|
Mr.
Howard presented to the Board a "Overview,"
and "
Initial Findings & Discussion Points to
engage the public" documents/presentations, which also a pre-written draft of "By
Laws". Hi ambition was to craftily slip his "personal" group's plans into
Carroll County government. On December 11, 2014, he requested that the Board make
"Carroll 2030 and Beyond" an official body, to be designated
a "Council" made up of "clusters". Had the Board
approved "2030", consequential decisions involving spending, regulations,
and deal-making, would have been managed by un-elected and unaccountable
people - completely contrary to the public's rightful form of
government.
"Howard's 2030" purported to address
needs within our County, yet each of those activities are already within
the purview of those in elected and employed positions under State law,
regulations, and/or County Code. Removing
government from The People not only circumvents lawful process—it is
not even necessary!
"Conflict of interest" and
using "prestige of office" are serious ethics issues, and
ought to be considered when looking into the history and process of
"2030". We invite all citizens to read those sections of Title
III Chapter 34 Carroll County's Ethics Code.
- Through his stealthy political
craftmans-ship, Mr. Howard was also eligible to vote on his own
"personal idea" as a Board member. He is one of five
commissioners whose vote would have decided for or against a
non-public transformation of Carroll's government into “Council” government.
- Mr.Steven Wantz, a sitting
commissioner has been a long time participant in Howard's "2030 workgroup."
In addition to receiving a $2,500 campaign contribution from the International
Association of Firefighters, on Dec. 23rd in Open Session,
regarding "2030, Mr. Wantz said that he had reached out "to fourteen fire
companies in fourteen different locations in Carroll County speaking
to thousands of people about "2030" during his campaign.
Not only did he use Howard's "private" non-public workgroup for political
gain, he was then elected and put in a position to vote on it - a most
questionable ethics issue.
Indeed, an additional three
Commissioners who would have been voting on this action took influence
campaign contributions from the MD State Teacher's union - considering
that over $ 330 million of our property taxes are issued to the MD.
Board of Education, one can quickly realize that this sort of influence
money should be at least ethically questionable.
|
|
There are two "2030"
Slideshows presented to the Board of Commissioners below for
review. Upon comparing the two shows, differences are readily noticeable. The day that Slideshow 2 was presented, each
Carroll County Commissioner was given a packet containing
documents. Those documents even included a "draft
By Laws," and both slideshow printouts as the work product of
"Carroll 2030". In comparing these two slide shows one
can readily notice efforts to invoke a new "Council",
work of which which had never been available to scrutiny or public participation according to
law - satisfying the requirements of The Open
Meetings Act; nor was any of this "private workgroup" authorized by our rightful Executive
Board. Unfortunately, it is quite possible that those unauthorized
activities continue under the charming name of "Economic
Development" deficit spending, a burden on the future income of our
children, children's children and great-grandchildren.
|
