During his first four years in office we have criticized Wicomico County Executive Rick Pollitt many times, on many issues. We have disagreed with him on his not restructuring the county government to accept the realities of a post revenue cap world. We have disagreed with him on his stance on land use issues and on his (we believe, false) claim that he has never tried to strip landowners of property rights without compensation. We have disagreed with Pollitt on his refusal to publicly call the Wicomico County Board of Education to task for their profligate ways. We have also been disappointed by his refusal to meet with the County Council and his refusal to provide them with a monthly list of receipts and expenditures. That said, we (some of us reluctantly) support his bid for re-election.Despite these differences, we have to acknowledge his success in shepherding Wicomico’s county government through difficult times. Would we prefer that he had done some things differently? Absolutely; but Pollitt deserves credit for tackling a difficult job that will be more difficult during the next two to three years.
While we have stated our disappointment in a lack of openness with the county legislature, we cannon condemn Pollitt for a lack of openness with public at large. Pollitt has consistently been willing to answer questions posed to him by the media or the voters. This must be applauded, and respected.
Perhaps our endorsement MAY have been different IF a credible opponent had emerged. We’ll never know because Pollitt’s opponent is not a credible alternative. Republican Joe Ollinger may be almost as nice a guy as Rick Pollitt. However as we noted in our endorsement of District 38 State Senate candidate Michael James, “we don’t need to send a pal to Annapolis”. We don’t need to select a “nice guy” to serve as the County Executive either.
The cornerstones of Ollinger’s campaign have been issues that are either unnecessary, impractical, or simply too expensive. A county police force, run by the county Sheriff may sound interesting, unless you happen to live in Salisbury, Fruitland, or Delmar. Ollinger has offered no means of paying for such an idea. We must also point out that the primary reason this proposal wasn’t openly ridiculed was because such a force would be commanded by Sheriff Mike Lewis. What happens when Lewis chooses to retire? Will the next Sheriff of Wicomico County also be the county’s most popular elected official?
Ollinger’s idea to have the County Executive appoint the members of the school board is laughable. It is also impractical. No other Maryland Board of Ed is chosen in this manner. Getting special legislation through would probably prove problematic. Even if this were not so, I would no more want Ollinger, or Pollitt, picking the Board of Ed members than I would the governor. The Board of Education should be answerable to the voters. This is why the overwhelming majority of Maryland counties elect their school boards.
We encourage you to review Ollinger’s “platform”. In addition to the two issues noted above, Ollinger also claims he would implement “pay for performance” for BOE employees. As supporters of “merit pay” you would think we would be cheering. Ollinger’s proposal cannot be implemented without the consent of the legislature and the four unions representing Wicomico BOE employees. Ollinger should not make promises that cannot be fulfilled. Ollinger also implies that he can dictate policy to the BOE. We wish. Sadly, the only thing a county executive can do is withhold funding and negotiate. These are bigger political battles than Ollinger appears to have a stomach for.
All in all, Rick Pollitt has earned our vote for another term.
6 comments:
Good but not great choice. Rick is a man of character but needs to be more forceful and make the changes in his office as the people have demanded. Rick, don't sit by and not take care of making the changes. If you make it through tomorrow we are expecting you to take action.
Rick has got to go. Those supporting the liberal agenda our country is heading has to be removed. Our country is heading down a path that only can be saved by putting real Americans at every level, including small local elections. Joe Ollinger needs your vote and DT, I mean SBYNEWS has it wrong again.
Mardela, while you have every right to your opinion, why don't you actually state facts instead of hype.
Ollinger offers absolutely nothing to the citizens of Wicomico County, except change. Now, mind you, we saw CHANGE with Obama too. How's that working for you?
Most of the topics on Ollinger's platform he cannot do. You must be one of those citizens that read/heard what he'd LIKE to do and aren't intellegent enough to know IT CAN'T BE DONE. But it sounds good.
Joe,
The best line in your post is the one that acknowledges the lack of a credible opponent. Nothing agains Mr. Ollinger, I'm sure he's a fine man,but a political leader he is not. Ollinger's numbers in primary compared to Pollitt's indicated that a lot of democrats are unhappy with Pollitt, but to his credit, your discription of his first term are just about right.
I'll vote to give him one more chance, but he has to do a lot better in the next term than he did this time, or he'll be out. He has to learn he's not the town manager any more. If he doesn't know what to do, he should listen to people who do.
Hopefully Rick has learned from his first 4 years in office. People want change for the better and a smaller government. My vote is for Rick. I've seen the other one in action and I don't like his actions. Let's give Rick another chance and hope he does the right things for us.
First off, Ollinger would not have recieved 49% of the vote if there wasn't a big R next to his name. It would be more like 60-30, so Rick if you read this, you did fine, it's just the bad times we are in that made the race so close. Next, Rick has done a great job with what he has been given and will continue to do so even with a 6-1 majority Rep. So to Mardela and any other's who want to say why Ollinger should have won, instead of voting out the man who is helping us a Hell of a lot more than that idiot Ollinger would ever have, how bout you take time to look at the issues and really get to know the kind of man Ollinger really is. God Help us if he had gotten elected.
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