Despotism Returns to Salisbury

When elected officials waste your tax dollars your recourse is limited.  You can complain.  You can lobby your officials.  Ultimately, you can vote those persons out in the next election.  One of the wonders of our great nation is our willingness and ability to replace politicians with the ballot rather than the bullet.

Sadly, there are instances in our local, state, and federal governments when officials steal from the taxpayer – either through embezzlement or spending public monies that are not lawfully appropriated.  Do we resort to the bullet?  Of course not.  This is America; that’s what prisons are for.

During the fascist regime of the former Queen of Barrieland, Salisbury taxpayers witnessed a constant, and consistent, stream of spending public funds without lawful appropriations.  When current Salisbury mayor Jim Ireton ran for his present post he promised voters that this type of behavior would not be repeated under an Ireton regime.  Sadly, this has proven NOT to be the case.

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Ireton Vetoes Lake Street Land Deal

Salisbury mayor Jim Ireton exercised his first veto today, by returning a resolution to “accept” environmentally damaged land fronting Lake Street and the North Prong of the Wicomico River.  For this action, Ireton deserves kudos.

However, beneath this issue lies a problem that is equally as serious as putting the taxpayers on the hook for an environmental mess of unknown magnitude.  This matter involves City Attorney Paul Wilber.  As noted in SbyNEWS, Wilber has had no problem with his lord and master (former mayor Barrie Tilghman) vetoing resolutions.  However, the city charter is pretty clear.  Resolutions do not require the mayor’s signature.  According to the Tilghman Times, Wilber has invented a power that gives him the power to decide whether or not a resolution is meaningful enough to require mayoral approval:

… Wilber said only resolutions which relate to significant action may be overridden. Recognition as significant city business is an opinion by the city attorney made on a case by case basis due to vague language in the city charter, Wilber said.

Given Wilber’s approach to interpreting law, I’m surprised that the Obama administration hasn’t nominated him for a federal judgeship.

 

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Jim Ireton, Photo Opps, and Jonathan Taylor

“There’s a statistical theory that if you gave a million monkeys typewriters and set them to work, they’d eventually come up with the complete works of Shakespeare. Thanks to the Internet, we now know this isn’t true.” – Ian Hart

It was, however, almost inevitable that Jonathan Taylor would eventually write something that was semi-literate AND that most reasonable individuals (at least those in Salisbury and its environs) would agree with.

Taylor argues that Salisbury mayor Jim Ireton is wasting taxpayer money by requiring department heads to attend press conferences.  IF Ireton is requiring the presence of these department heads, I agree wholeheartedly.  The only reason I say IF is because I don’t know that he is; but, like Taylor, I suspect it.

Ironically, Taylor seems to only take umbrage with city department heads taking part in events supporting entities which he doesn’t like, such as Urban Salisbury.  He certainly didn’t express any problem with almost all of the third floor city payroll showing up to the police station on Thursday.  That’s OK, because SPD chief Allan Webster is Taylor’s hero.

 

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Jim Ireton and Staff Need to Watch Their Step

Salisbury mayor Jim Ireton needs to do two things soon:

• Get someone to teach him how to handle the press
• Have a long sit down with his city attorney and have the confidentiality of personnel matters explained to him.

After two days of bad reporting by the Daily Times, the one person who looks the worst in this matter is Ireton.  Starting with Friday’s claim:

… Mayor Jim Ireton said earlier Thursday the document does not exist.

"I’m not getting in the middle of Terry Cohen, Debbie Campbell and The Daily Times," Ireton said. "I don’t have anything to do with it."

Jim, never tell a reporter that “nothing exists”.  Don’t even deny the existence of little green men from Mars.  Try something like, “To the best of my knowledge…”.

 

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Salisbury Ethics Commission Show Trial

Displaying the cowardice to be expected of someone who attacks children, Barrie Comegys stooge Jonathan Taylor failed to show up for the Salisbury Ethics Commission show trial precipitated by his own actions.  While thousands of taxpayer dollars were wasted in this spiteful and ridiculous action, Taylor (who already lives on the generosity of taxpayers) hid from view while Barrie Comegys stalwart Lynn Cathcart was on hand to take notes for the wannbe “Powers That Be”.

To be fair, the Ethics Commission ran a fairly clean meeting.  The attending members:  Donna Forgash, Norman Lyster, Bob Gladden, and Fran Kane all asked valid, thoughtful, and polite questions.

While several people at the hearing asked the same question, “What the hell are we doing here?”, the Ethics Commission serves a theoretically important role.  It has been suggested that the board should have examined the complaint prior to today’s hearing and ruled that it was frivolous.  However, if a complaint had been filed against Barrie Tilghman, Mike Dunn, Gary Comegys, or Louise Smith and the Commission had done so (ruled it frivolous in a private meeting) I would be one of the first to scream fraud and cover-up;  so would many of the same people asking that question today.

