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Lawmaker's Facebook Rant Threatens Media For "Unauthorized" Use of His Name
An anonymous reader points out that Frederick County Councilman Kirby Delauter may be in need of a First Amendment lesson. "Apparently, a local Maryland politician ditched his civics class the day press freedoms were discussed. How else to explain Frederick County Councilman Kirby Delauter's recent Facebook rant in which he threatened a local newspaper with litigation because—wait for it—his name was used in print without his permission. 'Use my name again unauthorized and you'll be paying for an Attorney. Your rights stop where mine start,' Kirby Delauter, the councilman, posted on his Facebook page. He added: 'So let me be clear.........do not contact me and do not use my name or reference me in an authorized form in the future.'"
I live in Frederick Co. and these news outfits should really dig more deeply. There's a whole lot more to Kirby Delauter than just this one outburst. He's part of a group of disaffected commissioners angry at not getting his way when the county government moved from home rule to charter form.
As I recall, Kirby has also: ...and more.. way way more..
1. Ignored an Ethics commission ruling that barred his construction company from doing work for the county.
2. Violated MD's Open Meetings law (possibly on more than one occasion).
3. Voted for 25yr contracts for developers to give them land development rights without the developers putting any money into adequate roads, schools, etc.
His recent anger was sparked in part because in the previous form of county government, 3 top level republicans managed to have a solidified voting block for whatever they wanted. One of those 3 (Blaine Young) was voted out in the past election. Just prior to Blaine's departure Blaine resigned from his spot on the planning commission and then was placed back onto the planning commission by vote of the commissioners. This was thought to be something that couldn't be stopped; however, the MD AG stated that Blaine had not resigned his position as commissioner (only his position on the planning commission) as as such he couldn't be placed back onto the commission as he was ineligible. Since Blaine had close to 1M in developer dollars to (probably) pay back in favors, it's likely this angered the republican constituency very much.
When the form of government moved to the charter form, it was assumed by the republicans that Shreve would take the president spot but the democrats did something the republicans appeared to not expect, they voted for a much more moderate republican to be president of the county commissioners.
Angered by this slight to his long-time republican cohort (Shreve), Delauter has been rather angry of late.
Shreve and Delauter blame the FNP (Frederick News Post) for having a very liberal bias that cost Blaine his position and Shreve the presidency of the commission. As such, the outburst was primed to happen.
So yeah, welcome to our local politics. If our local sheriff weren't such an utter useless waste of skin then perhaps we'd get an investigation into possible wrongdoing with regards to violations of law but "Chuckles" is a worthless bag of skin that feels much more at home teaching his deputies how to choke to death mentally impaired people.
(That's a whole different story... another one in which it appears the prosecutor only provided evidence to a grand jury (evidence provided by the sheriff's office about sheriff's deputies) that was likely to exonerate deputies instead of any that was inculpatory as well.)
I like living here.. but in a lot of ways this county sucks. If I wasn't painfully aware that no place is perfect, I'd sell my house and move.
Also a resident here, echoing what you've said (Otis is president of the county "council" not commissioners).
Another item of detail I seem to recall, is at least one of those DRRA's - sweetheart giveaways to the suburban neighborhood developers - is being built on top of farmland which is part of a watershed where development is strongly discouraged due to pollution and runoff concerns for the Frederick City's watershed. The previous county commissioner administration showed a completely shameless lack of concern for environmental sustainability.
In addition, they voted "Maintenance of Effort" level funding, meaning the $$ never changed, for the Frederick County Public Schools all 4 years in office. No raises for the teachers, cut personnel to keep the lights on, etc.
From what I recall it was a party of "4 stooges" who ran together like a platform, and 1 dissenting (Republican) named David Gray who constantly challenged the others' votes but was obviously outnumbered. He ran against Blaine Young in the Republican primary for County Executive but lost. I guess you could consider him a more "old guard" style of republican.
The four "stooges" included Blaine Young, Kirby Delauter, Billy Shreve and Paul Smith. The lone dissenting voice was David Gray.
Later on around election time I saw an article from one of Kirby's daughters, Emily Delauter, on the FNP talking about how his father "highly values" education. Yeah, right. http://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/delauter-always-valued-education/article_8bb824ac-5512-538e-a4f7-cb171bde638f.html
And I was quite relieved when I found Jan Gardner [D] was voted in for County Executive. I can't fathom the nightmarish politics this county would face with 4 more years of Blaine and friends.
I hear that he almost certainly did not murder a hooker in Las Vegas in '02.
I mean, I can't be certain. I have no first-hand knowledge. But I'll certainly concede, and strongly support even, that Frederick County Councilman Kirby Delauter almost certainly never murdered a hooker in Las Vegas in 2002.
I'm virtually sure of it.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.