Town Hall Alliance

St. Mary's Commissioner candidates Rich Johnson, Dan Morris and Randy Guy, left, to right, listen to St. Mary's Commissioner Larry Jarboe introduce them to the Golden Beach Citizen's Association meeting on Nov. 5, 2009.   The Town Hall Alliance invites civic, church and fraternal groups to call them to drop in on their regular meetings to chat and listen to the concerns of the public.

The Town Hall Alliance has been formed by citizens who desire to bring about a working majority to vote with St. Mary's Commissioner Larry Jarboe to bring about consolidation of county government and cost efficiencies to deliver services to the public.  The group believes in holding government accountable to the public, hold meetings in open session instead of ramming through proposals at public hearings on Christmas Eve and other efforts to block the public from knowledge of the public's business.

The Town Hall Alliance has encouraged candidates of solid backgrounds to run for public office in St. Mary's County with the focus being on the commissioner board.   In addition to Commissioner Jarboe running for another term, he is being joined by Dan Morris, of Oakville, Rich Johnson of Valley Lee and Randy Guy of Clements.

All four have committed to holding the line on taxes and treating the resources of the taxpayers with respect. 

Education, law enforcment and transporation are the primary responsiblities of the commissioners and safeguarding the revenue of the public to fund these services are the primary goal of the board.  The Town Hall Alliance pledges conservative and intelligent application of resources to the needs identified by the Sheriff, the Board of Education and the Public Works Director.  All other county agencies are secondary to the delivery of the key services and every effort to maintain existing levels of service will be attempted but priority goes to the primary duties of the commissioners.

While in the past the taxpayers have been viewed as a bottomless pit to be dipped into at any time, the Town Hall Alliance knows as do you, that it is not true and it is time to be realistic, that many expenditures to non-profit groups may be noble and praiseworthy but are truly destined to be supported by private charity and not through the involuntary and forced donations of taxpayers.

Developers have been getting a free ride in St. Mary's County  and the Town Hall Alliance intends to require all proposed commercial, office and large residential projects to have a price tag for the cost to the public of all proposals prior to being approved by the Planning Commission and the County Commissioners.  The real costs to the public of a development during the life of a project must be known prior to committing the taxpayers to paying the costs.  Too often traffic lights, new roads, new schools and other costs have been borne by the public to the benefit of the developers.

Tax Incentive Finance Districts have been used around the nation to redevelop such areas as the old Lexington Park downtown and instead of using public funds up front such as is being done now, tax incentives can be given to organizations of property owners to have them come together and fund these improvements, be given  higher density as a reward and let them shoulder the burden instead of the public. 

The County Commissioners have a proven track record of being lousy real estate developers and should concentrate at providing services in a thoughtful and cost efficient manner while protecting the area around Pax River and Webster Field from development that conflicts with the missions of the U. S. Navy.  

The county has no business being in the bar and restaurant business such as at Wicomico Shores Country Club.  There are many caterers or others who may wish to bid on leasing the faciilty, provide the services desired and operate their businesses from the facility, as Commissioner Jarboe has reccomended.  Inviting bids for the operation of this facility should be approved.

The construction of a new $13 million library outside of Leonardtown is silly given the state of the economy.  The existing library has the space to attach either an addition or relocatable classrooms such as those used by the schools for adding needed computer area.   The county could look at leasing the PNC bank on the town square, but the next board should cancel the Mega Library.

The Hayden Farm purchase is an example of unbridled spending at its worse.  The St. Mary's Commissioners approved spending far in excess of two appraisals for this property at the same time that taxes have gone up and property values have gone down.  The Hayden Farm Deal Stinks.

The Town Hall Alliance is not composed of any vested interests and likely will be met with opposition from both the Democrats and the establishment Republicans.  Three of the four candidates have been Democrats prior to changing to Republican. They have done so as the Democratic Party has taken a sharp turn to the left and no longer represents their views.  The local GOP has been vapid in their response to the excesses of the Democrats and have done little to support Commissioner Jarboe and his stands against tax hikes while so many families are suffering.

Democrats, Independents and Republicans are invited to join and support the Town Hall Alliance and work to elect our candidates. 

Those interested in running for County Commissioner from the Lexington Park, California and Great Mills area should contact anyone on the slate of commissioner candidates.