Thorn in the Ointment

Thorn in the Ointment

I attended a town hall meeting held by our area’s two state delegates, Norm and Jim. Jim got a bill passed a couple of years ago that put five or six commercial clammers out of business. These men operated conveyor belt clam boats in the coastal bays. At one time, there were over seventy of these boats, but men don’t want to work that hard anymore. The Maryland Coastal Bays, a government sponsored environmental organization, had worked out an agreement with these clammers that allowed them to continue working, but some people accused them of damaging the bays and that’s why Jim got this anti-clamming bill passed.
I had a letter for Maryland’s fisheries director proposing a change in commercial rockfish allocation, an issue too complicated to explain here. When I gave it to Jim, I explained that local fishermen considered him against them due to the clam bill. He protested that he had met with twenty-five clammers and the president of their organization. He couldn’t remember the name of the president of the Maryland Waterman’s Association or the organization. This group and its president have been prominent in Maryland for over twenty-five years.
Jim looked at my letter and asked if it was for the DNR. I said yes, for the fisheries director. Jim didn’t know who that was, either. I decided not to attempt to explain the matter to Jim, or bring it up during the meeting.
Norm, Jim and Gee, the Mayor of Berlin, sat down at a table on the ends of two other tables. They wore suits, as did the county’s state’s attorney, who attended with his wife. She works for Maryland Coastal Bays, but they attended as private citizens. An aged Republican, a fireman, three newspaper women and two other private citizens, besides myself, sat down. Later my council woman Aunt and a member of the school board arrived.
Although the meeting was to hear our desires for the up-coming legislative session, the politicians, particularly long-winded Jim, dominated with their motor-mouths. The news ladies photographed them. The politicians spoke about the difficult session they would have cutting the budget. The Republican guest asked about distribution of slot machine money to towns. Gee said he hoped they wouldn’t change Berlin’s ten percent as the town was counting on it for the budget. They don’t even have slots yet and how do you count on something that can vary?
Two citizens wanted more money designated for highway widening and medical care. The fireman was concerned about medivac funding. The state is considering privatizing it. He also said the fire company could no longer run back ground checks. The states attorney said he couldn’t do it for them or he’d lose his license to do it. Some weird federal law restricts access to this information.
A news lady had no more sense than to ask the loquacious delegates about their pet legislative projects. Norm had a truancy court bill and a proposal to keep Holly Center, an institution for the disabled operating. A group for the disabled wanted it closed and the residents put in group homes. “They object to the idea of an institution,” Norman said, but many patients and their parents needed and wanted the center.
I said, “Some people object to the institution of marriage, too.”
Fabulous Jim was working on a law to ban the sale of salvia, the latest drug craze. Salvia’s probably safer for Maryland citizens than Jim is, at least to clammers. The state’s attorney said nothing about this.
Gee asked about getting federal infrastructure money for Berlin, a bailout. The federal government required the town of about 4,000 residents to get a new $18 million sewage treatment plant using spray irrigation. A newspaper lady asked if spray irrigation was to help the farmers. She didn’t understand this was a water treatment method. This is why I didn’t bring up my fisheries problem.
Developers have expanded Berlin since the last sewage plant was built twenty or so years ago. I asked if tax money from people in California and Texas should be used for this. What would happen if the town didn’t get federal money? Gee said they would still get the system, but he was annoyed by my question. After all Berlin taxpayers were going to pay for projects in other states.
Gee said that deregulation had hurt Berlin’s power plant. Berlin is one of few towns that operate their own electric plants. It needed a new generator and Gee wanted the state to help with a program to educate the public about saving electricity. At some point during this meeting, a private citizen had said that private citizens had restored the town’s Victorian buildings and she thought more should be left up to private enterprise.
Gee bitterly repeated the term deregulation. He wanted re-regulation, but said he knew re-regulation wasn’t likely. Could the delegates help the town with this?
I asked, “When the state deregulated, didn’t it continue to regulate the price utilities could charge the customer?”
“Yes, I’m glad you brought that up,” Gee said.
“That’s not deregulation,” I added. When the cost to produce electricity goes up, the utilities can’t raise prices to compensate without state approval.
Gee claimed small town plants could use renewable energy. (Berlin’s unprofitable plant uses Diesel and the town can’t afford wind mills.) The towns needed to be entrepreneurial, he said.
I refrained from barfing. “The government’s not good at operating power plants. That’s why Berlin’s plant’s in trouble,” I said.
“We need to live in the real world and leave ideology aside,” Gee said, “We have NGOs and businesses. We shouldn’t put up walls between them and government. We need partnerships.”
Whoa! “Ideology is what gave us our freedoms,” I said, adding, “Okay, we don’t have them now. Everything is enmeshed.”
I learned I had an ideology, but leftist politicians didn’t! There is nothing realistic about every municipality collecting federal money, borrowed money that would have to be paid back, with interest, to foreign governments. Today’s profligate spending would bring future higher taxes and inflation.
“This is what’s great about meeting and hearing the public,” someone said.
“Yeah, but if it weren’t for me, one point of view would dominate. You’re all democrats and a little bit socialist.”
A lot socialist, but I didn’t want to offend. One private citizen thought I meant everyone in the room was socialist, but I meant the politicians. So I offended anyway. Every political meeting needs a thorn in the ointment.