Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Sunday, August 06, 2017

WICOMICO COUNTY: The Cannon Coup

You voted for an Executive run government but John Cannon, Councilman at large and Council president, doesn't agree with you so he's attempting to reinstate Council government through abusing his legislative powers and bullying other Council Members into giving him power!

This comment came through on the Larry Dodd bust article last night and it raises some very interesting points.
"Please tell me how can retired employees get to create a personnel manual..especially when they did work for the county they did nothing with Human Resource Dept.or they were not the director of it either.. The Director of HR should be the one that is creating the manual... Laws have changed. And new policies need to be made for the issues that HR Dept.have come across other the years. The Council knows nothing about nor does the retirees... U have to have the Human Resource director help with creating this..And with this draft they have the retiree insurance coverage change and to make trust for the retirees prescriptions it's going to make the insurance for the current employee's insurance go up at least 20% or more.. Is County Council going to give what they do make being a Council member for insurance.. The insurance did not go up this year. If there is not a problem with it why change it. County Council nor Retirees do the hiring or firing nor do they deal with the day today issues that Human Resources does every day... Not to have the HR director creating or even helping with the new manual is crazy as hell to me. And if you really look at it they have stripped the Executive from doing his job or anything. He will not have any job duties at all because they have been reassigned to another in the Executive office. The County Council is a joke. Let Bob Culver do his job. Let him run this county for once. The good old boys have not let him do his job yet.. Get rid of the good old boys Bob..."
Reality is, this above comment is absolutely spot on!

It's no secret Cannon has been much like a gigantic bull in a china shop lately, bumping into all the china and sending it crashing to the ground. His last stunt with Steve Roser (Leslie Lewis-disgruntled ex-employee with an axe to grind) has definitely caused quite a few problems for the council as one of the victims has a lawyer poised to sue them for defamation. He has targeted employees and County Executive Bob Culver with a vengeance and now, it needs to be brought into the public forum because the voters are the ultimate judge on what is and isn't going to fly in our local government.


Joe Holloway (R)
Just why is it that Cannon and the Council trying to usurp you, the Wicomico County voters, when County Executive Culver has had many achievements during his first term? Is he making the Council look bad or is it just because Cannon is power-drunk and cajole his fellow council members on the council to go along with his program? He has a notorious reputation of lying to and bullying his fellow council members. Perhaps it's time the others started to man-up and tell Cannon to pack sand because he's taking them down a path they will pay politically as well.

Joe Holloway has largely turned against his longtime friend and now finds fault with everything Culver in spite of the many good things his work has brought to Wicomico residents. This leaves all of us to wonder, just whose side is Joe and other council members on? It's certainly not the voters' side; the people who voted them into their offices.

John Hall (R)
The only Council holdout is John Hall, who as of recent events since he called out Cannon on the budget sidestepping and failing to adhere to the County Charter, has been largely blackballed by his fellow councilmen. One example is the Wicomico GOP membership forum on Monday where Hall was not asked by Cannon to participate. There have been other incidents where the rest of the council have socially ousted Hall since his tiff with the Council president in June over failure to work with the Executive office on budget cuts.

The whole crux of the matter is this: Cannon puts his personality clashes with others and personal vendettas over what's good for our County and us. Can we afford to continue this farce of a government?

In short, Cannon is attempting a coup via legislation but it's up to us, the voters, to stop this madness and let Culver do his job for once!

Many County residents conferred about this situation in private discussions, have all back Culver and the Executive form of government they voted for. They also state that should Cannon (and other members of the County Council) continue to go recklessly down this wrong road, he (they) may find his (their) political days are over. Unfortunately for all elected officials, voters are now more informed and engaged, which spells disaster for government tricksters pulling fast ones on the public. We can thank Donald Trump for opening our eyes to the many swamps that surround us, Wicomico County's Council being one of them.

If Cannon were a smart man, he would best work with Culver instead of constantly micromanaging things he has no business managing at all in the first place!

This is a developing story so rest assured, there is much, much more to come...

43 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish Mr.Culver would address the issue of retired employees who were forced out of Blue Cross Blue Shield prescription plan into a much more expensive AARP United Health Care plan that has a coverage gap ("donut hole" in it whereby we have to pay 50% of the drug's cost after our first $3,700. The County HR never gave us an option of paying a higher premium with BC/BS - just forced it on over. (over 100 retirees)

Anonymous said...

I'm all for checks and balances in government but this is beyond ridiculous. We have a County Executive to oversee Administration and that's the final word by the VOTERS, Johnny, not you! You are not a voted-in dictator so quit acting like it!

Anonymous said...

