’s website).  What Campbell DID NOT DO was violate privilege.

Examine the correspondence yourself.  If you find the terms “Privileged” or “Confidential” stamped anywhere on them, please correct me.  When asked, Tilghman claimed that city attorney Paul Wilber had instructed the council members that all information about this matter was privileged.  However when asked directly, Wilber refused to answer.  It wouldn’t matter anyway.  Tilghman and her dirty little crew have always been very diligent about hiding information from the public by claiming that anything, everything, could be potentially litigated and therefore was “privileged”.  If Wilber and Pick neglected to mark there correspondence as such, the blame lies with them.

So Barrie.  The info didn’t come to light from a blog.  It wasn’t marked “privileged”.  Terry Cohen had no involvement in this matter.  How many more fish stories are you going to tell?

“Substantially Complete” and “99% In Compliance”

Remember my initial question?  How many times have you heard Barrie Comegys tell us that the WWTP was “ahead of schedule and under budget”?

The plant was supposed to be complete and running last year.  It’s not.  Is that “ahead of schedule”?

Given all of the change orders I’m pretty skeptical about the plant being “under budget” as well.  Now that the engineer’s contract is suspended and Tilghman has brought in a new consultant it really doesn’t look too good.

Tilghman stated that the plant is “substanially complete” and “99% in compliance”.  I’m sure that it will sound good in the Daily Times, but think about it for a moment.  Since the primary purpose given for constructing this comedy of errors has been to bring nutrient levels down to a particular level, “99% in compliance” really doesn’t cut it.  Either Salisbury needs this facility or it doesn’t.  Therefore, being “substantially complete” just isn’t a substitute for “complete”.

While Tilghman let it slip yesterday that she would have never told the public about this EXCEPT for it coming to light (thanks to the efforts of others), I anxiously await each coming day’s new spin … each day’s new story.  As I put this post to bed I await the latest fiction from the Daily Times.  I wouldn’t be at all surprised that before April 7th we’ll be reading that Tilghman, Comegys, et al did everything they could to stop that evil Debbie Campbell and that vicious Terry Cohen from pawning this disaster off on the city’s ratepayers.  It won’t matter that neither had yet been elected to office when the Queen of Barrieland and her court jesters decided to go with an $80+ million pig in a poke.

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