The following press release was disseminated by the campaign for County Councilman Richard Slutzky, a candidate for Harford County Council President who was prompted into releasing the “truth about issues” after his opponents “stooped to negative campaigning, inaccurate and misleading information, and scare tactics.”
Following that is a letter from Bill Onorato, one of the leaders of the group opposing the Eva Mar project in Bel Air, who refutes Slutzky’s claims with his own version of ‘fact vs fiction.’
“The Truth about Issues and Leadership in Harford County”
From Slutzky, Richard for County Council:
I have been pleased to serve the citizens of Harford County and unfortunately my opponents have stooped to negative campaigning, inaccurate and misleading information, and scare tactics in order to attempt to get elected. I don’t believe in those tactics and have attempted to emphasize the positives that we have accomplished over the past 12 years. It is however time to let the voters know the “Facts” and not the “Fiction” that my opponent and his elitist special interest group supporters have been promoting.
THE TRUTH ABOUT EVA-MAR
FICTION: “…Slutzky refused to as much as meet with his constituents…Slutzky fully supported three changes to zoning that specifically benefited Eva Mar Developers…”
FACT: I have never publicly stated support or opposition to the Eva-Mar Project. It is Improper and irresponsible to do so as the County Council is a part of the Zoning Appeals process.
FACT: I met in a series of meetings with representatives of Homeowners Associations of Tudor Manor, Fox Chase, Amaclae, Wagners Farm, and other citizens regarding this project to provide a Senior Citizen housing community in Harford County.
FACT: The leader of Citizens Against Eva-Mar chose not to attend those meetings or ask for a private meeting with my office.
FACT: Neither I nor other Council Members have ever voted on rezoning legislation specific to “Eva-Mar”.
FACT: The zoning in place for the EVA-Mar project has been in existence since 1982 and the property has been in Harford County’s Development Envelope since the mid 1970’s.
THE TRUTH ABOUT “WALMART” PROPERTY
FICTION: “…Slutzky voted twice in favor of zoning changes that may bring a Walmart to Bel Air…”
FACT: I have never publicly stated support or opposition to the Walmart project. It is improper and irresponsible to do so as the County Council is part of the Zoning Appeals process.
FACT: On September 2, 2008 zoning appeal case #170 came before the council acting as the Harford County Zoning Board of appeals. The council voted 5-2 to overrule the Zoning Hearing Examiners decision not to change residential zoning to B3 business zoning for the parcel now associated with the Walmart project. I was one of the two members that voted against this change.
FACT: Later in 2008 the County Council working with the Administration initiated a Comprehensive Rezoning process and a zoning code rewrite. This made Case #170 a moot point.
FACT: During the Comprehensive rezoning process community leaders from the areas around what is now being considered the “Walmart” property heavily lobbied for the Administration and the County Council to amend the zoning to B3. The community leaders were hopeful a new Wegman’s would come to the site. When the entire comprehensive rezoning was passed the change from residential to B3 was included. Wegman’s however selected another location.
THE TRUTH ABOUT TIF’s
FICTION: “…Slutzky fully supported a favorable $23 million loan (TIF) of taxpayer money by the County to the James Run Project…Slutzky fully supported another $14 Million loan by the County to the developer of Beechtree Estates…”
FACT: Harford County does not invest a cent in the TIF process. Harford County does not loan anyone money in the TIF process. Harford County does not use its “full faith and credit” taxing authority in the TIF process.
FACT: TIF Loans are a private financing between Banks and Developers.
FACT: In the TIF Process Developers can add an additional fee to the real estate tax on properties sold. There is also a complex incremental tax collection formula applied. The additional fee is used by the developer to pay the bank loan.
FACT: Only one TIF project has been implemented in Harford County – Beechtree Estates. The County has received significant infrastructure improvements and is collecting additional real estate income from this project.
THE TRUTH ABOUT RED PUMP ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
FICTION: “…Slutzky fully supported and lobbied for the inexplicable selection of Red Pump Elementary over a more appropriate location…”
FACT: I was directed by the County Council in a legislative session to investigate and report on why the Board of Education decided to move the long-planned Red Pump School Project to another location.
FACT: Council members were very concerned that the Shucks Road site was not in the development envelope, did not have access to public sewer and water, was near a high traffic volume intersection and was projected to cost more to build then at the Red Pump Site.
FACT: During my investigation, I discovered that lawsuits had been filed against the school system regarding a controversial bid process that had been completed on Red Pump School. Working with council attorney’s, significant evidence was collected and evaluated generating serious concerns on the council. The legal concerns in this matter combined with other concerns about the project, as stated above, provided the council with good reason to believe the elementary school construction site was switched by the school system for reasons other than those presented by the Board of Education. During this investigation the project manager handling the bid process was given an unannounced disability retirement and shortly after that the President of the Board of Education, who took credit for switching the project, resigned to spend more time with his family and take care of business needs.
FACT: I met with the representatives of the PTA/PTO groups and other concerned citizens of the Shucks Road community regarding the traffic concerns and potential expansion of the development envelope that building a new Elementary School at Shucks Road would potentially have.
FACT: Building the Red Pump School and the redistricting associated with these changes has eliminated all elementary school overcrowding in Harford County. There are currently no overcrowded schools in Harford County and elementary school students are no longer attending school at middle school facilities and most portable classroom use has been eliminated.
Positive Results & Future Direction:
Since I have been in office the following changes have occurred in Harford County to help improve the Quality of Life for our Citizens:
For those concerned about our Public Schools – We have gone from a county with aging and failing Public School Infrastructure, Overcrowding, and Portable Classrooms to having 8 New Public Schools. We no longer have overcrowding anywhere in the county and have few portable classrooms in use at our schools. For the future we need to focus on our Human Capital. While the Board of Education prioritizes where money is spent that is provided to it, in my role I will continue to advocate for the employees that work for HCPS.
