No Rewards for Bad Behavior

It looks like there's going to be a surplus in the Howard County Budget and the leadership of the Oakland Mills Village Board wants some of it. $50,000.00, to be exact. Yes, the very same people who:

recently held a secret meeting with Tom Carbo without informing the rest of the board
released a negative story to the press about the state of Oakland Mills housing stock without informing the rest of the board
tried to sell all of Howard County on a state-of-the-art sports complex so that they could displace less fortunate Oakland Mills residents

Yes, those people. They want $50,000.00 to pursue their plans for "re-inventing Oakland Mills."

Don't give it to them.

The idea that one extra cent of Howard County tax money should be extended to such poor stewards of our community's resources galls me, today in particular. Today is our Covenant Advisor's last day. Why? Well, after months and months, no, several years of rudeness, systematic interference, veiled threats, and outright bullying from these people, she has resigned. Our village is losing a dedicated and extremely competent member of Village Staff, who has given fourteen years to Oakland Mills, because of them.

Please, please don't reward this behavior. Please tell me that we don't give awards for bad behavior in Howard County.

To Mr. Kittleman and the County Council, I ask that you give this money to a group which has shown proven leadership in the truest sense: good stewardship, transparency in operations, respect to community members. I know you will do your best to chose wisely.

I love Oakland Mills and I believe in Oakland Mills. If anyone is thinking about giving out extra money I would suggest it be spent on feeding hungry children and their families, helping struggling homeowners repair their homes, and, if there's anything left over, training for OMCA board leadership on civil and professional behavior. They need it.

Comments

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents. When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday. Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018. 2018 . But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest. In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...

Separate and Unequal

Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not. It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...

Village Green/Town²

Search This Blog