http://baltimorecountypoliticians.com/ Go after the money.
RLW Merritt Park Baptist Church
Merritt Park Baptist Church owns part of the Lynch Run Cove, and our part is NOT for sale. Will Rogers said it best, "We have the best Politicians that money can buy".

Latest rumor has it that using cups made of lead may of caused the Fall of the Roman Empire!

Get a life you must have a friend or relative on the board. The kids needs the government center and the community needs the drug and alcohol education program in this area. That the zoning board is trying their best to shut down both. So how is the decision good.

Richard, the petition process in no way "changes America into a democracy". Petition rights exist for the cases when our representatives fail us. It is the people's Constitutional veto over the legislature and allows us to take our place in the system of checks and balances.

this entire process was unethically carried out. the petion carriers lied to any one wiing to listen until they signed. As voters we need to ask what is this about. Then we need to say "I'm going to read about htis before I sign anything. Then go get yourself educated. Other wise we will be handing out country over to anyone who can afford to pay for a petition process. We need to get money out of politics. http://getmoneyout.com/

Maryland, it appears that ultimately, the system worked. While I passionately defend the people's right to petition, corrupt abuses of the process hurt the people. It is voter's duty to look at the bill summary on the back of the petition form and understand what you are signing before you sign. It's irrelevant how "relentless" petition circulators are. They present the petition for signing, and the voter says yes or no, just like they do at the polls.

I disagree. The folks opposing the pertition still do not understand what happened. The opposition to the Board decision was significant, the people's petition is now being ignored, what next. I say it is time to vote THEM all out of office. If we can't get to the bad guys, vote the folks who appoint them out of office.

I'm sure his tenant Sen. Bobby Zirkin has nice things to say about him.

If by "one sided zoning decisions" you mean supported by every local community group and passed by a 6-1 vote, with the only nay from Ken "Let me check with Howard" Oliver, then I agree 100%. Also, the developers behind the referendum shoulder 100% of the blame for the county incurring these costs. Almond was simply acting in her constituents best interests, which just happened to conflict with the community's biggest bully.

I'm sure you have something, anything to back up your assertion that "several councilpersons would have preferred to vote no" on the issue. No? What do charitable donations have anything to do with hijacking county government to squelch competition? So, you're saying building a hospital wing gives you veto rights over competing projects in your backyard? Laughable. And we aren't talking about different sets of rules for developers and communities. If there were true grassroots opposition to these projects, developers would not resort to misleading and illegal petitions as a last ditch effort to sway the community. If the communities themselves didn't support these projects, they probably would not have been rezoned, and even if they were, it would have been easy for a referendum petition to pass without having to resort to fraud to collect signatures.

Remember that Mrs. Supik is the person who led the group in favor of Mrs. Brown and Cordish and the Owings Mills Mall owners. Not exactly a disinterested person, hmmm?

Shirley,
Having been approached several times by the petition I can speak to the information given when they asked me to sign. The people were uninformed on what the petition was actually for and what the referendum truly would address. As for taking it to Catonsville, Dundalk and various other communities, I ask you what do they have to do with a zoning issue in Owings Mills. You sold this to them with the scare tactic that a zoning issue could come to their community and if they didn't stand up and sign for this one you wouldn't be able to help them with their community zoning issues. Effective in getting 170,000 signatures but legally deficient to represent the affected communities. I have heard you present your side and have found you don't let relevant facts and truths get in the way of your objective.

Give them Hell Shirley! The more this stuff is expose the greater the chance voters will fulfill their obligation to cleanup and protect our form of government. The Zoning process in Baltimore County is just plain corrupt and it has been that way for years. Wake up people.....

Tom - the project in Owings Mills will result in the intersection of Painters Mill and Reistertown road (the worst in the State as noted by multiple politicians and the state) to be redone. The cost of that will be in the millions of dollars what will come out of all of our pockets not just those in Owings Mills. Say hello to higher taxes. Do you really want your taxes going up so that Gibbons can build his dream Mall on Reisterstown Rd. and make the gridlock of traffic even worse? Open your eyes and stop smelling the Wegmans and Gibbons coffee your drinking.

Andrew, if this intersection has already been identified as one of the worst in MD by officials than it most likely is already slated for the improvements. Perhaps the development of the property could include improvements by the developer. As for paying higher taxes, that is a fact of life I deal with just by living in MD.

Andrew S, the developer, Gibbons has pledged $10 million for improvements to the intersection of Reisterstown Rd and Painters Mill, as needed to better the traffic flow into and out of Foundry Row, including a new lane on each road, on property they will contribute to the county or state, as well as a new road next to the railroad back to Walmart. Granted, this will not totally solve the problems of that intersection, but that will require a total rebuilding and widening of the entire Reisterstown Rd, which is a state responsibility.

You have to remember that ALL politicians are liars - they can't get elected without lieing through their teeth. The thing is, we the people chose a system of liars instead of an autocracy, but we got an oligarchy of liars instead. The only recourse we have is to vote out one bunch of liars and vote in another bunch.