For those concerned about Parks and Recreation – We have added 6 New Parks and Athletic Complexes and added New Turf Fields to most of the High Schools in Harford County. Harford County has also added 2 New Community Activity Centers for our residents to use. As I have in the past, I will continue to support responsible management of our lands in order to maintain public areas and programs that benefit our various communities.
For those concerned about Public Safety – We have added 2 New Sheriff Office Substations and have expanded and improved Harford County’s Emergency Operations Center to be one of the premier centers in the WORLD. As with Education, our focus has been to build and rebuild an aging infrastructure. Likewise, it is time we refocus on the fine men and women that serve to benefit Harford County’s Public Safety.
For those interested in other community needs – We have 3 new or Expanded Public Libraries and a New Dental and Health Center. We have also worked to improve many other Quality of Life items throughout the county. Harford County is and will remain a great place to live and work!
Integrity and Honesty:
My opponent and certain special interest groups supporting his campaign have launched a smear campaign against my personal integrity. I have never been accused of any impropriety whatsoever other than the smear tactics of these groups. My Campaign has received money and support from a wide range of individuals, businesses, and organizations – they believe in my message, my positive results, my thoroughness, and my fairness in working to move Harford County forward. While my opponent may think a few hundred dollars or a few thousand dollars donated to a Campaign Committee, which is open and transparent, would potentially sway my actions, I am insulted at the accusations. My opponent should be ashamed of this display of desperation.
The citizens of Harford County do not need a Council President willing to stoop to such low tactics, who will tell groups simply what they want to hear, who plays fast and loose with the facts, who misleads with deception in regards to my voting record or contributions received over twelve years and 4 campaigns . NO thank you Mr. Thornton. NO thank you to your smear tactics. The voters have a proven leader already and a consensus builder that is truly interested in making Harford County the best it can be and improving our Quality of Life. That choice is clear and that leader is me. Please Vote for Richard Slutzky in Early Voting and on November 4th!
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The Truth About Councilman Richard Slutzky
From Bill Onorato:
In response to the Councilman’s recent ads, I wanted to play a little game of “Fact or Fiction” of my own. To be clear, I do not know Councilman Slutzky personally and in no way intend for this to be an indictment of his integrity or of him as a man. Certainly, I respect his twelve years of service to the County as a councilman and his countless years serving the public in numerous other ways. I do however intend for this to call into question his position on land use matters in general, using Eva Mar as an example, and whether his position on such matters is consistent with someone we want as Council President going forward. And just to get this out of the way for those who will undoubtedly call me a NIMBY, this has nothing to do with whether I or anyone else wants the proposed Eva Mar project in their backyard. For the record, I do not want the Eva Mar project to move forward as proposed and if that makes me a NIMBY then so be it. This piece has everything to do with whether our elected officials, in particular Councilman Slutzky, are looking out for the best interests of the community at large and not just the interests of deep-pocketed developers. Councilman Slutzky, through his choice to remain silent on Eva Mar while other Council members may have taken a different approach if Eva Mar was in their district, has done irreparable harm to the community and has only served to line the pockets of the developers. Regardless of his motivations, such inaction on a development with such a significant impact to a community, the environment and the County as a whole cannot be allowed to go unquestioned particularly as we go to the polls to determine whether he is entitled to yet another four years in office.
FICTION: Slutzky met with citizens to discuss their concerns about Eva Mar and how he could help.
FACT: While Slutzky did meet with representatives from a number of neighborhoods surrounding Eva Mar and members of our leadership team on January 15, 2014, per the email invitation from Slutzky’s aid dated January 13th, “The purpose of this meeting will be limited to explaining the role of the County Council active as a legislative body and as a quasi-judicial body on the Zoning Board of Appeals.”
FACT: The sole purpose of that meeting was to explain to us why he could not talk to us or help us – nothing else. Slutzky had Council attorney, Melissa Lambert, present at that meeting as a witness and to lend “credibility” to his inexplicable claim of a conflict of interest due to his position on the Board of Appeals. The meeting was simply a CYA meeting and NOT an effort to listen to our concerns as Slutzky would lead you to believe in his ad.
FACT: Slutzky has never conducted a meeting in which he offered his constituents any assistance related to Eva Mar.
FACT: The “leader” of Citizens Against Eva Mar, as Slutzky refers in an ad he ran last week, made it clear that he was out-of-town on business the night Slutzky unilaterally scheduled the meeting. However, other leaders of our group were present at the meeting who reported back to our group.
FACT: Given that Slutzky made it abundantly clear at the January 15th meeting that he could not and would not provide any assistance whatsoever to his constituents on the Eva Mar project, there was NO point at all in scheduling any follow up meetings with him. We got the message loud and clear and it did not need repeating.
FACT: Despite telling his constituents that he cannot talk to us about anything Eva Mar related because of a conflict of interest, Slutzky has no problem accepting thousands of dollars of campaign contributions from parties related to Eva Mar developers. The very same parties who would also be before him if a matter related to Eva Mar made it to the Board of Appeals. By his own logic, these campaign contributions also create a conflict of interest and yet he does not see this as a problem. Campaign contributions have been held by the United States Supreme Court to be a form of speech.
FACT: Such contrary positions cannot be reconciled.
FICTION: There are zoning issues related to Eva Mar that could come before the County Council sitting as Board of Appeals.
FACT: The People’s Council, whose sole purpose is to help citizens in zoning matters, declined to help us because there were no issues to come before the Board of Appeals.
FACT: Every person we talked to with knowledge of the County zoning process was unanimous in stating that there were no issues related to Eva Mar that would ever come before the Board of Appeals.
FACT: We are now nearly a year after the Eva Mar plans went public and there is still absolutely no sign that any issue at all will make it to the Board of Appeals.