Cannon is threatened by Culver because he has more power. He needs to get off his high horse and start working for us instead of his own interests. The County Council and County Executive should work in unison for us not at odds. Smarten up John!

Anonymous said...

It's clear we can't continue with Cannon in our government. He's messing things up all over the place for his own gain. I voted for a guy I knew 30 years ago and he's no longer that guy. Just seriously disappointed in him.

Anonymous said...

Cannon isn't Republican he's a RINO. He has no business being in government because he's too petty. If he wants to do that let him run against Andy Harris and try to join the DC Shark Tank! We need solutions here not problems. Now the County is going to be sued because of him? Ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

Cannon has so much property he rents , section 8 mostly. The government pays him and all repairs to these homes. You guys purchased them for him.

Anonymous said...

Should we just do away with the County Council altogether? If all they're doing is playing politics why bother having them?

Anonymous said...

Why ask Culver when it was John Cannon who slashed and trashed the budgets? Ask Cannon. He's your man for those kinds of answers. He doesn't even let department heads weigh in on the council's cuts at work sessions. 🙄🙄🙄

JoeAlbero said...

Here's the deal. WE THE PEOPLE voted for an executive form of government, PERIOD. I am so sick and tired of the alleged and so called republican representatives throughout government flexing their muscles and doing everything in their power to purposely damage their own party and flat out DISRESPECT the very people who VOTED for people like Culver, Hogan and Trump.

We will make it our goal from here on out to REMOVE anyone elected attempting to reverse what we voted for and supported and that goes for our local media as well.

The point here is to STOP the SELECT FEW, (Good Ol' Boys) from steamrolling our government and elected officials, checks and balances. Culver has been exposing all of the crap Pollitt left behind.

Cannon needs to go, period.

Anonymous said...

I'm a fellow retiree and it's in the employee handbook that we are moved to medicare at 65. Why are you asking Mr. Culver to explain this when you can read the handbook? I looked it up and found it. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Anonymous said...

Cannon IS one of the good ole boys. He has a lot of money skin in this game and he's afraid someone is going to steal his fortune. That might happen if he gets sued. Stupid move on John's part but he did it to himself.

Anonymous said...

The hardest part is to get real and qualified Republicans to run for office! These turds all have their own personal agenda and don't care about the county in the big picture!

Anonymous said...

730 he's been living off the government payback for awhile now. I agree with Joe, he's gotta go.

Anonymous said...

758 the way people are vilified who wants to run. You have others in town blatantly lying about the people who are doing good for the county while they have their noses up people like Cannon's a&&es. What can you expect? Why would anyone run for a government position with a&&wipes like that one running around causing upset and making everyone's lives miserable? Maybe if you guys would stop putting any credit in that idiot's bonnet, you'd find more people would be ready to take on something like an election, but until then, good luck!

Anonymous said...

Why did John get three overpaid retirees to work on the Personnel Handbook when they didn't do personnel when they served in our county gov? Does this make sense or is it more of John's waste of our tax dollars? Is it even legally binding?

Anonymous said...

It's the law that people 65 and above go to Medicare. The Feds kicked you off your insurance not the county.

Anonymous said...

How do these people have any right to intervene? Did John rehire these people to do this? Sounds like a takeover of the County Executive's job to me.

Anonymous said...

Joe Holloway is always out for himself period. He does not care about friends, law or anything but self gain and does not care how he does it or who he steps on. Watch your backs if he needs or wants something from you he will use you lie to you and stomp you into the ground and never look back.

Anonymous said...

I would run for county council but I wouldn't want to work with John Cannon. He would blackball me before I even took the oath of office. Our personalities are very incapable. I actually give a sh** about Wicomico. He, not so much. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Cinnamon Gal said...

I've know John his whole life along with his brother and sister. Of the three John's the bad apple. We picked the wrong Cannon. Now we need to fix and move on!

Anonymous said...

John Cannon only got where he is by riding on the back of his father who was a tough but fair man. John has always felt he was above everybody just because he was a Cannon, a name a reputation but up by his father and not himself. I have also known John all his life, his father and mine were friends. John is also only out for John. The majority of the rentals he has were handed down to him. What real job has he ever held besides taking over daddy's business?

Anonymous said...

1010 in the same boat. I go way back with the Cannons and John has never been a favorite. Bobby and Sally are so much nicer. Good people. Don't know what happened to John. If he weren't Bobby's twin, you'd swear he was adopted.

Anonymous said...

Cannon is the reason why one fire company can't get funded and are out in the rain fundraising . Seems ridiculous when tax payers dollars are paid in for there district Mr culver has given that company . Mr culver I'm sure you have a petty cash or another fund you can pull from to fund that station at least half . I'm sure it could go a long ways .

