Has Wicomico County become a Banana Republic?

By Thornton Crowe

From last Monday night's legislative session, it would seem so...

In the session, the Wicomico Council convenient to adopt the Amended budget after their prior 'rush' job to get the original passed last month. In both instances, John Cannon and fellow council persons failed to adhere to the County's charter which states, the department heads are expected to be invited to defend their line items on the budget should cuts be considered for those areas.

In calm verbal discourse, Councilman John Hall (District 4) raised objections to the budget and amendment; not because of any particular line item with it but the process for which they came to their conclusions. Citing their lack of cooperation with the Executive branch, he pointed out that unlike before, the procedure mentioned above was not followed.

Retorting with nonsensical banter, Cannon fired back that the 'open work session' was posted on the website, indicating this was to be construed as an invitation for County Executive Bob Culver and other department heads to come and negotiate. However, is this the truth?

Cannon may be correct it was listed on a website, which people may or may not visit, but no invitation was proffered to Culver or other departments to attend the work session, nor were they every consulted on the cuts to the finalized version. The end result for the Department of Corrections will be devastating, yet no one was there to respond nor defend the need to continue offering promotions to corrections officers.

Cannon is becoming a repeat offender

As I mentioned a week or two ago, Cannon is a stranger to ethically run government when he pulled a failure to recuse during the cut in the county property taxes. This, my friends, is yet another example of many where he plays footloose with policies. As per the charter, Hall is absolutely correct; nothing should be cut from any budget with the appropriate discussion by persons in the know. This is common sense which seems to be a stranger in Cannon's world.

The thing most disturbing in this situation is Cannon appears to be painting himself as some kind of oath keeper but in fact, he's breaking rules, while attempting to paint Culver as the one whose inept or incompetent. Playing politics at taxpayers' expense is just unacceptable to the residents who voted for both him and Culver.

Councilman John Hall (Dist 4)

Buried deep among the superfluous facts and numbers of the Independent article, Culver states he was more than available to Cannon and the council to go over line items; however, it was not going to be a tit for tat session, but rather a meeting to maintain the County's Charter for such procedures. A mere message on a website makes not for a proper invitation -- and furthermore, not allowing those to speak who do attend, is not one either.

There are imperative reasons why Legislative and Executive are separate - it provides checks and balances without a monopoly of power being given to one over the other. Therefore, doesn't this demonstrate Cannon's inability to play well with others in the government sandbox when he plays dodge n' lie? He seems to have a penchant for throwing sand on everyone, then feign he's the injured party? Are we absolutely sure he's not a liberal because his behaviors and ideology certainly indicate as such!

Just remember, folks, you are the one who elect both these branches into office, hence, you have to ask yourselves, is Cannon doing his due diligence to represent you or just winding you up for his next election?

And just where was the Local Media in all this?

I find it also interesting that Cannon was the one interviewed on camera about this incident - as well as featured in the Independent piece; however, Hall and Culver didn't enjoy the same on-air time to retort.

Is the biased that blatant? Or is it the fact that the Cannons have long history with WMDT and WBOC?

We all remember Cannon worked as a cameraman for both local stations and his sister, Sally Cannon, was the face of the Eastern Shore in the Eighties as the main anchor on WBOC; therefore, does his prior employment ties curry him favor above others serving our community?

But hey, like I've said before, I'm just a man asking questions...