FACT: The only issue (the building height issue) that could have come before the Council as Board of Appeals was made moot by Bill 13-35 discussed below. Under the old code, the developers would have had to request a variance to build CCRC buildings greater than 50 feet tall. Bill 13-35 did away with that by changing the height limitation from a defined 50 feet to a vague four stories thereby allowing the now proposed 70 feet tall buildings.
FACT: Issues like traffic and accidents on Route 543/Route22 have absolutely nothing to do with zoning. And yet Slutzky will not even make a statement about those issues which affect every resident of Harford County who travels those roads.
FACT: Councilman McMahan and other Councilmembers have stated on the record that they regularly attend Community Input Meetings for projects in their jurisdiction which would also be a conflict of interest if they shared Slutzky’s misguided position.
FACT: Slutzky did not attend either of the two CIMs or the two DACs on the Eva Mar project.
FACT: Councilman Guthrie agreed that Slutzky’s position effectively amounts “taxation without representation.”
FACT: The County code expressly provides that a Council member may talk to his constituents about a development up until the point when a Board of Appeals case is filed.
FICTION: The current County Council has never voted on any legislation that specifically benefitted Eva Mar.
FACT: All seven Councilmembers voted for Bills 13-35, 13-36, 13-37, all three of which conferred specific benefits to Eva Mar developers. Most notably, Bill 13-35 which changed the building height limitation on CCRC buildings effectively allowing the 70 foot tall buildings shown in recently filed architectural drawings where the buildings were previously capped at 50 feet.
FACT: Joe Snee, attorney for the developers, was quoted in a January 7, 2013 article in the Aegis as saying “We cleaned up the code and we got to keep our architecture that we had in Aberdeen and move it over to Bel Air.”
FACT: Those three bills were passed on November 12, 2013. The letters to first notifying surrounding residents of the Eva Mar plans were dated November 14, 2013. A mere two days separated the two.
FACT: To say that Bill 13-35 specifically dealing with the building height of CCRCs (the only CCRC ever proposed in Harford County is at Eva Mar, not counting the failed Aberdeen project) is not specific to Eva Mar is delusional.
FACT: We have never ever disputed that the farm is zoned R1 and has been since 1982. Nor have we ever alleged that the current Council or County Executive did anything to change that. We have alleged however that Bills 13-35, 13-36 and 13-37 passed just two days before the plans went public conferred specific benefits to the project to our detriment and that the passage of those bills under the cover of darkness is unethical at a minimum.
FICTION: Campaign contributions do not influence politicians.
FACT: The $13,000 Slutzky received from entities related to Dixie Construction (president of which is on the Board of the CCRC) since September 2013 represents 12% of the total campaign contributions Slutzky has received since 2006 (around $106,000). And yet Slutzky alleges that kind of money has no influence on him. You have a single donor who gives you 12% of your overall contributions and you do not acknowledge that person with at least increased access???
FACT: Slutzky does receive campaign contributions from a wide range of interests and individuals. BUT by far the highest concentration is from developers, their attorneys, people seeking zoning reclassifications or who have cases before the Board of Appeals. That group represents approximately 67% of the total contributions he has received since 2006. Non-land use related individuals and businesses comprise only about 20% of his total contributions with the balance of contributions coming from County employees and political action committees (PACs) unrelated to land use.
FACT: At the end of the day, the only person who truly knows what influences Slutzky is Slutzky himself. In the case of Slutzky’s position on Eva Mar, there are only two alternatives: 1. He genuinely believes his “conflict of interest” position is valid and what is best for his constituents despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, fellow Council members who disagree and a gross contradiction of that position by freely accepting of campaign contributions from developers; or 2. He is allowing the campaign contributions to influence his decisions. Either way we wind up with a colossal lapse of judgment and a complete abdication of his duty to represent ALL of his constituents who, as he indicates in his ad, represent a wide range of individuals, businesses and organizations NOT just developers.
FICTION: This is a smear campaign against Slutzky.
FACT: This is the truth. Shenanigans like this need to be called out and cannot be allowed to stand.
FICTION: Slutzky’s position on Eva Mar is just an Eva Mar issue that only impacts those living in the neighborhoods surrounding the project.
FACT: Slutzky’s failure to help us and aid developers through his silence is an issue that impacts all Harford County residents. Slutzky’s lack of action on the traffic impacts caused by Eva Mar will have a major impact on every person in the County who travels along Route 543 and Route 22 – roads that by all accounts are already congested and plagued with almost daily accidents. Over 40,000 cars per day (almost 1/5th of the County’s population) pass through the 543/22 intersection. Eva Mar and other projects will add over 5,000 trips per day to the area.
FACT: Slutzky’s effective aid to developers in this case will only further embolden developers to exploit him on future projects throughout Harford County and with even greater effect with if Slutzky becomes Council President. What we have seen with Eva Mar will be coming to undeveloped land in your backyard sooner or later.
FACT: Slutzky’s silence and indefensible positions on land use matters are inexcusable and should not be rewarded with a promotion to Council President.
No matter what he claims or tries to pretend “Coach” overwhelmingly supports developers and commercial entrepreneurs, regardless of the impact on the community or surrounding area. I followed closely his votes on requests for changing the zoning from residential to commercial for properties in the Bel Air area (remember he lives in Aberdeen). Even when the Department of Planning and Zoning recommended no change (rare in itself), and certainly when the Friends of Harford likewise opposed such a change, he always rejected the recommendations of professionals, environmentalists, and preservationists, and supported the developers’ desire to build commercial ventures. Check his vote for the three properties across the street from the St. Ignatius Church Hickory (1792). I doubt he has ever been to Hickory or seen the church and its setting.
Ah yes the lovely sprawling St. Ignatius church that ties up traffic every saturday with ignorant drivers darting out on Jarrettsville rd….. bordered by Hickory International, Hickory vet and the BMW dealership. It’s a lovely area this time of year as the leaves fall revealing the garbage piles in the woods.
