chris brugman
New Member
First let me state that I find it both disturbing and humorous that Shelby Guazzo has the gall to claim that she is a “conservative.” The fact is that even though she is the only Republican on the current board of commissioners, she is arguably the most liberal of the entire bunch.
FACT: Shelby Guazzo, despite her lies and ludicrous claims, voted in favor of the largest tax hikes in the history of St. Mary’s County. It’s a deliberate lie to state that because she voted against the budget this year that she voted against “the liberal inspired property tax increase” as her literature claims. Miss Guazzo, what about the previous three years? It’s a lie to state that you voted against the tax increases when in fact you voted to approve the budgets that contained them. Guazzo also supported increasing the local income tax and impact fee, then had the audacity to state, “I don’t know why young people would want to go off and buy a new house” anyway. Doesn’t sound conservative to me?
FACT: Miss Guazzo voted against building new soccer and baseball fields for the youth of this county, and then turned around and spent more than $5 million on a horse park in her backyard (Chaptico) for her elitist “Fox Hunting Club”. Let me ask you this, if you were required to list your top 100 priorities as a taxpayer, would the thought of a horse park even enter your mind? Of course it wouldn’t.
FACT: Shelby Guazzo has a proven track record as both a county commissioner and a planning commissioner of levying the harshest and most draconian land use regulations in St. Mary’s County history, regulations that strip property owners of land rights without compensation. So not only is she taking your property rights away, she has the nerve to charge you more (in the form of property taxes) to live there.
FACT: Shelby Guazzo has a miserable track record when it comes to ethics and public trust. Guazzo and the rest of her cohorts were found guilty by a court of law for violating the St. Mary’s County’s Ethics Ordinance when they appointed politically connected friends to a land use committee. Guazzo was also instrumental in shutting down the long and unique tradition of having open public forums the first Tuesday of every month. These forums were the only way the peasants in her Queendom could share their concerns and opinions directly with the locally elected officials. I guess after she was elected she didn’t care much about what we had to say.
FACT: Guazzo, as well as the rest of the ethically challenged board of commissioners, repeatedly violated the Open Meetings Act by holding much of the county’s business in a back room, hidden from public scrutiny. What kind of secret deals were made and for whom did they benefit?
FACT: Guazzo was a member of a board of commissioners that literally blew a $13.8 million surplus in her first two years in office, and then voted for a record property tax hike. She now claims that the current board has a $14 million surplus. The difference? She, along with the current board, needed to raise taxes in order to get their surplus whereas the prior board delivered a $13.8 million surplus after four consecutive years of tax cuts and responsible spending.
FACT: Guazzo voted to spend millions of your tax dollars on land acquisitions for Good ol’ Boy democrat land developers. After spending the surplus into extinction, and after voting for record tax hikes, this past budget year the current commissioners proclaimed a “budget crises.” It wasn’t a budget crisis, nor was it a revenue crisis; it was a spending crisis that Miss Guazzo played a major role. (At least we’re getting a new horse park).
I could go on and on about Guazzo’s miserable record over the past four years, but due to space limitations, let me instead tell you why I am voting for Larry Jarboe.
Larry Jarboe is the only true conservative in his race and his public record proves it. Larry voted to cut taxes four years in a row, while fully funding the Board of Education budget 1 year, and at record increases the other three. Larry Jarboe led the efforts to save the historic St. Mary’s County Courthouse in Leonardtown. This, combined with the incredible efforts of Mayor Chip Norris and the Leonardtown Town Council, was the spark that ignited the wonderful economic resurgence that has made Leonardtown a great small town again.
Larry Jarboe voted with the last board to expand Great Mills and Chopticon High Schools, Piney Point Elementary, and several other schools to meet the demand NAVAIR brought to the county. Larry Jarboe voted to build new athletic fields for our youth instead of horse stables for the rich and elite few. Larry voted to bring the new Lexington Park Post Office to Lexington Park and establish the low interest revolving loan program to help economic development in Lexington Park.
Larry Jarboe voted against more executive sessions (closed to the public, back door meetings) than any other county commissioner in history. Larry never needed a court of law to convict him of violating the Ethics Ordinance because in my opinion, Larry is probably the most ethical county commissioner in the history of our wonderful county.
Larry Jarboe voted with the prior board to hire more minorities and women to department head levels in government than any other board in history. The first year in office, Guazzo voted to get rid of those fine administrators and hire politically connected democrats, all white men, who have used their positions of power to benefit their pals. To add insult to injury, the current board (Guazzo included) recently voted to extend these contracts 1-2 years beyond their terms. This arrogance and abuse of power will cost the taxpayers even more money when the new board hires people that will be loyal to them. These votes were political payoffs to the sum of hundreds of thousands of dollars. This corruption and arrogance should not be tolerated.
