Candidate for Salisbury Mayor, Jim Ireton, exceeded $7,000 in donations with 110 contributions by overnight February 24, 2009. The average contribution is $64. Ireton filed his contribution disclosure with Brenda Colegrove, City Clerk, yesterday.
"We are thrilled with the support that Salisbury has shown for Jim." said campaign manager Chuck Cook.
Ireton added, "In this economy, for citizens to contribute as they have is humbling. I am very grateful for each and every contribution. I am ecstatic about the support from citizens who are elected officials, those associated with the university, and from friends that I have had in my hometown since I was a young man. So many citizens are hearing our message about reducing crime, making government open and accessible, and cleaning up the Wicomico River. I appreciate their financial support and look forward to serving Salisbury as Mayor. Help is on the way!"
A reminder that polls are open on Primary Day, March 3, 2008, from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Polling places for municipal elections are printed on the back of voter cards, on sample ballots, or can be determined by calling the Wicomico County Board of Elections at 410-548-4830.
57 comments:
"A reminder that polls are open on..." When???
As a teacher, will he have the time to be the mayor, too? What if he's needed in City Hall when school is in session?
From today's Daily Times:
"Ireton agrees that being mayor will require 40 or more hours a week and plans to address any changes to his career with his employer after the primary election March 3."
He should be able to tell us now, before the primary, not after.
2:54,
He addressed that in today's Daily Times. If he gets through the primary, he will sit down with his supervisor and discuss his options. His first priority is serving the citizens of Salisbury.
Polls are open on Tuesday, March 3. Be sure to check to see where you are scheduled to vote--for most people, it is not the same place you voted for the national elections.
Anon 2:53 nice catch. The post has been edited to include the information you requested.
Anon 2:54 That is a good question that should and could only be answered by Mr. Ireton. You can ask him this question via email at jimiretonformayor@gmail.com or you can call him at 410-749-5712. You can even ask him in person this Thursday night, Feb 26. There will be a mayoral candidates forum held at Bethany Lutheran Church on the corners of South Blvd and Camden Ave. This event is hosted by the Camden Neighborhood Association.
Earls'Sis:
He's already ducked the question at Mallard Landing's forum, and again in the newspaper.
Since he declared for mayor months ago, why hasn't he already had that
discussion with the board of ed?
Help may be on the way, but not any info about what Mr. Ireton is going to change in his career to allow him to be in the mayor's office.
The Mayor position should be a $40,000---$50,000 annual salary, this little pay check is a joke. Salisbury is to big and has to many things that need a fulltime Mayors attention to have to hold down another job on top of being the Mayor.
Inquiring Minds Want To Know:
1. Did he vote to repeal the impact fee when he was on the City Council?
2. Was he on the Council when the City canned Chief Dykes (and how did he vote on that)?
I wouldn't say he is ducking the question. It is my opinion that he is not putting the cart before the horse. Mr. Ireton said IF he wins in the primary then he will discuss his options with his principal and supervisor. These people live in this county, they know he is running for mayor and they know the time required of him when he wins.
Lets see how he fares in the primary then I'm sure he will make a decision and answer this question that seems to be burning for some.
Mr. or Ms. 3:20
It appears that Mr. Ireton was still on the Council (had not resigned) when Chief Dykes was sacked. He certainly voted to repeal the impact fee at that time. This is from the July 13, 1998 CC meeting (available on the City's website):
"Mr. Ireton felt the repeal of impact fees would attract more development in the City."
Although the fee has been reenacted, that decision cost the City millions.
Anon 3:20 you can use the same contact info I posted earlier in this thread to ask Mr. Ireton these questions or you too can show up at the forum.
Just remember, you don't always get what you pay for. Is Barry worth $25,000.00 per year. Truly only she can look in the mirror and answer that. In my opinion, Jim Ireton will do whatever it takes to put this city back on course and I beleive he's worth every penny he gets.
Those impact fees were repealed at the time the Pres of the council was Palmer Gillis, the king of development around here at the time.
You can not blame Jim Ireton or anyone else from that council for the millions lost over the past 10 years. However, you can blame every council after that for not reinstituting the impact fees instead of giving the city away to every developer strolling in the GOB. After all, they've had 10 years to do it.
E-S:
Please drop the Barrie Tilghman type double talk about cart before horse. The voters are entitled to know now what changes will be made in Mr. Ireton's schedule, not just if he gets thru the primary.
Mr. Ireton has had months to work that out, so it's hard to believe that he has not already tried (and possible failed).
If this kind of secrecy is his idea of "transparency" count me out!
Why did Bubba and the Dream Teams I & II wait until AFTER the bubble burst to reinstate impact fees? Now there is a question that should be asked at your forum.