Face it if you do not like development and other people Harford county is not for you. Move to North Dakota where the nearest Walmart is a 3 hour drive each way from your house and the nearest neighbor is over the horizon…. You’ll love the winters.
Vote Slutsky
Sorry you are so horribly inconvenienced in your efforts to speed by the church for those ten minutes before and after the 4 PM services.. Maybe you should use your reduced speed to notice that the church property constitutes an attractive relief from the blights you reference, while struggling to remain a small green oasis amidst the commercial creep promoted by individuals such as our favorite wrestling coach councilman hoping to be our council president. I suppose the solution to any garbage thoughtlessly left by jerks is to build a 7-11, a Burger King, and a drug store to eliminate the wooded properties thoughtlessly defiled by dolts upset at the accumulated trash in their cars.
That church has all the beauty of the old fallston general hospital complete with dead people and set off by the 2 acres of black top,…
Vote Slutzky
Confusious say “never mud wrestle with pig…you only get dirty and the pig likes it’. You’re wasting your breath with Bill – he admittedly hates Harford County and all it’s citizens and yet would prefer we blacktop the entire county…actually that might feed into the hating us meem.
Heck if all of harford county looked like St. Ignatius Church there would only be trees around the Walmarts.
St. Ignatius Church was built in 1792.
Here is a Big Bang type fun fact for you: Harford County Ranks consistently in the top 10 counties in the COUNTRY for preserving land and restricting development to the development envelope. The credit for this of course goes to those often seen as “pushing” development by the liberal left including David Craig, and all of the current council members including Slutzky.
Here is another fun fact: Slutzky has family that attend St. Ignatius and also CMW High School and is often in the area.
Or: how about the fact Slutzky stood up against those trying to push another school along Shucks road that would have potentially expanded the development envelope and which the residents of the same neighborhoods now complaining about EVA MAR were against, but now try and use to state the case against him.
Or how about the fact he supported Parks and Recreation and efforts to give CMW Turf Field and to push forward Prospect Mill and Shuck Roads Parks as our area was low on field space for our Rec Programs.
Like it or not Slutzky had nothing to do with EVA MAR and neither Wagner or Thornton was going to be able to stop development of that land as it is what is known as “in-fill” and when you have a development envelope and don’t expand into rural lands then the parcels skipped over eventually get developed. The Citizens against EVA MAR group has alienated so many people because instead of focusing on dealing with State Highway and trying to make the best of the upcoming development by pushing for things like bike paths they choose to go after a representative that actually has worked for our area. They then decided to make things up and misrepresent facts (which I’m guessing was Wagner’s influence) in order to try and make a case. Stupidly Thornton just copied Wagner’s materials and Slutzky called him on it. I like many others around here like to road bike and I called Slutzky and asked for info to try and get involved with the process and found him to be very helpful.
Vote for whoever you want, but I’m voting for Slutzky.
In dealing with state highway it would have been nice to have our councilman on our side and speaking out on our behalf as well. Councilman McMahan has no problem going above and beyond to help his constituents with SHA in case like Walmart. Slutzky could have done the same. But no slutzky has done nothing at all to help us on SHA. We are entirely on our own to deal with that. The issues with state highway have nothing to do with anything related to Eva mar zoning. When slutzky met with us back on January 15th he could have said something like “I have a conflict of interest on zoning issues, BUT I will help you as much as I can with SHA. Since I have family who live in the area and frequent the area myself, traffic safety is very important me. Here are the names of some contacts with SHA with whom I have developed relationships over the years.” But no all we got over and over again at that meeting was “I cannot and will not help you an anything Eva mar related”
He could helped us with bike paths, walking trails and other improvements. But no we were left on our own. We proposed the idea of a small Central Park type area to reduce density, save some protected trees, among other things. But no, we are left on our own. While councilman Guthrie fights for his constituents and the building of a community center, slutzky does nothing at all for us.
Nothing at all that I have written is made up or misrepresented. I felt compelled to write what I wrote because of Slutzky’s misrepresentations. In particular about meeting with his constituents. He gives the impression that he met with us to discuss our concerns and see how he could help. While he did meet with us, the sole purpose was to tell why he could not help. None of that is made up, I have the emails and the accounts of those who attended that meeting.
Nobody is looking for a savior to stop Eva mar or any of the in-fill as you call it. What we are looking is someone to listen to us when we raise concerns about infill and who might actually have the courage to do something about it and not be afraid of a scary letter from Walmart’s attorneys. You are absolutely right that no one can stop the infill but with the development envelope being filled up we need to give more thought to projects on the remaining land. And for that we need elected officials who recognize that they represent more than just developer’s interests and at the very least recognize that positions like the one slutzky has taken with us have the indirect effect of providing significant help to developers through his silence on a project.
Having been in office for 12 years, it does not shock me that you can find few a good things that slutzky has done. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then.
“Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then.”
Ah more of the “childish name calling” you so detest.
See you on bingo night.
Seriously recommend you just ignore BillH. As I said and to reiterate he’s already stated on previous thread that he hates the county and his neighbors. Given that’s his starting point pretty much any opinion he has about anything has to be framed around his psychosis. You’re better off not responding to him…he is what my mom in her less polite moments would call a “sheetz disturber”.
Did Slutzky vote for the 25K raise for the next County Council President?
He voted no – he probably got a hall pass because he’s in a hotly contested race and didn’t want to give his opponent more ammo. One good vote out of how many?
Slutzky is not my rep, so I don’t have much of a dog in this fight. And I can understand the line of argument that council members are wary to discuss projects, as they had previously been given legal advice from their attorney on the matter.
However, even at that, this council had an opportunity to relieve themselves of this conflict of interest, and they punted it.
