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This one may be a bit hard to swallow, folks.
Baltimore County Councilman Julian Jones, the Democrat who represents the fourth councilmanic district, refers to his constituents as “them” according to an article published by the Gunpowder Gazette.
Jones said that the majority of what the council does is of no interest to the public. He said, “Ninety percent of what we do, don’t involve them…” He said that most people are not interested in what the council is doing, stating, “People are busy, they trust their elected leaders.” He said that most of what the council does is “approve contracts and spending in the government,” which he indicated was not interesting to most of the public.
How Mr. Jones can firmly believe that the public trusts the council members’ decision-making to determine what’s best for constituents is beyond us. The Baltimore Post strongly believes that these comments were made by a potentially corrupt councilman who would rather not have any transparency in what he and his political cronies do with our tax dollars.
For those up in arms about our labeling of Mr. Jones, the Post has previously reported on his problems arising from a potential conflict of interest.
The thing that really drew our attention to Mr. Jones’s comments was his use of the word “them.”
Those words reminded us of the following video, which presents a scene from a classic sci-fi movie with the same title.
If Mr. Jones and his cronies, Todd Crandell and Cathy Bevins, believe that the constituents in Baltimore County have no interest in what the Council does and how they continue to make decisions behind closed doors, then they are fooling themselves.
Also, we’d like to point out that the council’s choice to continue to deny meeting access to voters is in direct contrast to Johnny O’s campaign promise to make the government more transparent.
At the beginning of every town hall meeting during his campaign, Johnny O would ask how many people ever attended a budget hearing in Towson. He almost made it sound like he was mocking the fact that very few people ever attended such council meetings.
But how can most people attend those meetings when they are scheduled smack in the middle of the workday? That is why there was a movement to push the meetings to the evening, which would allow more people to attend.
But, as Mr. Jones stated, the items discussed at the meetings aren’t for them.
Why should the “thems” care? Simply put, the public should know what has been going on behind the scenes, particularly when the administration created an $81 million budget shortfall.
Yet, despite that deficit, plenty of tax dollars have been directed to our county leaders’ political cronies.
But Mr. Jones wasn’t alone in his desire to keep the wool pulled over the taxpayers’ eyes. Also supporting that draconian lack of transparency was Council Chairwoman Cathy Bevins, who openly admitted that she accepts large amounts of campaign contributions from developers.
If Councilman Julian Jones truly believes “them” (the constituents) aren’t interested, the Post would strongly suggest that our elected officials who wish keep us in the dark beware. As seen in the movie clip, “them” (the fire ants) can devour everything in their path.
And that includes corrupt politicians who are trying to prohibit a honest, transparent, and representative of government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