Larry Jarboe voted to bring modern technology and efficiencies to county government by creating the county’s first Information Technologies Department. Prior to this effort, the folks in planning and zoning were literally using typewriters to process your building permits. Larry also voted to bring a modern emergency communication system and 911 center to our county for our courageous police officers and emergency service providers. Strangely, the current board still hasn’t seen this effort to completion. I guess political payoffs to their friends are more important than our emergency service providers.
Larry is the epitome of integrity and ethics, something Guazzo is severely lacking, as proven by her record, her campaign lies and embarrassing smear campaign against Larry, which brings to mind another question. Why is it that Shelby Guazzo is running the most negative, vindictive, vicious, and venomous campaigns of all the candidates? One would think that after four years in office, Guazzo would campaign on her accomplishments rather than attacking her opponent with lies and distortions. The only reason I can think of is that she doesn’t have any accomplishments to campaign on so now she is attacking Larry. How pathetic!
Guazzo has also made a point about Larry changing parties from a Democrat to a Republican. To be honest with you, I could care less. Our county is full of conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans (Guazzo for example), and vice versa. With the critical decisions that face the future of this county, intelligent voters will vote for the person who they think will do the best job, not their political affiliation. Last time I checked, the Democratic Party hasn’t built any new schools, and as far as I know, neither has the Republican Party.
Guazzo needs to grow up and face the fact that party politics are divisive and contribute nothing to the important decisions that face our county. It’s the person and the issues they bring to the table, not their political party Shelby, got it? And what will Shelby do if, God forbid, she happens to win on Tuesday? How will she then be able to ask Democrats for their vote in the general elections when she considers it a mistake to be one? I guess her arrogance, gall, and Country Club Republican attitude will get her past that hurdle, but only if we are dumb enough to vote for her in the first place.
Make no mistake about it. If you want a commissioner that is truly conservative, with unwavering ethics, who will put the people ahead of his own political gains, who is the only person in his race with a proven track record of tax cuts and responsible spending, a person who will not use your money to buy political favors with developers, there is only one choice. Join me and vote for Larry Jarboe and restore integrity and conservative values to Leonardtown.
However, Larry cannot do it alone. Send Larry some help by voting for Joe Gass and Rocky Rowland as well. With their help and conservative leadership, we will finally restore trust and common sense to Leonardtown.
FACT: Shelby Guazzo, despite her lies and ludicrous claims, voted in favor of the largest tax hikes in the history of St. Mary’s County. It’s a deliberate lie to state that because she voted against the budget this year that she voted against “the liberal inspired property tax increase” as her literature claims. Miss Guazzo, what about the previous three years? It’s a lie to state that you voted against the tax increases when in fact you voted to approve the budgets that contained them. Guazzo also supported increasing the local income tax and impact fee, then had the audacity to state, “I don’t know why young people would want to go off and buy a new house” anyway. Doesn’t sound conservative to me?
FACT: Miss Guazzo voted against building new soccer and baseball fields for the youth of this county, and then turned around and spent more than $5 million on a horse park in her backyard (Chaptico) for her elitist “Fox Hunting Club”. Let me ask you this, if you were required to list your top 100 priorities as a taxpayer, would the thought of a horse park even enter your mind? Of course it wouldn’t.
FACT: Shelby Guazzo has a proven track record as both a county commissioner and a planning commissioner of levying the harshest and most draconian land use regulations in St. Mary’s County history, regulations that strip property owners of land rights without compensation. So not only is she taking your property rights away, she has the nerve to charge you more (in the form of property taxes) to live there.
FACT: Shelby Guazzo has a miserable track record when it comes to ethics and public trust. Guazzo and the rest of her cohorts were found guilty by a court of law for violating the St. Mary’s County’s Ethics Ordinance when they appointed politically connected friends to a land use committee. Guazzo was also instrumental in shutting down the long and unique tradition of having open public forums the first Tuesday of every month. These forums were the only way the peasants in her Queendom could share their concerns and opinions directly with the locally elected officials. I guess after she was elected she didn’t care much about what we had to say.
FACT: Guazzo, as well as the rest of the ethically challenged board of commissioners, repeatedly violated the Open Meetings Act by holding much of the county’s business in a back room, hidden from public scrutiny. What kind of secret deals were made and for whom did they benefit?
FACT: Guazzo was a member of a board of commissioners that literally blew a $13.8 million surplus in her first two years in office, and then voted for a record property tax hike. She now claims that the current board has a $14 million surplus. The difference? She, along with the current board, needed to raise taxes in order to get their surplus whereas the prior board delivered a $13.8 million surplus after four consecutive years of tax cuts and responsible spending.
