Top Posts 9-4-06 to 10-4-06

POST : VIEWS

Voting Results: 365
Ken Ulman’s Curriculum Vitae II: 263
Howard County Times Sample Ballot: 254
You think the District 5 Race is Tough: 200
Adams Endorses Livesay: 159
HoCo Times Political Ads: 155
Going Negative … Already Again!!! : 146
…I shall return UPDATED: 125
In Memorium Paul Rappaport: 111
Courtney Watson: 106
GOP Sample Ballot: 104

Courtney Watson

   Update10-4-06 at 2:30 PM: I really wasn’t trying to, but I seemed to strike a nerve.  A fellow blogger brought this to my attention.  The photo on the right has appeared on Courtney’s web site since I originally posted this on October 2nd.  It is photo number 70 and the newest photo on her site.  It is placed next to photo 35 (two away from Merdon) and between photo 46 and 35.  Here I was thinking no one was paying attention to me.  David Wissing thought it was worth noting.  Now I have a new question.  Why are there not photos of me?  Now, lets see if any show up ;=)

Update 10-4-06 at 7AM: I said it first.

From the Baltimore Sun

Democrat Angela Beltram, a former County Council member who led an unsuccessful effort to petition the omnibus zoning bill called Comp Lite to referendum, and Courtney Watson, a Democrat running for Merdon’s council seat in District 1, both attended Merdon’s news conference. Beltram said she probably would vote for Merdon.

Anyone have any idea why Courtney Watson is seen here (center of photo in purple) at Chris Merdon’t most recent press conference regarding his zoning initiative?  More to the point, why isn’t she going near the Ulman campaign?  Might as well ask, why wasn’t Ken Ulman at the press conference?  Tony Salazar, the GOP candidate for District One, is in the room too but he is out of camera shot – just in case you thought he was at an Ulman press confernence :=)

Jim Robey had nothing but praise for Courtney and said he would support her for any office that she decided to run for.  However, she seems conspicuously absent from the County Democrat’s main event.  Is she sending a message by being here?

Clearly Harry Dunbar was sending a message.  He attended the event and endorsed Chris Merdon for County Executive.  As expected Ken Ulman dismissed Mr. Dunbar’s endorsement as “expected” referencing that Mr. Dunbar supported Chris Merdon’s campaign for a second term on the County Council.   Mr. Ulman does not distinguish a couple of important facts in that 2002 general election, and the 2006 primary race.

• Mr. Merdon was a well qualified incumbent in 2002
• Mr. Merdon’s opponent was unable to get an effective campaign started
• Mr. Merdon was not running a county wide campaign
• Mr. Dunbar is a registerd Democrat and Mr. Ulman’s opponent in the Democratic primary.

If one takes a look at the photo gallery on her website one might note that their is not one photo of Courtney and Ken Ulman.  In fact their is no photo of Ken Ulman on her site at all.  However, you will find one of Chris Merdon.

I think this speaks volumes regarding Chris’ bi-partisan approach to government that he has apparantly won over Courtney Watson.  Please correct me if I am wrong.

I wonder how the Democratic constituency is going to take this in County Council District One, or is this an indicator of how the Howard County Democratic Party feels things are going for them in 2006.

COPE Candidate Forum Tonight

I can never make it to these events!!!!  I hope you can.

COPE – Citizens for an Open Process for Everyone is holding a Candidates’ Forum for County Executive and County Council/Zoning Board on:

Wednesday, October 4 at 7 pm
Ellicott City Senior Center on Frederick Road behind the Miller Library. 

COPE will concentrate on land use and zoning issues.  Four out of five of the County Council members will be new after the election; one of the Council members will have served for 6 months.  It is imperative that we know who we are voting for based on their consideration of our neighborhood concerns.

COPE was able to collect close to 8000 signatures because of the CompLite bill which permitted increased density; increased commercial in areas that were never meant to be rezoned and a disregard for older neighborhoods.
These signatures were collected in Columbia, Clarksville, Ellicott City, Elkridge and other parts of Howard County.  For you to know what the future holds for development here, please attend this meeting.  Angie Beltram

Print this and bring it with you.

