You know, for a while I felt bad about not writing a post for 10 days. Looking at the issues and topics of interest to the county, I really found that I had covered them all. Board member election by district, the charter review commission's axamination of the make-up of the County Council, the recent bad weather (which, still sucks-- welcome to Scotland!) To be honest, there really hasn't been much out there that's interested me recently.
Hello, this article. Hello, Allen Dyer.
So, good ol' Allen had his day in court. Kinda. He appeared Tuesday at the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings to have his attorney argue why the state Board of Elections should not proceed to act to remove him following the Howard board's 5-2 vote to remove him. The administrative law judge will consider the request to dismiss the case and will rule within a month. However, in the event the case moves forward, there will be additional hearings in May.
OK, I'm guessing the administrative law judge will not act to have the case dismissed. So that means another seven months of Allen Dyer foolishness in Howard County. And I thought it was hard to get rid of a bad employee when I worked for the Federal government!!!
Is it just me, or does it not make sense that in a county with charter government, a body of publicly elected officials has to rely upon the State to remove a member from office? That's a little weirdness in state law that ought to be examined. Looking at YOU, State Delegates and Senators!
Meanwhile, The Greatest Show on Route 108 will continue, certainly through the primary election in March. And Allen Dyer will suck the air out of the local school board race, so much so that more well-qualified candidates will have difficulty getting their messages out.
Assuming the case goes forward through months of discovery, and motions, and briefs that will require the BOE's attorney to draft reams of documents and appear at numerous scheduled events - with the meter running the whole time - and the actual hearing on the merits goes for 5 days starting May 7, there is more everyone should keep in mind. The 5 hearing days are not sequential so the hearing will not be over until may 16---- then the Administrative Law Judge has 30 days to issue his RECOMMENDATION (it is not the decision). Then everyone has several days to review and comment and appeal and complain before it goes up to the State Board. Best case situation the MSDE should be able to schedule their hearing sometime in August (but not likely). Then... the MSDE does NOT have a time constraint on when they HAVE to issue a decision. They can sit on it as long as they want. But, let's assume they issue a decision in the same 30 day window that the ALJ uses --- then perhaps by the end of September/early October there might be a decision. And then the appeal process with the Circuit Court begins. Unless the case is dismissed - there is virtually no way there will be even a preliminary resolution of this situation before the general election in November. But the BOE will spend tens of thousands (if not more) dollars on legal fees in the meantime. In my opinion it is a colossal waste of resources with an infinitesimal chance of resolving any issues or questions. Your education dollars at work.
Posted by: cindy vaillancourt (current boe) | September 29, 2011 at 07:31 PM