Further, as pointed out by the opponent above, it may be legal, but it makes absolutely no sense at all that council members are subject to the influence of their donors (who intend to build these projects and plan them for years), but not subject to the direct input of their constituents. Neither of these things are a Slutzky problem, they area county problem and they need to fixed immediately.
Second, though Slutzky is technically correct that the bills the council passed did not “specifically” benefit the project in question (as it could impact any project really), it just once in a very long line of MANY bills that get introduced and passed within days, weeks, or months, of a specific project being made known to the public. I’ve been watching this and researching it closely for the last 3 years and it is like clockwork.
There was another project in the Fallston area that could have been tied to a bill introduced by their council member and when the link between them was publicly questioned, he pulled the bill. Coincidence?
There are too many coincidences like this.
I know local government, and when a developer starts planning a project, years in advance usually, they start greasing the wheels with phone calls and donations, so that when the time is right they get what they want and we have little to say about it.
The entire council is implicated in this matter, in my opinion.
I don’t care who people in this council district vote for, but they need to make sure their interests are being represented and they need to pressure the council to make the changes needed in the development process.
I agree 100%. And it should be made clear that as an attorney I understand the conflict of interest issue and do not disagree that it is in fact a thorny issue for the Council with the multiple hats they wear. The issue that I have is we are told that under no circumstances are we allowed to have any discussion with our Councilman about the project. But at the same time the developers are allowed to give thousands of campaign contributions (which the Supreme Court has ruled are a form of free speech). I was booted from the podium by Boniface the night I tried to make that point before the Council. The only response we get from Slutzky on that is “the contributions do not influence me” Really? You get $13,000 from a donor and do not have any contact with that donor?? If that is the case, then I am an unhappy donor after giving you $13,000. Businesses do not give away money for pure altruism.
Yes those bills in theory could benefit any project. However, given that there are NO CCRCs currently in Harford County and only ONE ever proposed, Bill 13-35 dealing specifically with CCRC building heights (not building heights in general) is about as close as you can get to conveying a specific benefit without crossing the line. And I mean you are about hair’s length from crossing that line. Especially when the bill is passed just two days before the plans for CCRC go public.
This is hilarious – Mr. Slutzky complains about ‘special interests’ supporting his opponent’s campaign, while he takes SERIOUS money from the developers of EVA-MAR.
I cannot believe there are people that live in his district OTHER than developers that actually support him. Slutzky has not supported the schools whatsoever, despite his history as a teacher, he has certainly not approved increased spending for deputy raises (which they very much deserve), and he straight-up refuses to listen to constituent concerns regarding development. What a shame that people like this keep getting elected in Harford County.
I should also point out that Slutzky is running for Council President which is on the County-wide ballot. This is not just particular to our district. Slutzky is seeking a promotion to be a representative of the entire County. So everyone in Harford County needs to go to the polls with healthy skepticism and not simply vote along party lines for Council President. Who does Slutzky really represent? That is the question. I would argue that his track record clearly favors developer interests, regardless of his motivations. Balanced representation of both development interests and homeowner interests is all the we are seeking.
I was standing behind Slutzky a year or two ago waiting to go into the movie theater on Route 22. He has a horrible problem with body odor.
Last time I checked Thornton was a developer and bill 13-35 was passed by a vote of 7-0.
We are well aware of Thornton’s business. That does not in and of itself make him a bad person or mean that development will run even more amuck than it already is if he gets in office. Slutzky has shown tendencies over the past 12 years. And they are more than mere tendencies. His stance on Eva Mar alone shows whose side he is on. The point is that we are not asking for Harford County to put a halt to all future development. We do not support a “No growth” agenda. We do however support a balanced agenda where we do not get sold down the river because somebody’s ego wants to declare that he brought the first CCRC to Harford County. Balance. We acknowledge that development plays a big role in our economy. However, It cannot come at the expense of public safety, quality of life or property value. Existing homeowner’s have rights too. If Eva Mar was sensible and did not pose a threat to traffic safety among other things, we would not be having this discussion. I think that Thornton shares this view towards balanced development. Slutzky clearly does not care about any of the impacts this development brings to the community or else he would have found a way to speak out. He has chosen to remain silent for almost a year now. His silence alone is major victory for the developers because it removes one more obstacle they have to clear to get their development approved. The less friction they get the better. And on flipside, his silence has done nothing but harm us.
wonorato you use the word “we” 7 times. Who exactly is the “we” you are referring to?
I would like to take a moment and talk about the Red Pump School.
Mr. Slutzky states that he did not fully support and lobby for the inexplicable selection of Red Pump Elementary over a more appropriate location. This is not true. When the Council states that either the school will be built at Red Pump or they will not fund it. That makes it pretty easy to determine where he wants the school.
Mr. Slutzky also tries to indicate that the school system moved the from Red Pump site to the Campus Hills site for reasons other than the studies showing that Campus Hills was a better site to relieve the overcrowding. This is not true. The only reason that the change was made was that the studies showed that the Campus Hills site was better suited to relieve overcrowding and if my memory serves me transportation would have been less.
It is a shame that he would make any inference about the project manager leaving for a disability retirement. The fact is that the project manager had a devastating accident that left the person unable at that time to continue performing the job. I did not realize that when a person leaves on a disability retirement that there needs to be an announcement. Yes, the President of the Board did resign. The reason that he resigned was when the Council stated that if the school was not built at Red Pump then they would not fund it he felt that if the Council was now going tell the school system where the schools should be placed then he was not needed any longer.
Mr. Slutzky states that by” building the Red Pump School and the redistricting associated with these changes has eliminated all elementary school overcrowding in Harford County. There are currently no overcrowded schools in Harford County” This is not true.
I went on the HCPS web site and got the following information on schools that are over capacity.
