The Diagnosis Is In - Barrie Shot In The Foot

Sporting an attorney on each arm and husband in tow, wearing a soft blue jacket in contrast to her usual power yellow or power red choices, former Salisbury mayor Barrie Parsons Tilghman left District Court this afternoon with a decidedly bad taste in her mouth, the same mouth that has for over three years vehemently and loudly responded to critics regarding her administration's plethora of perceived shortfalls and less than above board politics.

Choosing to call several press conferences during her last term to protest any and all criticisms of her policies, appointments and actions as Salisbury's mayor, she shot herself in the proverbial foot. Instead of accomplishing what she hoped would be a general shunning of bloggers and others not firmly held in her corner, Tilghman actually brought more notice to their causes than to her own, and public attention to her own shortcomings in a way that she most likely never anticipated, souring her chances to continue on as a closet advisor under the administration of her hand-picked successor, Gary Comegys, whose recent losing mayoral campaign, with her tacit approval, stooped to the lowest levels of innuendo, lying and questionable behavior.

Beginning with the knee-jerk reactions to Albero's investigations regarding the illegal dumping, illegal storage of partially treated sewage and illegal discharge and overflow of waste to the Wicomico River from the WWTP site, which included, of all things, a request to the FAA to declare the air space over the WWTP site a “no-fly zone”, Tilghman's war against the bloggers was a losing one from the start, but she persisted.

Calling the FBI to investigate her baseless and paranoid allegations of computer hacking by pioneer Salisbury political blog author Bill Duvall, Tilghman continued to embarrass herself, her office and the City.

Banning Albero from the Salisbury Zoo after his decidedly heavy-handed views on the management of the zoo, which included allegations of toxic runoff to the zoo's waters (proved true), dozens (if not hundreds) of undocumented animal deaths (apparently true), grossly increasing taxpayer burden (a tripling of its budget) and a severely downward spiraling of fund raising efforts, Tilghman continued to draw attention to Albero's blog assertions and what could be seen as her own lack of good stewardship. While she later announced the resignation of several zoo employees, including the director, stating that they were leaving for greener pastures, it was suspected by many that the departures were the result of a quiet yet grand housecleaning.

As post after post brought up the issues of questionable practices and wasteful spending within her very closely managed administration, she reacted by further limiting the information flow to the public by making herself her own public information officer. As comment after comment to those blog posts brought up more and more questions regarding her suitability for office, Tilghman reacted again and again to stem the bleeding, calling news conferences, taking guest editorial space in the Daily Times and even going as far as making defamatory comments about those who didn't see things her way.

But it was a losing battle.

Now, as the judge's verdict sinks in, Barrie Tilghman will lick her wounds, joining her friends who are still stinging and wondering what the future holds for them after their failed attempts to place their goofy puppet in the mayor's office. Will there be an appeal to today's decision? What would the point be? Will we see her attempt to reinvent herself? Probably, although it will never be as a cooperative member of any group. She's had a big taste of being in charge and won't be satisfied with anything less. Will she recover from this shot in the foot? Not soon, as her wound has turned gangrenous, threatening the very legacy that she sought to create for herself.
Meanwhile, Salisbury's wounds, many of them festering for eleven and more years, will have a better chance to heal. Today's court decision was a start, bringing at least a small amount of relief from the pain.

We put our faith in the new mayor and hope that the doctor is in.