I see all the anti-Ireton folks are out here today! This is the only issue Comegys has left, so he is trying to hammer it in the last two weeks. Ireton isn't ducking the question, he is answering it honestly (I know you all aren't used to a politician being honest). If and when he gets through the primary, he will sit down with his boss and figure out a schedule that works, but being a full-time mayor is priority number one. He could lie and say what people want to hear, but it would be silly and presumptuous to ask his supervisor to discuss his schedule before the primary. Of course, you can always vote for the one guy who has promised to retire from his job, Comegys, the guy who parks his state vehicle in the graveyard while he is on the clock. Bob Caldwell is a decent guy, but he also will be working if he is elected. Ireton will work with intelligence and efficiency, two qualities that are sorely lacking in our mayor's office today. My vote is for the guy who actually has ideas, Jim Ireton. Like someone else here said, just talk to the guy! I bet if you talk to him and then talk to the others, you will join me in voting for Jim.
I see Comegys' supporters are here! Welcome, folks! Just wait until gary releases his funding list at the end of the week: it will be dominated by SAPOA members giving $250. He is bought and paid for.
3:35--
But Ireton voted to do so, too. Did Gillis hold a gun to his head???
3:38-
WRONG:
He is either ducking the question or has failed to anticipate a very important and appropriate issue. I pick door number 1.
Mr./Ms. 3:38-
Why can't he answer a serious question now -- that's all I want -- instead of avoiding what is a difficult political point of interest.
This is classic "Barrie Tilghman" talk and we don't care for (or need) more of it.
3:38:
There's quite a difference in Caldwell being a realtor (especially in today's market) and Ireton as a fulltime public school teacher. He really needs to tell us how he can handle the mayor's job from the standpoint of the necessary time. That's a lot different than getting contributions for his campaign.
Someone who was at the Mallard Landing forum was really disappointed by his trying to duck the questions there.
Something happens that requires the mayor. Does he just tell the students that he is leaving and the substitute might get there before the bell rings?
Ain't it funny how all of a sudden people are questioning Jim Ireton's availability as Mayor. These are some pretty desperate candidates. Futhermore, I beleive Jim Ireton can do more in 25 hours than most.
4:17:
What's really funny is why someone who is all for transparency won't really answer an inportant question.
When Paul Martin was Mayor he was also a meat cutter at the Acme Store...If Jim says he will work it out that's good enough for me. I don't think the students will be left behind. He will have a plan if he does't have one already. He didn't run for mayor on a whim. I am willing to give him a chance. What do we have to loose that we haven't already lost. Give the man a chance! Let him figure it out.
Come on people, don't you think he already checked with his employers before he ran. Stop trying to throw mud from a dry well. Ireton is much more advance than Tilghman or Bubba. Think maybe they said to wait until the primary and we will figure it out.
I second the motion, lets raise the mayor's salary so we don't keep getting the old retired or the bought people in their. We need youth and energy to fight the ole boy network here. Ireton will change things for the good. For the comments what will he change, haven't you been listening? Who else have you seen out of the candidates being proactive before they filed. Ireton is the only one.
My, my, my...the buzzards are circling saying, "Patience my a--, I'm going to kill something!"
Reality is, Ireton and Caldwell will likely have to do something for other income since neither of them will be sucking a pension from the gov'mint like Bubba.
Bubba's shown us how he treats his "full time" job now. People quake at the thought of what he would do full-time to Salisbury, after what he's done to it part-time.
Here's to Ireton and Caldwell being friendly opponents in the general.
There are 128 hours in a week. We pay a city manager a HUGE salary to handle the emergencies. You all seem to want the mayor's position limited to:
1. retired people
2. married people who live off of the spouses' salary
3. the rich
I'll take an intelligent, very hard working school teacher any day. Ireton already works a second shift in the community--he is involved in a huge number of community groups, and was involved in them long before he decided to run. Can you say that for ANY of the other candidates? Nope. Go ahead and vote for Comegys and you will get what you desrve. I would rather have 5% of Jim's time (even though he will give a heck of a lot more than that) than 100% of Comegys' time. Caldwell is ok, but he has no new ideas whatsoever. You all are getting sucked into Comegys's trap.
4:40,
You are right on--folks, let's not get divided her: the main goal should be to keep Bubba out of the final election. Once that happens, you will have a real choice to make based on teh issues. Bubba's team desperately want to attack Ireton because they know he is a strong candidate. Don't et them win--if nothing else, vote for Ireton and Caldwell on March 3.
The impact fees were repealed because the arguement was being made that the city couldn't spend them within the specified amount of time on qualified projects. After that teh council Webster, Scott, Stacey, Polk & Siggers finally told the administration not to bring anymore annexations to teh council until impact fees were in place. They were right and that was the time to do it. No annexations were brought to the council and neither was a policy for impact fees. enter the dream team (2003?). The first order of business was to bring a bunch of annexations through FREE. The last one to slide through was none other than Sassafras Meadows with their nice big developer reimbursement to boot. For those who don't follow along Council President Dunn and his father had some financial interest in Sassafras and he failed to disclose for some period of time and voted on some actions pertaining to the deal. Gary has had six years to support impact fees and could have stopped those annexations after the 2003 election. If he had Salisbury would be in much better shape today.