School Capacity Enrollment % Over Capacity
Bel Air 500 508 1.6%
Fountain Green 571 604 5.78%
Hickory 622 687 10.45%
Homestead/Wakefield 907 937 3.3%
Joppatowne 611 670 9.65%
Youths Benefit 890 1041 16.96%
Once again I will state that these figures came from the HCPS web site.
So what is true?
I feel like there is a lot of questions that need to be answered.
One issue you did not touch on about Slutzky Elementary AKA Red Pump Elementary is that it will cost the taxpayers an additional $1.6 million to upgrade the water and septic system for this school as the present one is somewhat temporary. This was not budgeted in the original cost but added later to appear the school is coming in at about budget.
Red pump is not on city water and sewer?
Red pump has both public water and sewer. It’s a shame just how dumb many of the county residents are.
What’s really a shame is the number that will say anything right or wrong knowing many will not question what they say. Which is exactly what this trash piece of an article Mr Onorato has written. Written from a frantic NIMBY perspective with out a shed of actual facts. He should be embarrassed.
Slutty is more like it. The guy is a shady as Redwood Tree in Northern California. He is crooked and takes $$$ and votes on bills to benefit his pocket.
What part of my piece is not factual? You know more about the Eva Mar project and Slutzky’s positions than I do apparently?
I know the layout is a bit confusing the way they made it one long piece but you are aware that the top half of this piece, the only place where Red Pump Elementary is mentioned, was written by Slutzky, right? Not me. I wrote the bottom half in opposition to Slutzky and only addressed Slutzky’s position on Eva Mar and other developments including the party barn on Glenville Road – another one where he refuses to talk to his constituents. I did not touch Red Pump Elementary because I prefer to be factual and admittedly do not know the whole story behind the Red Pump Elementary. I only know that it was controversial and that some questioned Slutzky’s motivations in that matter, including the Aegis’ editorial board.
Oh and by the way you win the prize for being the first commentator to call me a NIMBY today. It took a while but somebody finally came through. Way to go Henry! I had my money on BillH but he was very disappointing today. He must not be feeling well. Although his rant about St. Ignatius Church was comical.
Why did you use 2009 enrollment numbers. Here’s the correct data for 2013. The data for 2014 should be out soon.
http://www.hcps.org/schools/docs/balancingenrollment/EnrollmentandProjections.pdf
Overall enrollment of 17,638 with capacity of 19,353, meaning we have over 1,700 open seats.
Interesting. So Slutzky states as FACT that “Building the Red Pump School and the redistricting associated with these changes has eliminated all elementary school overcrowding in Harford County.” The official 2013 enrollment numbers indicate a total of seven elementary schools were at 100% or greater capacity. Eliminated all overcrowding……??? Sounds like a FICTION to me.
So tell me, if a school like Hickory Elementary School is still at 105% capacity AFTER the Red Pump redistricting and BEFORE the additional 200+ single family and townhomes proposed in the district are built, then how can you claim that Red Pump eliminated all elementary school overcrowding in Harford County????
Just take the fact that Hickory Elementary School is at 105% today. How was overcrowding eliminated by building Red Pump??? It seems to me that schools are still overcrowded despite Slutzky’s claim. And don’t tell me the official APF definition of overcrowding is 110%. If a school’s capacity is 655 students and you have 687 students that is overcrowding by a parent’s definition and that is all that matters.
I guess you ignored that the fact that the school system can support 19,353 kids, but only has 17,638 enrolled. Appears to me that the Council has provided the money to build schools. Now the school board needs to manage those assets better. Why is Hickory at 105% when the schools surrounding it like Forest Hill (85%), Forest Lakes (88%), Fountain Green (91%) and Prospect Mill (82%) have lots of open seats. Thank goodness we now get to vote for the school board. If you ever get a chance, take a look at how some of these attendance areas are drawn. Seems like more gerrymandering than some congressional districts.
The point you raise is a point we have raised regarding Eva Mar. Eva Mar has been put in the Hickory Elementary School District which is at 105% capacity. Meanwhile, Prospect Mill is well below capacity and is closer to Eva Mar. Why not move the Eva Mar development Prospect Mill? Nobody can answer that question.
“The point you raise is a point we have raised regarding Eva Mar. Eva Mar has been put in the Hickory Elementary School District which is at 105% capacity”.
Evamar is a retirement community and it will not have any children attending any schools. You should probably focus on the real issue you have with evamar,…it’s in your back yard.
The Eva Mar project consists of a 514 unit retirement facility AND 144 single family homes. People do not realize the single family home part that is in addition to the retirement facility as if the retirement facility was not enough. They are putting 10 pounds of manure in a five pound sack.
Combined the two parts are estimated to produce nearly 3,000 trips per day that either go out onto Route 543 (already congested) OR go backwards through neighborhoods to seek shortcuts around the congestion.
Under present zoning they could build way more than 140 new homes. The 140 they do propose will take over 10 years to build. May I ask what is the school capacity projected to be in 2025? Will there be a new school built on Shucks rd by then?
You should really try to focus, your rage makes your arguments look childish.
Your greed and self interest shines through your thin facade of indignation towards Slutsky.
Fact is Slutzky appointed himself special envoy for cheerleading the location of the Red Pump School against the location the school board recommended and curiously not so much after he was successful we ended up with Blakes Legacy and Blakes townhouses right down the street from the school. The intensity with which Slutzky took on that task was odd to say the least especially considering neither the location the school board wanted, nor Red Pump was in his district. Whether you consider yourself pro-development or anti-development or even somewhere in between our local government needs leadership that is not so obviously in the pocket. To BillH who continues to treat the idea that NIMBY or to use his phrase “in your backyard” as if there’s something wrong with being concerned about your own neighborhood – just when would you think it appropriate to give a crap about your community if not when it directly affects where you live? The truth is throwing out a phrase like NIMBY for people active in their own communities is pretty absurd. The only unfortunate function that this site lacks is the ability to put some people on “ignore”.