Anonymous said...

Good honest hard-working people would love the chance to run for County Council (& probably City Council & other elected positions) if it weren't for so much constant drama. From being bashed anonymously on sites like this news blog (yes, I'm typing anonymously but not bashing anyone) to being publicly humiliated and ostracized by the "good ol' boy" system.

We want progress. We want change for the better. But good people don't want to go through the hell of being slandered and used as pawns for other's personal agendas.

Something has to change!!!

Anonymous said...

You have a County Council with 7 members and only one gets along with Bob Culver, ever wonder why? Also in the matter of the fraud audit all 7 members and that includes John Hall voted for it.

Anonymous said...

1114 shows you are seriously ill-informed. maybe you should go back and search out all the information on this site regarding that sham of a fraud audit and get back to us. And we wonder why these types of people get elected. Look who votes for them. mis-informed people who are headline readers instead of actually taking the time to investigate things on their own.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know what culver has accomplished?

Anonymous said...

Clearly you ALL (Joe you are included) have forgotten that the decision to shift the County Personnel Handbook from the EXECUTIVE TO the COUNCIL was done last November, by way of a Charter Amendment. The VOTERS asked for the Executive Branch to not have any vote over the Manual, and to confer that process to the Legislative Branch. I know some of you will not remember this; you probably marked a straight ticket "Yes" for all the Charter Amendments. Nobody to blame now, except yourselves.

Anonymous said...

I didn't vote for the executive form of government and I wish there would be a referendum to go back to the council running things. I did vote for Culver but will NOT again. He's changed and isn't doing some of the things he campaigned on.

Anonymous said...

1247 you mean the amendments that were snuck in on the sly using a general election with two heated presidential candidates? The one where it wasn't until the last possible second to file for them to be put on the ballot and then failed to put the current charter on line so people could actually see what they were voting on? You mean the way Cannon hoodwinked the community into voting for something they had no idea about what they were voting on?

Anonymous said...

1253 If culver was allowed to do his job maybe you'd like the stuff he would get accomplished.

I Threw Up My Lemonade When I Read Your Stupid Asinine Comment said...

Culver has accomplished a lot and has saved the county millions of dollars in full benefits for part-timers working on 17 hours a week in post retirement years. Of course, if you bothered going to the county website and looking up his yearly reports on achievements, you'd know everything he did but you haven't. If you had you wouldn't be asking such a dipsh&t question.

Anonymous said...

This is the reason why John did that scam audit even though he warned by the county attorney that he was going down a rabbit hole where the council could open themselves to be sued by some employees. They went there anyway. Now at least one employee has secured a lawyer. John thought you all would believe him because of his dad's reputation, 1010, and many comments indicate this. You guys have scammed by him and listen when he blatantly lies. 🤥🤥🤥🤥 four Pinocchios is a bad score, John!

Anonymous said...

I went back and watched that session on YouTube and the other members didn't look very comfortable with what Kern said because that morning they got a memo from the County Lawyer who warned them their info was wrong. Oh well live and learn. Doesn't sound like our County Council is all in agreement anymore.

Anonymous said...

Isn't this a ethics violation for John Cannon 134?

Anonymous said...

It was standing room only Monday night at the GOP meeting. It would be nice to see that kind of attendance at the Council meetings where everyone who has posted here can go and be heard. Who's game?

Anonymous said...

Yes, that's the amendments I mean.

Anonymous said...

Oh my word, I thought this was Jon Bon Jovi at first glance!

Anonymous said...

8:48 am Yes , you are correct about it being the law when one turns 65. They indeed have to have Medicare.If you are retired, then Medicare becomes your primary medical insurance. If you are 65 and still working and have group insurance thru your employer then Medicare is your secondary health insurance.

The problem with the County Retirees is they were not given a choice with their Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance which if the retiree was 65 & over BC/BS would have been their secondary health insurance & prescription insurance. Instead, the county put the retirees on AARP (United Health Care) with Medicare Plan D and Plan F. The prescription plan is awful & if you are taking expensive medicine or several drugs each month, there is a donut hole you go into & you have to start paying 40% of the cost of your medicine.

I hope 8:48am the above clears up some of your misunderstanding of this situation.

Anonymous said...

No. They can't get funded and are out in the rain because they chose to leave the department they belonged to. Council not funding them is absolutely the right move.

Anonymous said...

Sorry 241 but you are spreading fake news. I have actual pictures from that night and it was not standing room only. Please quit lying! It makes you look like a schmuck.

Anonymous said...

519: Education to the health care industry will assist in your understanding. A trip to Normalville, Realisticviille, or Currentville may help too.

Anonymous said...

830 I was there all the seats were taken and people where standing