Not a real ‘town hall’ meeting

This is to expose the deceptions perpetrated at the Feb. 15 public meeting for the Charles County Commissioners. This meeting was fraudulently advertised as a town hall meeting. It was, instead, conducted as a totalitarian dismissal of legitimate questions pertaining to the proposed Watershed Conservation District (WCD). No one from the public was allowed to ask any questions in their own voice. Questions had to be submitted in writing in advance outside of the meeting room. They were then assembled to be read aloud by Commissioner Ken Robinson. This deceptive tactic allowed Commissioner Robinson to infer tone, edit and in some cases, dismiss each question as he pleased. What a sham.

This bogus town hall meeting was orchestrated in this way to allow Commissioners Robinson, Amanda Stewart and Peter Murphy to continue to conceal their support of the WCD. They are hiding behind a disingenuous position that they await the final construct of the language prior to disclosing their support. These commissioners initiated alterations proposed in this WCD and returned it to the planning commission. Their egregious new zon- ing category should be renamed the “Property Confiscation District.”

Charles County government is headed by five commissioners. Executive and legislative powers within that office are handled by a simple majority vote. These are right versus wrong issues, not Democrat versus Republican issues. All five of our commissioners are Democrat party members. Commissioners Bobby Rucci and Debra Davis have publicly and clearly stated their opposition to the WCD. It is time that we hear from Commissioners Robinson, Stewart and Murphy on why they support the WCD. They had a perfect opportunity to defend their positions and they blew it.

Charles County citizens should contact Commissioners Rucci and Davis to commend them for taking a stand. They also need to contact Commissioners Stewart, Murphy and Robinson to encourage them to publicly defend their positions on the WCD and how to conduct real town hall meetings. This work cannot be left to only those 9,500 families directly affected by these issues. Our neighbors on the western side of Charles County are worthy of our advocacy and protection.