To expand on your comment, Slutzky has labeled us as a special interest group because we are challenging him in a way that no one else has in the past. We are forcing him to explain an absolutely preposterous and contradictory position he has taken and his only response is that we are running a smear campaign. He is calling us a term that is the equivalent of NIMBY simply because we care about our community.
Here is the sequence of events: We are presented with a MAJOR project that will have significant impact to our community, we go to our councilman to express our concerns, he tells us that he cannot talk to us at all, we challenge his position AND we become an elitist special interest group running a smear campaign??
What kind of a message does that say about Slutzky as an elected official?? He clearly does not recognize that he works for those who elected him. He does what he wants to do without regard to the concerns of his constituents. He effectively sanctions over-zealous development without regard to the impact to the community when public safety is a major issue. And now he is asking us to promote him to Council President?
The problem is that for 12 years nobody has really questioned or challenged him. Failing to question and challenge our government is the reason we have rampant unfettered development in this County that has no regard for quality of life, property values or public safety. It is time we collectively stand up and send a message to these guys that the current path we are on is unacceptable. Between all of the various groups now that are fighting developments around the County we should be able to send a powerful message to Slutzky and the rest of the Council that enough is enough! And that starts with voting against Slutzky.
I looked at the individual school sites.
also if memory served me correct the state would have helped fund Campus Hills but there was no state funding for Red Pump because of the sewer problems. Essentially Red Pump cost more money.
You are indeed correct. In addition the storm water system built for Red Pump was built to standards insufficient for county regulations so will now have to be retrofitted to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars at taxpayers expense so the costs of Red Pump continue. That entire sequence of events about Red Pump stunk up the place like a skunk at a wedding, but so does Eva Mar. We point to developers in many of “interesting” development outcomes in the county but it is something to consider that somehow Mr. Snee and his lawfirm are the common denominator in all of it. Mary Dulaney-James works for that firm too – doing what and does she get a salary from the firm, a stipend, perhaps bonus for efforts at redirecting development dollars to the county and wouldn’t that be interesting to know; this firm whose primary purpose is assisting developers in the county. I’m afraid that the level of corruption in this county is so much greater than we can imagine.
In fact taken right from the Snee firm website are these gems which basically state that the firm is embedded in government and can get developers basically anything they want.
“Mr. Snee has extensive experience in land use, real estate, landlord/tenant, business, construction, criminal, liquor license and litigation. Mr. Snee’s practice also involves considerable emphasis on governmental relations with Harford County and the State of Maryland.”
“For decades, SMLH lawyers have been known and recognized for the expertise and success in advising clients in land use and zoning matters. SMLH attorneys have obtained hundreds of zoning approval of all kinds, including variances, special exceptions piece meal and comprehensive rezoning,”
This is a great thread, and I am honored to be considered part of the “elitist special interest group” that Mr. Slutzky refers to. That’s code for residents, taxpayers, and public citizens who apparently have no role in shaping public policy. Evidently we’re supposed to sit quietly and allow our neighborhoods to get trashed. Like Mr. Onorato, I became involved in opposing the Eva Mar Project as it was originally conceived because ill advised zoning changes were rushed through around Veteran’s Day’s holiday.
My first step was to write Mr. Slutzky about my concerns and to ask for help. My specific concerns involved public safety; damage to the Chesapeake Bay watershed; creation of an incompatible and inharmonious development among surrounding neighborhoods; wholesale destruction of specimen trees and mature woodlands; lowering of property values; overburdening first responders; placement of the CCRC immediately adjacent to a residential neighborhood necessitating use of that neighborhood for frequent ambulance calls to the CCRC; use of two surrounding neighborhoods as exit ramps for a poorly conceived traffic layout; impact of county infrastructure; impact on local traffic already at gridlock; damage to the environment of surrounding neighborhoods (air, light, noise, and water pollution); etc.
Through the Developmental Review process, frequent contact with Planning and Zoning; and continued pressure from the “elitist special interest groups, Eva Mar has made positive adjustments as well as revisiting the Forest Conservation Plan; Traffic Impact Analysis; Eva Mar Road Layout; and most importantly, the CCRC Location on the property.. All without Mr. Slutzky’s help.
We did this despite Mr. Slutzky’s unwillingness to help his constituents and his silence. I would have been happy if he said, “The Developmental Review Process Guide” is on the Harford County web site and all documents needed in each phase are described there. He did not.
I have to thank Mr. Slutzky for getting so many people interested in Harford County politics. I, along with many others, became regulars at the County Council meetings. I have the deepest respect for Council members who invest so much time at the service of their county. I feel privileged to have witnessed local government at work and understand how each council member votes.
I’ve taken the time to meet all the new candidates, some of whom didn’t make it beyond the primaries. Some have walked our streets, others have showed up at the Council Meetings to listen to the concerned citizen sessions. Unlike Mr. Slutzky, Mr. Kaff, Mr. Thornton, Mr. Haggerty, Mr. Wagner, and especially Mr. Vincenti have invested time in getting to know and understand our concerns.
I would invite all Harford county residents to not only attend County Council meetings, but other important meetings open to the public, like the Traffic Safety Advisory Board. Your government needs your input, whether they acknowledge it or not. Be constructive. Do your homework. Bring about change. Elected officials aren’t the only individuals with influence, unless you abdicate your influence with silence. Be one of the “elitist special interest group”.
Let freedom ring. Voice your own opinion through your vote, and through your direct involvement.. Read the Harford County Master Plan and the Element Plan. Understand what the Developmental Envelope is. Once you do, understand, you can embrace it with silence or try to reshape with a few of your friends. Above all, be constructive.