We have responses from all 5 GOP council candidates, 2 Democrat council candidates, Steve Wallis and Chris Merdon.  Please ask Ken and Courtney, Mary Kay, and Calvin a couple of these questions, and ask why they didn’t respond to the bloggers forum.

Would someone also ask Ken to clear up the questions about his resume?
What was your title “Governor’s Director Board of Public Works” or “Liason, Board of Public Works”?
What were your responsibilities as “Secretary of the Cabinet?”  and “Does that mean you were a member of the Governor’s Council?”

A Plan for Growth

From the Baltimore Sun

I already said a lot on this subject.  Except this.

It is interesting that a number of Merdon’s proposals place additional burdens on current developers (further assessments, impact fees, paying for high density, panels to review infill, etc) while some accuse him of being in their pockets.

Also, it is interesting that Ulman and Wallis have nothing to say except claim Merdon is just full of election year promises yet they don’t criticize his ideas and they are not proposing anything of their own.

Merdon is putting forward his plan for Howard County.  That is what I would expect of a leader.

When I have interviewed for jobs that required leading teams of people do you know what I go into the interview with?

I go in with a 30/60/90/180 day plan.  That is management 101 folks.  Merdon is immersed in it as a businessman himself and in his role as an executive manager.

Before I didn’t go it with a 30/60/90/180 day plan and I didn’t get the promotion.  When I started to I started to move up the ladder.

Chris Merdon seems to understand something Mssrs. Wallis and Ulman do not.  This is a job interview.  The job is critical and the board of directors are anxious and wants to know that the person they choose to lead has the experience and a PLAN.

Also, I said it first.

Democrat Angela Beltram, a former County Council member who led an unsuccessful effort to petition the omnibus zoning bill called Comp Lite to referendum, and Courtney Watson, a Democrat running for Merdon’s council seat in District 1, both attended Merdon’s news conference. Beltram said she probably would vote for Merdon.

Comp Lite Notes

Interesting tidbit in this article.

As I have said earlier.  For comp-lite to have been legal the County Council should never have considered the 18 additiona properties that were not considered in comprehensive rezoning.  Those 18 properties should have gone through the piece meal route and proved that a substantial change had occurred or the zoning was wrong.

Well, it turns out that one of the properties did go that route.  Guess what happened?  They were denied.

From the Baltimore Sun:

To approve piecemeal rezoning, the board had to find that the character of the neighborhood had changed substantially, making existing zoning no longer viable, or that the council erred in not rezoning the land in 2004 as originally sought, or both.

On May 11, the Zoning Board voted, 3-1, to deny the piecemeal rezoning, saying that neither standard had been met. But in its formal and written decision and order, the board did not specify the reasons for the rejection. Instead, the board dismissed the matter, said it no longer had jurisdiction and that the case was moot.

What does this mean?  It means that COPE is right, Merdon is right, this blog is right, and so are the thousands of people who signed the referendum.  Comp-lite was a farce and was used by members of the County Council to get around strict county zoning laws and citizen participation in the process. 

To have included this property in comp-lite when it hadn’t been considered in comprehensive rezoning is bad enough.  But then to come back over 1 year later in a 3-1 decision they said they hadn’t met the piece meal standards basically says they knew 1 year previously that the property wouldn’t pass the piece meal test and tried to circumvent the process.

Yes I am talking about Guy Guzzone and Ken Ulman.

Why Are These Records Sealed?

Female officer’s lawsuit settled

In harassment case, Police Department called ‘locker room’

Isn’t this our police department and our $75,000 and what ever else we paid to defend the County in this law suit.

Why can’t we see the records?  This makes no sense to me, especially when the allegations are so alarming and so disputed.

I would think everyone would want the facts to come out.

Perhaps someone who knows a lot more about these things can enlighten me.