FACT: Guazzo voted to spend millions of your tax dollars on land acquisitions for Good ol’ Boy democrat land developers. After spending the surplus into extinction, and after voting for record tax hikes, this past budget year the current commissioners proclaimed a “budget crises.” It wasn’t a budget crisis, nor was it a revenue crisis; it was a spending crisis that Miss Guazzo played a major role. (At least we’re getting a new horse park).
I could go on and on about Guazzo’s miserable record over the past four years, but due to space limitations, let me instead tell you why I am voting for Larry Jarboe.
Larry Jarboe is the only true conservative in his race and his public record proves it. Larry voted to cut taxes four years in a row, while fully funding the Board of Education budget 1 year, and at record increases the other three. Larry Jarboe led the efforts to save the historic St. Mary’s County Courthouse in Leonardtown. This, combined with the incredible efforts of Mayor Chip Norris and the Leonardtown Town Council, was the spark that ignited the wonderful economic resurgence that has made Leonardtown a great small town again.
Larry Jarboe voted with the last board to expand Great Mills and Chopticon High Schools, Piney Point Elementary, and several other schools to meet the demand NAVAIR brought to the county. Larry Jarboe voted to build new athletic fields for our youth instead of horse stables for the rich and elite few. Larry voted to bring the new Lexington Park Post Office to Lexington Park and establish the low interest revolving loan program to help economic development in Lexington Park.
Larry Jarboe voted against more executive sessions (closed to the public, back door meetings) than any other county commissioner in history. Larry never needed a court of law to convict him of violating the Ethics Ordinance because in my opinion, Larry is probably the most ethical county commissioner in the history of our wonderful county.
Larry Jarboe voted with the prior board to hire more minorities and women to department head levels in government than any other board in history. The first year in office, Guazzo voted to get rid of those fine administrators and hire politically connected democrats, all white men, who have used their positions of power to benefit their pals. To add insult to injury, the current board (Guazzo included) recently voted to extend these contracts 1-2 years beyond their terms. This arrogance and abuse of power will cost the taxpayers even more money when the new board hires people that will be loyal to them. These votes were political payoffs to the sum of hundreds of thousands of dollars. This corruption and arrogance should not be tolerated.
Larry Jarboe voted to bring modern technology and efficiencies to county government by creating the county’s first Information Technologies Department. Prior to this effort, the folks in planning and zoning were literally using typewriters to process your building permits. Larry also voted to bring a modern emergency communication system and 911 center to our county for our courageous police officers and emergency service providers. Strangely, the current board still hasn’t seen this effort to completion. I guess political payoffs to their friends are more important than our emergency service providers.
Larry is the epitome of integrity and ethics, something Guazzo is severely lacking, as proven by her record, her campaign lies and embarrassing smear campaign against Larry, which brings to mind another question. Why is it that Shelby Guazzo is running the most negative, vindictive, vicious, and venomous campaigns of all the candidates? One would think that after four years in office, Guazzo would campaign on her accomplishments rather than attacking her opponent with lies and distortions. The only reason I can think of is that she doesn’t have any accomplishments to campaign on so now she is attacking Larry. How pathetic!
Guazzo has also made a point about Larry changing parties from a Democrat to a Republican. To be honest with you, I could care less. Our county is full of conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans (Guazzo for example), and vice versa. With the critical decisions that face the future of this county, intelligent voters will vote for the person who they think will do the best job, not their political affiliation. Last time I checked, the Democratic Party hasn’t built any new schools, and as far as I know, neither has the Republican Party.
Guazzo needs to grow up and face the fact that party politics are divisive and contribute nothing to the important decisions that face our county. It’s the person and the issues they bring to the table, not their political party Shelby, got it? And what will Shelby do if, God forbid, she happens to win on Tuesday? How will she then be able to ask Democrats for their vote in the general elections when she considers it a mistake to be one? I guess her arrogance, gall, and Country Club Republican attitude will get her past that hurdle, but only if we are dumb enough to vote for her in the first place.
Make no mistake about it. If you want a commissioner that is truly conservative, with unwavering ethics, who will put the people ahead of his own political gains, who is the only person in his race with a proven track record of tax cuts and responsible spending, a person who will not use your money to buy political favors with developers, there is only one choice. Join me and vote for Larry Jarboe and restore integrity and conservative values to Leonardtown.
However, Larry cannot do it alone. Send Larry some help by voting for Joe Gass and Rocky Rowland as well. With their help and conservative leadership, we will finally restore trust and common sense to Leonardtown.
At the rate I'm going, you have a good two years to change that "D" to an "L" or "R".
I disagree with you. If Chris and Larry are bitter about not being re-elected, it's because they've steadily watched St. Mary's being taken over by the strip mall people. They've also watched our tax dollars being given to the Commissioners' buddies instead of used for the public good. I'm pretty bitter about this myself.