4:33-
Martin (not just Barrie) is responsible for much of the mess in Salisbury today. If he's Ireton's role model, leave me out!
4:46 --
Please answer the question at 3:56.
Jim, I hope that you are successful in your bid for Mayor. I would love to see some dignity to be brought back to the City of Salisbury and its citizens. The City has become the laughing stock of the state, and Comegys is not a suitable solution. We need to get back to respectful individuals running the City, like Paul Martin was. We never had issues like this when he was Mayor. And I hope that if you are successful, you will clean department heads and make them accountable for the citizens that they serve. The City is in a major turmoil, and it needs a new person from the outside to come in and straighten things out. Sometimes an outsider looking at something is better than being from within and being spoiled by the process. New process is good. Good luck.
Anon 4:59 why don't you do what was suggested by Earls Sister and go ask Ireton yourself. You can send him an email or call him.
4:59,
Call Jim and ask him! I can't speak directly for the guy. I will tell you this, though: I cannot imagine a scenario short of a natural disaster or a terrorist attack where the mayor must react immediately--in fact, cautious reflection rather than knee-jerk reactions makes for better decisions 99% of the time. And let's say your doomsday scenario arises: I would rather have Jim Ireton calling the shots than anyone else. certainly I would not want Bubba in charge--they would have to run off to the cemetery to find him! I think a lot of you are forgetting that we pay a city administrator a lot of money to do the daily business of our city. They are supposed to be able to handle the daily business. Jim may very decide it is necessary to quit his other job, or he may discover that he can do both. What I'm saying is, i trust the guy to do what is right for the city--he will put the city before his own needs. Again, if you want to limit the pool of mayors to the rich, retired, or someone who has someone else paying the bills, go ahead and vote that way. I am voting for someone with intelligence who has been in the trenches of our community for a long time, and really gets the concerns of average people. I'll leave you all with this last thought: Jim is a good guy. He isn't perfect, he is human like the rest of us, but I know without a doubt his heart is in the right place. He will talk to you, and more importantly, he will listen to you. That carries a lot of weight with me.
What a silly amount of energy being expended on Jim's career choices as mayor. This is a wedge issue meant to divide, and I would suspect all of you asking the question are already Gary supporters. You know darn well that Jim can't ask the Board of Education for another position before the primary results, so why do you keep saying that he's 'dodging' when you already know the answer? Pure transparent politics, that's why. So, to everyone else out there who hasn't made up their mind yet: Choose the candidate that you think will do the best job when they're in. (Hint: it won't be Gary).
And, like Earl's sister said, if you really want to know something, why don't you call or email the man yourself? If you're truly concerned, then you would do that. Otherwise, it's pretty clear that you're just pushing a meaningless wedge issue.
I fear that with Ireton, Salisbury will get Tilghman in a different form. Watching him take questions and attack the questioners is much like watching Barrie take questions- only the positions are different. We don't need the "we won, get over it" attitude that has characterized city politics for the last decade, we need leadership that will give both sides a fair shake and be civil in the process. With Comegys you'll get the policies and the attitude, with Ireton you'll get the attitude and condescension. That may very well change with time, but Caldwell is the right candidate (right now) to help Salisbury transition out of the past decade of rudeness.
5:53,
You obviously do not know Jim very well. He is a reasonable guy and has friends and supporters from all ends of the political spectrum. I walked into one of his fundraisers and had to laugh--there were people from the far right, the far left and everywhere in between! The guy has made a career of teaching, first in a private school and then in a public school! Hardly the choice of elitists. He comes from a working class family, pays his own bills, and is open to discussion. He might not agree with you in the end, but he will listen. I don't want to disparage other candidates, but suffice it to say that before I jumped on the Ireton bandwagon, I personally talked to each of the other candidates in various settings (full disclosure: I did not talk to della Penna). Ireton was the most open to listening to new ideas, hands down.
I would like to see Ireton as Salisbury's next Mayor. Why should he talk about his career right now not knowing how the primary will be. I hope the primary will take Bubba out of the race completely. I saw him today on WBOC, what a joke!
Does anyone know why municiple elections aren't held in November when there would be a better voter turnout? Seems they'd want to do it when the turnout would be the best instead of taking a chance that the weather may be good which will bring out a few more people.
Good Luck Mr. Ireton on Primary Day!
I'm making plans on showing up on Swearing-In Day to see HER leave for good. It's way past her departure time.
