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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Gary Comegys, A Synonym for Foolishness; Shanie Shields, A Synonym for Hypocrisy

The latest edition of the Merriam-Webster Political Dictionary is out and Salisbury is shamed by multiple entries. This morning's Daily Times shows why.

It appears that Salisbury Councilwomen Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen have begun distributing a newsletter and have set up a website. Kudos to them for wanting to reach out to their constituents. Of course this doesn't sit too well with two of their colleagues on the Salisbury Council.

Councilwoman Shanie Shields, the council's great orator and Tilghman administration house intellectual ("I ain't never seen no wasteful government spending") doesn't think too highly of Campbell and Cohen's efforts:
"To me, this is not being a team," said Councilwoman Shanie Shields, who once put out a minority newsletter with County Councilwoman Sheree Sample-Hughes. "Nobody knew anything about it. To me, it's a personal agenda."
As the Daily Times points out, Shields has been "guilty" of the same offense. In the past, County Councilwoman Sheree Sample-Hughes has offered Shields space on her newsletter. We have consistently applauded Sample-Hughes for her efforts to reach out to her constituents through newsletters and quarterly meetings. Perhaps Shields is upset because Campbell and Cohen didn't offer to put her name up there with their own. Perhaps Shields wants to approve all of the content prior to publication?

We can also see why Salisbury Councilman Gary Comegys is included under "foolishness":
"I find it ironic Terry and Debbie have the time to do a blog, but not to do real solutions for the community," Comegys said.
Such a comment is particularly sad in light of Comegys' own recent comments regarding the city's audit and the disgraceful state of the Tilghman administration's financial management of the Salisbury government.

In December, 2007 Comegys was toeing the Barrieland line by claiming that "this audit thang (sic) has been blown out of proportion". That's right Gary. Misplacing over $10 million of taxpayer money is nothing to worry about.

At the same meeting Comegys incorrectly stated that the city was balancing (reconciling) its accounts. Of course that hasn't been true for years.

At the council's last work session, which was to design solutions to some of the city's financial management problems Comegys left the meeting early and Councilwoman Louise Smith cut the meeting short rather than seek real solutions without the Tilghman administration marionette there to pull her strings. Perhaps Comegys should worry about his own time management skills rather than worrying about Campbell's and Cohen's.

"Real solutions for the community"? Come on Gary. What have your real solutions been? A triple subsidy to the old mall developers. Refusal to adopt an annexation policy until every developer who wanted to be annexed had been accommodated (ending with the infamous Sassafras Meadows annexation). Let's not forget that even after the Dunn-Comegys council claimed that they would do no more annexations until after the annexation policy was in place, they tried (fortunately the media shamed Dunn into backing down).

Recent Comegys "solutions" have included a double-digit tax increase while refusing to discuss an alternative. Last year Comegys, Shields and Smith were literally watering at the mouth to increase water and sewer rates by 10% and only stopped when persistent questioning by Campbell and Cohen forced the administration to admit that they were misrepresenting surpluses in the city's water and sewer fund.

Amusingly, Comegys and Shields didn't yell quite so loud when Salisbury Mayor Barrie Tilghman wanted the taxpayers to fund a quarterly propaganda sheet that includes the tales of a fictional family. Of course this wouldn't be a problem since the taxpayer is picking up the tab. Perhaps Comegys should be listed under "hypocrisy" as well.

cross posted at Delmarva Dealings

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shame they didn't include a link ot the blog address

mrtv said...

Do the tax payers of Salisbury pay for Gary and Shanie's "chocolates" at the work sessions and council meetings?

Anonymous said...

Mr. Harrison:

Comegys' statement is well beyond "foolishness". He is an arrogant and mean person who needs to be hung out to dry on a desert island. Shields is more to be pitied than censured (but defeated if she seeks to be reelected next year).

Although Louise Smith's comments are nonsensical, they are too meaningless to warrant rebuke.

We can thank our lucky stars that Ms. Campbell and Ms. Cohen are willing to put up with the mud that Tilghman and her puppets constantly cast at them and the Daily Times presents as significant news.

Anonymous said...

where's the "neighing" from the mare?
das fleidamare.
grrrr'ing from the bare?
baaa'ing from the ship, errr, ahhh sheep?

Anonymous said...

Great that the Ladies are putting out their own newsletter. Now at least we will all see the uncolored truth about this city government in action. Its quite obvious Barrie and her monkeys are squirming now!

A. Goetz

Anonymous said...

after the chats in the times, it's pretty obvious no nuts is gary. waht a mean spirited individual he is.(both of them)

Tim Chaney said...

It's not a comment blog where people bash each other. They are providing info to the citizens.

There is a link there where you can fill out the Homestead Tax application. I know I will use it.

If we are going to ask questions at city council meetings we should be provided better info, this is some of the transparency that we have been asking for.