Was the complaint frivolous?  It turns out that it was.  Councilwoman Terry Cohen made a presentation that not only proved the claim specious, but shamed City Solicitor Paul Wilber for his complete incompetence on these matters.  While not named specifically today, Cohen also proved Councilman Gary Comegys to be a liar, a fool, or both.  You’ll have to decide.
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PooGate Continues … Why Doesn’t Barrie Tilghman Want to Save Money?

PooGate Continues …

In the wake of Monday’s news that the city’s new waste water treatment plant (WWTP) may be an $80+ milliion white elephant, new facts come to light that raise far more questions than provide answers.  It appears that Salisbury Mayor Barrie Tilghman holds the city’s taxpayers and ratepayers with less regard than even I thought … or that even then Tilghman was trying to hide the truth about the WWTP from the public.

Citizens need to think back about a year when Tilghman and her rubber stamp council majority of mayoral candidate Gary Comegys, Shanie Shields and puppet-in-chief Louise Smith voted to hit water and sewer ratepayers with an increase of 50% spread over several years.  We have learned that prior to this the Tilghman administration was contacted by a company offering their services in managing the city’s WWTP.  That company SPECIFICALLY mentioned the proposed rate increases and offered its services with the expectation of saving ratepayers money.
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The PAC-14 Debate Continues

The debate over PAC-14 continues.  The only question that remains is whether or not the Wicomico County government will kowtow to the wishes of Salisbury University and continue to hand over tax dollars without any oversight.

Saturday, the Daily Times published an article describing the current state of PAC-14 fiasco.  From Greg Latshaw’s piece we can surmise that the Barrie Tilghman administration is in lock-step with SU in their desire to hand over hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to a self-perpetuating board that has no responsibility to the taxpayers and will receive no oversight.  Despite the fact that both the city and county attorneys agree that the current board (one whose majority is appointed by the Salisbury and Wicomico governments) is the true governing body of PAC-14, Salisbury City Administrator John Pick claims:

However, City Administrator John Pick said the board of directors “basically doesn’t exist,” because it was appointed as an interim board.

“Rather than having a board, which is a step down or two from the real authority of the city, county and Salisbury University, we should get together without them,” Pick said.

As a key member of the Tilghman administration, Pick has never been particularly concerned with the truth; only with doing the bidding of his master.  Note that Pick claims that the board “basically doesn’t exist” despite the fact that both the Salisbury and Wicomico County governments have adopted the by-laws, thereby making the current articles and by-laws the governing documents of PAC-14.  Pick also states that “we should get together without them (the board)”.  That’s pretty funny John.  You HAVE been getting together without them for over a year.  Of course, truth is merely a convenience with the Tilghman administration.

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The PAC-14 Fiasco – Part V…

… Should Ratepayers and Taxpayers Fund an Organization With No Accountability?

NO! NO! NO! Is that clear enough for everyone?

Does that mean that the public shouldn’t fund PAC-14? Of course not. Since certain people like to accuse Delmarva Dealings and similar venues of only focusing on the negative, our fifth and final installment focuses on positive solutions to solve this problem.

Bring In Some Sunshine

Before either the Salisbury Council or Wicomico County Council should even consider voting on this issue, several things need to occur. The first is to open up the process.

A public meeting should be held in the evening to allow all interested parties the opportunity to hear the proposed plan and to ask questions. ALL parties responsible for this fiasco need to be in attendance. That includes Betty Crockett, Jerry Waldron, John Pick, Louise Smith, Barrie Tilghman, Rick Pollitt, John Cannon, Ted Shea, Mike Goodson, the representative of the Buske Group, and of course Mike Pretl and any member of the “Transitional Task Force” that wants to attend. Of course the meeting should be televised on PAC-14.

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The PAC-14 Fiasco – Part IV…

… Why Do They Refuse to Answer Any Questions?

I’m going to start with the short answer –

Because they don’t want you to find out what they are doing!

But don’t stop there. You’ve been patient since Monday. Today is when we finally get to the real meat and potatoes of what Mike Pretl, Betty Crockett, Phil Tilghman, Jerry Waldron, John Pick and their merry band of pranksters have planned for OUR public access channel – PAC-14.

Today’s post is long. So pour a cup and sit back.

Today we’re going to look into:

• What’s the Agenda?

• Who Will Control the new, but not improved, PAC-14?

• How Will They Control It?

• How Will This Harm Me?

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The PAC-14 Fiasco – Part III…

… Why Are They Meeting In Secret?

Do you want the short answer?

BECAUSE THEY’RE HIDING THINGS!

OK, now you can stop reading and go finish your coffee. OR… you can stick around and try to find out who’s hiding what.

First, we need to dispense with the question of whether or not they really are meeting secretly.  The answer is ABSOLUTELY!

What’s unfortunate is that some, maybe most, of the participants don’t even realize that the public is being kept away from these meetings. It is only a few that are adamant in keeping outsiders at bay.

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