It has never been a secret that I personally did not support Giordano for County Executive and I expressed my opinion during the election season stating she had zero experience. My opinion never had anything to do personally against Julie but as a business man I have personally dealt with politicians on a business level in Maryland ever since Paris Glendenning and every Governor since.
That being said, allow me to express MY personal opinion as to why I’d recommend voting YES on Question A.
Several years ago the Council amended their legislation stating the County Executive had to live in Wicomico County for a minimum of 5 years. I was firmly against such a thing as I felt it was a conflict of interest and simply served the “Good Ol’ Boys”. To top it off, just look at the actual candidates we had this last election. One candidate wouldn’t get off their rear end to campaign while the other worked their rear end off to get elected. The voters chose the best of two evils and only a select few will deny that. What I mean by two evils simply means citizens elected someone completely unqualified. With all due respect to school teachers, Julie had zero business experience.
While I’m sure some will argue some of my points so far, allow me to close my feelings as to why I strongly would vote for Question A. Removing the County Executive would not only save the County millions of dollars, it would recreate the County Administrator position. What this means is the County can then do a national search for SOMEONE WITH EXPERIENCE, SOMEONE QUALIFIED.
It allows the opportunity to rid of the living in the county for the past 5 years. For those of you thinking well maybe Joe is saying this so he can run, not at all. Bottom line, I am financially secure, I’ve dedicated the past 20 years with SBYNews at my own expense, I have a store I love running and I have no interest in any political position. So now we can get that out of the way.
What I’d like to add is, do we have qualified people on a local level that could do a great job as County Executive, absolutely. Sandy Fitzgerald would be a perfect example and there are others. However, They’re not going to give up their businesses/income simply to run the county.
So what does a national search do. Well there are people like me who were/are fortunate enough to retire at a young age. Sandy Fitzgerald moved here to the Shore, so did I and there are tons of others who thought, this is where I want to live out the rest of our lives. The Shore is an ideal place for other retired executives to consider the same but as many of us realize after a short time in retirement we still have many miles left in our engines and could serve the community as qualified individuals to run a big business.
That being considered I personally think it would be exciting to reach out nation wide and bring in a qualified individual who would simply have everyone’s best interest and not a “Good Ol’ Boy”. Expand your horizon people, think out of the box. I am not against Julie, she just isn’t qualified.
A County Administrator once hired into that position should have to live in the County they serve. Their ideas, concepts, decisions, experience should effect them as much as the people they serve.
Yet you don’t live in the county.
I am sure your answer will be the thrift store, which is more of a hobby. So the impact is minimal.
Now hold your horses there fella. I own quite a few properties in the county and should have every right to my OPINION on this matter. I’ll leave it at that. As for my hobby, I have made very expensive investments into Wicomico County over the past 30 years, including my most recent purchase of the store. I have taken risks far greater then you and most people that you know. Yeah I’m confident others have risked more but for my age I’d say I’ve simply invested heavily and since I have SBYNews for a purpose as well I have every right to my opinion. Thanks for your comment though.
At a minimum, Queen Julie has shown that she is unqualified and wants full power. Her lack of personal integrity clashes with the Council-member’s personal agenda – causing the publicly viewable strife.
My opinion – first step; Update the Charter to clearly delineate the roles, responsibilities, and processes. Next step; Term-Limits for the Executive and Council…this will cause a refresh to the council and get rid of long-standing agenda and power-seeking for the specific members. Next-step; elect a fresh batch of council members and executive with the County and its’ citizens as the priority.
The first step requires council action so it can probably only happen after election of a post-term-limited council.
At this point, fresh personalities will be in play to properly execute the Checks-and-Balances these positions are intended to function under. Failure at this point would then point to removal of the executive position as the last resort.
Term limits are an empty solution…you are just trading out one group of crooks for a fresher batch. Voting FOR the amendment is a good start because it means this position won’t ever be used to threaten citizens and rob tax payers at this level….after that, we can also push to reform the council and other county policies…
We forgot to add in updating the charter to include sanctions for violations – up to and including reversal of actions and removal from office!
These statements did not help with my decision how to vote. How does it save millions of dollars to eliminate the position? Why not let voters vote her out It sounds like people don’t like her. Would everyone be OK if it was someone you like in the position?
The whole reason I’m posting the information on this matter is in fact to let people know BOTH SIDES. It is not because I AM FOR ONE SIDE OR THEM OTHER. My job here, unlike other news sources is to provide and avenue for discussion.