Look I gotta call shenanigans. Some of you guys writing under a different name or anonymous can't even fess up with who you really are, and what your true agenda is, when asked with candor on the down low. Don't get me wrong-I hope you and Caldwell advance but no more yanky our wanky with a "penny here and penny there", if you know what I mean.
5:53 --
Ditto for me -- Ireton could be another BPT of a different ideological stripe. Regardless of that, why does he not have a real answer to the question of his job as a public school teacher (or want to disclose that until after the election?
Mr./Ms. 5:32:
Just why is it that "Jim can't ask the Board of Education for another position before the primary results"? A law, regulation or fear.
And what if they say that he can't ask until after the general election?
He's sounding more like Barrie every day.
4:55 --
First, do you expect us to believe that "the city couldn't spend them within the specified amount of time on qualified projects."
Second, that's not the reason Ireton gave for voting to repeal the impact fees that were in effect when he was elected to the Council -- he's on the record (for a change):
"Mr. Ireton felt the repeal of impact fees would attract more development in the City."
And please don't say that it was because Palmer Gillis made him do it.
4:59 and other Iretonians:
He has already ducked that question several times, so why should we "call and ask him".
He's free to give us a real answer any time - any place - any how he wants.
The silence is deafening!
SEEMS TO ME IT WAS CALDWELL THAT STARTED/ CAUSED ALL THE CRAP ON THE COUNCIL YEARS AGO.
JUST ASK BOB GLADDEN.
THE COUNCIL HAS BEEN A LAUGHING STOCK EVER SINCE
Last night Joe Albero asked Gary if he still denounced the blogs. Louweasel shut him up and told him to not answer that question. She gave the standard "we'll get back to you on that". Reality is they cannot denounce the blogs when they are all aligned with a blogger that makes Joe look like a saint.
This post proves they don't denounce the blogs. They have all come out of the woodwork because they know the heat is on. Next Tuesday will tell the truth. Then we'll see just how mean, spiteful, hateful and vicious these people can be.
Sounds to me like a lot of people (or just 2 or 3 repeating themselves) are very, very p****d that Ireton has outraised everyone big time.
That's a lotta support.
"Does anyone know why municiple elections aren't held in November when there would be a better voter turnout?"
They used to be, staggered two years apart. The change came after the Dream Team came onboard, putting the staggered voting period in April, with campaigning in January through March. Any idea why?
Well, it was designed to keep incumbents in office. After all, who the hell wants to stand on a streetcorner, or walk neighborhoods in the middle of winter? Very few. In the case of last election (2007) a couple of people running actually got out there and knocked on doors. The others, including one of the present candidates for mayor, stayed indoors or in their pickup trucks and let SAPOA and others bring candidates to them.
So, that's why there's an election in April. No good reason other than to make it difficult for people to upset the incumbents.
Thank Barrie Tilghman and the Dream Team for this one.
Gary, it's time to go to bed. Lynn too. And Mikey, you might as well go to bed too.
Hey Joe, start paying attention to the ISP addresses of all these people asking the same questions over and over, and post their ISP addresses with their comments so we can see its the same 2 or 3 people saying the same things over and over. You won't be revealing their true identities, but you will show how just a few are bombarding this list with the same complaint. How scared must they be that they have no campaign issues to stand on so they have to try and manufacture an issue that really isn't one?
Would you people who are making such a big deal about this 'non-issue' go read today's Daily Times article that quotes Jim, directly, about this?
Lets tell the truth right now. They are running scared because they know their cash cow is about to run dry. No more developer welfare. No more slumlords getting away with not being in compliance. No more special interest pandering. NO MORE. ITS OVER. WE'VE HAD ENOUGH.
Now do what Mike Dunn did and pack up and move into the county or out of it, it's your choice. They could stay here and suffer the tax hikes, high crime, low morale in government employees but they don't have the stomach to look in the mirror we know as Salisbury.
isn't primary day when Joe goes to court. who planned that?
Oh my goodness; Comegys' people trying to attack Ireton by turning him into Barrie Tilghman? I never thought I'd see the day.
So I was looking at the list of Contributors for each campaign in the Tilghman Times this morning and notice they left out something. I had to ask myself, "Was it deliberate to not put a line in to show where Comegys donations began?" I think the end of Ireton Expenses was at "Karen Silverstrim, prepare will, silent auction item, $100.00." Next begins Gary Comegys Contributors beginning with "Gamee Elliott, Salisbury, $250." So Ireton had 107 people contributing to his campaign, only four of whom gave the maximum donation of $250. Gary Comegys had 22 contributors 13 of which (over half) gave the full $250. So this reveals that Ireton has a wider base of support from average people while Comegys has very little support, but lots of it from people with money. Go back and look at Comegys' donors and count how many are landlords or developers. This will reveal the special interests backing Comegys. He won't have the City taxpayers' interest in mind, he will be protecting the special interests of people who make their money off the decay of the City. Remember that when you vote on Tuesday.
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