Back To Ridgely -- The Carraige House Is Saved At No Expense To Taxpayers, The Growing Ridgely Budget Mess, And Thursday's Closed Budget Meeting

Monday night Buck Herzog's carriage house was saved and will be moved temporarily to Carol Dorr's property. NO RIDGELY TAX MONEY WILL USED TO MOVE IT. THE DEVELOPER WILL PAY THE MOVER DIRECTLY. Thanks to Commissioner Smith and former Commissioner Gearhart for all their hard work to save the carriage house and save expense to the Ridgely taxpayers. Thanks to Commissioner Hunter for having the common sense to vote for the authorization to proceed.

Meanwhile, the Ridgely financial fiasco is growing. No one likes to place blame, but it is very necessary because someone is going to have to pay for the mess we are in. The Ridgely financial fiasco could have been avoided. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE WORLD FINANCIAL MARKET MELTDOWN. RIDGELY HAS LED THE WAY!

Do you want the newest numbers? According to the Town Manager himself (October 20th workshop), there has been $178,000.00 added to the already existing deficit. Despite MANY warnings to the contrary, the town administration spent money from developers that it did not have. There is no restraint on all kinds of spending. Where else have employees filled the tanks of the town cars they take home without accountability? Where else does a town not own an employee time clock? Where else does a town pay for what developers failed to do in a development? The bill from Lister Estates keeps growing and growing. The Town Manager's explanation that the cause for our problems was the trash fee removal and no tax increases, he's wrong. (Hmm...anyhow, I seem to recall that the "budget" flyer proclaiming "no new taxes" was kind of popular with some of the Town Manager's friends last town election.) There is no excuse. THE HIGHER HOME TAX ASSESSMENTS BROUGHT IN A HUGE INCREASE IN REVENUE. For us to be in such debt, clearly, somebody isn't doing their job on behalf of the Ridgley taxpayers.

Commissioner Hunter said at the October town meeting that this is the Commissioners fault. Sorry Chuck, I'm going to have to let you off the hook on this one. YOU AND ALL THE OTHER COMMISSIONERS PASSED BALANCED BUDGETS. HOWEVER, YOUR BUDGETS WEREN'T ADHERED TO. I think two of the Commissioners don't want to deal with reality. IF POSSIBLE, the simplest solution would be for the Town Manager to admit what's wrong, ISSUE A HEART FELT mea culpa, and come up with a plan that puts the Ridgely residents first. What is unacceptable is for business as usual to continue and we the residents foot the bill. Someone will have to pay. The red ink will not magically disappear. Do we keep on the wasteful way we've been going, or do we change? Do we increase our tax bills and water bills, or do we change the way the town administration does business? The town must stop it's wasteful spending instead!

Finally, Monday night it was announced at the town meeting that there will be a closed budget meeting this Thursday. This action will violate the Maryland Open Meetings Act. THE WHOLE MEETING CAN'T BE CLOSED. ONLY A PORTION CAN BE CLOSED TO DEAL WITH SPECIFIC PERSONNEL MATTERS OF A PERSONAL NATURE. More Fundamentally, why should a small town meeting be closed anyhow? At a national level, meetings are closed for national security reasons. However, it's not exactly like our Town Manager is fighting Al Qaeda here. Closed meetings will only increase growing citizen suspicions about the town administration. This is a Budget meeting and BUDGETS ARE PUBLIC INFORMATION. IT'S TAXPAYER MONEY AND WE HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW HOW IT'S SPENT. We also need to know who is going to have their wages frozen and who may even be laid off. Loyal long term Ridgely town employees should not be victims of this fiscal failure. Services that benefit Ridgely residents should not be cut, and back door tax increases such as even higher town service fees should not be instituted. Stop the waste and start being accountable with the people's money. If layoffs and salary cuts are needed, the place to start is at the top. The town administration should never have allowed this to happen.