Shirley, Once again you choose to pick some facts to bolster your point and ignore others. How you pose this noble cause for the entire county while all the time campaigning with misleading information to get your petition signed. If the process is broken then take appropriate measures to fix the process. Don't go to other districts to get more than 60% of the signatures from people that this rezoning decision didn't directly effect. Let's not forget how you have called for transparency in the legal process yet have refused to disclose what entities have funded " Say-No-To-Solo". I realize keeping this Owings Mills & Dudalk zoning issue about Owings Mills & Dundalk doesn't forward your agenda but don't you dare use them as a Red Herring for your personal agenda

Shirley, you may be at least partially correct in saying the whole CZMP process needs review and change. Why, then, didn't you call for a referendum to do that, instead of concentrating on two relatively minor projects, to the benefit of a couple of local developers? Hmmm?

Shirley, please point out what "propaganda" I am spreading. I pointed out that majority of you petitioners were either not informed, misinformed or just making up how they were explaining the petition. The free bottles of cold water on hot days, free snow cones and the explanation that the petition was for Weagmans to be built at the Mall were all real methods used to gain the signatures that Say-No-To-Solo used. You are the head of the Say-No-To-Solo coalition so therefore you are responsible for their actions. I am not making that up. These issues were pointed out at town meetings and yet I'm sure on the specific instances that were given the signature gathered from them were still submitted. To date I have yet to see where you or Jeffrey have disclosed where the funding for Say-No-To-Solo has come from. Keep in mind Mrs. Supik that myself and the others voicing their opinions that don't agree with yours are people that live in the community. We're not from Catonsville, Parkville et al. Looking at the article released today on Patch the community organizations like ROG and others agree with the decision the Board made. Are you going to listen to those people's voices? Lastly , as for finding a single person you mislead, I and all the readers of this blog have been mislead by you. I suggest you go back and read your prior posts from when this all started. I have. In fact I am going through all of them and noting the discrepancies and propaganda. I will post my findings.

Shirley, I know for a fact that you did not have the zoning maps with you when you were collecting signatures in front of the Safeway at Garrison Forest Plaza. In fact, you approached a friend of mine and gave him a copy of the petition (with no maps) to take home to have his roommates sign it. You then told him to just make up names if he couldn't get his roommates to sign it, and you gave him your cell phone number and said you would come pick it up if he filled the sheet. No wonder this petition was thrown out. If this was all about "fixing" the CZMP, why wasn't that your "mantra" back in May when Kimco first hired you? All you could talk about then was saving Owings Mills Mall and convincing Wegmans to go there. From the beginning, your statements have always echoed whichever developer is funding the fight at any particular time.

Shirley, according to the article above, the two developers paid $225,000, trying to derail the two projects. I presume part of that went into your pockets, and rightly so, as you did a job of work for them. But I hope you kept good records and have a good tax-man who can satisfy the IRS as to the legitimacy of it all, or you may be in for some difficulty. Good luck! But it undermines your position as a petitioner without a financial interest in the matter. You should enter politics... maybe you are.

So everyone is paid by developers except yourself, right?

Buck, Do you condone the misleading tactics Say-No-To-Solo lead by Shirley use?
Not to mention her hiding where her funding came from. Although since this article shows "The developers paid $225,000 to collect 170,000 signatures to place the two bills on the 2014 ballot." No one could get Shirley to admit she got the money from there. Or do you agree that we have a broken Government system?

Tom, I believe that if the required signatures were obtained to have the issue placed on the ballot, that the issue should in fact be placed on the ballot...real simple..
If there were any legitimate laws broken during the process of acquiring these signatures, the party that broke the law should be prosecuted and held accountable... equally as simple. ... I respect the question and challenge to local government decisions ...and so far the government behavior of ignoring the fact that the required signatures were legally obtained is lacking...I would say that the government is misleading with this decision....and I really don't have the passion to care about the way this turns out either....just responding to the way that I see it play out..

I hear what you are saying Buck. The thing is the petition process is controlled by rules and not by laws. And although SNTS presented 170,000 signatures the process they used did not follow the rules. No laws broken just rules not followed. No need to prosecute anyone the rules say the petition is found to be invalid. The information is there to be reviewed. You can see what is required for the referendum process and what was delivered. I will not tell you it is so to try and convince you, you can see for yourself. I am no big fan of the 1 party government we have here in MD but, I will not let someone else with a personal agenda lie and manipulate facts supposedly in the name of the people. I know what I was told by these folks pushing these petitions and Shirley Supik cannot tell me any different nor say I didn't.

Hey Chuck, Shirley says they're all good. Isn't that good enough for you? But seriously, that responsibility falls under the responsibility of the Board of Elections. I encourage all to go to this link: http://www.elections.state.md.us/pdf/6-201-3a.pdf and see what is necessary for a legitimate petition. I can say with reasonable confidence the rules were not followed by SNTS. All the documentation for the rezoning was to be attached to each petition signed. I see no provisions for there to be a fee to be paid by the petitioner. That would mean it is taxpayer funded. I guess I will be accused of being a law partner for Gibbons if I keep looking into things and spreading truths.