Sustainabillity report is a list of talking points, not a mandate

     Two of the three commissioners accepted a report on sustainability from staffer Neil Ridgely and McDaniel College student John Modica this past week. One commissioner -- Mike Zimmer -- chose not to endorse the report because he said it was calling for things that were never going to happen, like mandated recycling, among other things.
     I think Commissioner Zimmer has been keeping company with absolutists too much lately. Later in the week, he refused to accept a staff report on changes in the county's mineral overlay rules, claiming that he wanted to wait for the return of Commissioner Gouge. The delay conveniently puts the plan on hold long enough that it would need action by the next board of commissioners.
     I suspect that the delay is what the next board of commissioners would like. They have sent correspondence asking that this board essentially shut down and go home early, and let them take over from here. To me, that's like telling the driver of a bus to turn the wheel over before bringing the vehicle to a complete journey, because they plan to take over the driving next month.
     One hopeful -- unsuccessful candidate Michelle Jefferson, had a letter to the editor asserting, "we will take over from here". She seems to think she will be part of the new county leadership, even though she did not make it through the primary. Aside from her tendency to assume that she speaks for everyone whenever she has an opinion, she was pretty close with District Four commissioner-elect Richard Rothschild, so perhaps she hopes to be his special assistant. But wait, didn't she call for the elimination of those jobs when she was running for office?
     Never mind: Inconsistency is a given in politics. Zimmer, as a candidate for office four years ago, said he would not hire a special assistant, but once elected, he hired Amanda Boyd Miller, close associate of then-aspiring and now state senator-elect Joseph Getty, who has been waiting for years, paying his dues, for Sen. Larry Haines to retire. Getty has close ties with commissioner-elect Robin Frazier, who has exhibited an uncanny understanding of what goes on in the current administration -- almost as if she has access to the mail and staff reports -- that goes beyond the fact that she was a one-term commissioner eight years ago.
      There was a report that someone allowed her to enter the county office building after hours recently.
     That could have been at the invitation of Mr. Zimmer; he has made himself available to the incoming board, which should be a good thing, assuming it is for the purpose of helping them get up to speed on issues and assure a smooth transition.
     My guess it's not quite all that altruistic, judging by the back-channel comments and occasional emails from the victors in the election to some in the building who have served the county under the current -- but outgoing -- commissioners. Terms like, "You can clean out your desk now because I'm coming to clean house" lead a reasonable person to think that the new commissioners are thinking more like taking scalps than taking care of the public business.
     Which leads me back to the sustainability report received last week, after a year of hashing it out by a broad spectrum of citizens. In my view, the report puts on the table ideas that belong in the public discussion and consideration as we attempt to ensure continuity of the good life -- clean water and land, good plans for economic health and reasonable rates of industrial and residential growth, containment of costs, and preservation of the right of all citizens, regardless of the connections to insider politicians, to participate in important decisions on public policy. Not MAKE policy, but at least deal with science and facts, not just political paradigms.
     To the absolutists of the New Right, language in the report is to be taken literally and absolutely as a plan to institute government control and rhetoric in public policy. That seemed to be Zimmer's take, but perhaps he wants to make a good impression on the team that seems likely to dominate the new board of commissioners -- Frazier, Rothschild and Haven Shoemaker. The tendency to want to leave unfinished business unfinished, and therefor up to the new board, seems to be consistent with revising strategies, rather than finishing the job at hand in the current term.
     Because even if you have never been a candidate, like Miller, you can play a role  in the larger arena of partisan politics, which has at least as much to do with The Party as it does representing the total population. And even if you have been an unsuccessful candidate, like Jefferson, you can hold out hope for a job in the new administration, or support for future political campaigns.
     Zimmer is precluded from any county employment for a few years, a policy that precludes former electeds from financial gain following policy decisions of which they were a part.
     But there is often room for a good party team player somewhere as the victors enjoy the spoils of winning elections.