So what? Are you suggesting that it is wrong for a law firm to advocate for their clients? Seems to me that they are pretty good at what they do.
Didn’t say anything like that – I’m saying this law firm seems to represent every developer in the county and some outside the county and they specialize in making friends in high places so if necessary they can get every developer any zoning change they might want – they brag about it on their website. People need to know what they’re dealing with and that’s my point. You don’t embed yourself with government unless it works which means they groom “friendlies” inside government to help them and I suspect Mr. Slutzky is one such friendly. End of story.
No question Snee is outstanding at what he does and the reason why anyone with a land use issue goes to him. The issue, however, is not with Snee. Like him or not, he is being an advocate for his clients and representing their interests to the best of his abilities as a good lawyer should do. When you are on the wrong side of that as we are, it is easy to paint him as the villain. The issue is with our elected officials who do not question him or say no to his requests. Our elected officials represent us NOT just Joe Snee and his clients. The only way we can counter this is by becoming active in the government (shame on us for not being more active in the past, lesson learned though) and with our vote. When somebody is not representing our interests, like Slutzky, we need to vote them out.
Here is the quote from Joe Snee that appeared in the Aegis where he addressed the zoning code changes that were done to benefit Eva Mar – “We cleaned up the code and we got to keep our architecture that we had in Aberdeen and move it over to Bel Air.”
We cleaned up the code? He clearly sat down with somebody to make his case. Somebody clearly agreed with him. We were not part of that discussion. Nobody argued on our behalf. Again no fault of Snee – he is doing what his client is asking him to do. Problem is with our government who did not question at all.
Fair enough
Fully agree with Mr. Onorato’s assessment. I have the deepest respect for Mr. Snee. He’s outstanding at what he does. If one needs legal representation for development within Harford County, you need a go-to guy. He’s that individual. He always has a dog in the hunt. He understands the politics of the county and navigates it well. Kudos to him. Private citizens aren’t that fortunate, especially if Mr. Slutzky is your representative. We had a steep learning curve to understand the impact and to grasp the inner workings of Harford County and State government.
Where compromise with the Eva Mar Task Force were necessary or compelling, Mr. Snee made compromises with the help of Harford County Planning and Zoning to respond to our criticisms. Democracy is about reasoned disagreement. To have that disagreement, both sides have to speak out and both sides have to listen. Our council representative chose not to participate or even advise at any level. Our representative chose not to attend CIMs or DACs and listen to both sets of voices dispassionately.
There’s work remaining to be done on the Route 543 corridor. The current Developmental Envelope is a disjointed, obsolete construct that assumes in 1878 farm road system can swallow it all. It’s incumbent on all citizen’s to get involved so that the developments (residential or commercial, existing or new) are linked by sidewalks, bike paths, and nature preserves. The county, as Mr. Slutzky has pointed out, has added new parks and new schools. Disregarding where they are, young adults and adults alike shouldn’t need a car, bus, or light rail to access them. They should be integrated into the existing envelope.
Mr. Slutzky still ignores wildlife, endangered species, large raptors, and the Chesapeake Watershed in his vision. We have to help him or whoever replaces him to understand that native owls, eagles, goshawks, deer, fox, opossum, and song birds all have a place in the future of this county.
Similarly, regardless of the perceptions about infrastructure, the Developmental Review Process (especially Community Input Meetings) need improvement to better front-load integrated infrastructure planning and impact assessment into the decision process for new development. Right now, it’s slightly better than a free-for-all. It’s only because of the classified personnel in this county that the Charter Amendment is trying to replace with political cronies that it has any semblance of order.
With that said, get involved, stay involved,… There are a lot of good people in this county who can make a difference.
Geez it’s comical to watch a couple of dozen NIMYs totally melt down because a county of 240,000 people could care less that a legal development is being built.
Keep the comedy coming.
And hey are those for sale signs on the property Wagner has yet to develop?
You guys are just too easy.
I have lived off 543 for 6 years now where and when are all these traffic problems people complain of because I don’t see them.
Really you live there and never noticed the roads being blocked for the multiple fatalities at the intersection of 543 and 22. I don’t normally drive down there but made the mistake of signing up for a CSA at the little farm down 22 and it was routine to turn onto 22 from Moores Mill and have it take half an hour just to get past the college. It’s insanity – the combination between people going home from work and people getting to the college for evening class. Just wonder how in the heck an ambulance will ever make it through there if someone is unfortunate enough to need help during rush hour.
Multiple fatalities? 1/2 hour to go a couple of miles on 22? You must have extremely bad luck, I live here and don’t see any of that on a daily basis. Once in a while yea, there is traffic due to something going wrong but what road in harford county doesn’t?
As an Independent, I will be voting for several Republicans and several Democrats on Tuesday. Slutzky needs to be thrown-out by the voters, but in this county I think most of them will just vote for the guy with the R next to their name. We need some real change in representation rather than a shuffling of the deck chairs. Competition is good -coronation is not.
Harford county could use a hard core Democrat to lead the county council. Bigger government more taxes and best of all free stuff for the people who don’t want to work.
Go Thornton!!!!!
You are a classic example of why the country is in such a mess.
One fun way to find out who is a NIMBY is to put onto a future ballot a question that allows us to expand the development zone or scrap it altogether and allow the free market to reign.
Hilarity will ensue.
Perhaps putting the CCRC in Slutzky’s or Boniface’s backyard would end the argument of who was a NIMBY…
Chances are they would have a melt down just like you are having, but that;s no reason it shouldn’t be built 🙂
BillH. You really have to be more creative. Meltdown. NIMBYs. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
You used to at least try harder to be constructive… Enjoy the weekend and make sure you vote.
Is that english? Are you a product of the overcrowded schools in your area?
Has any one checked on Bill Onorato today?
Folks, we missed our chance to get somone in who really cares and being a successfull Business Man was not influenced or in need of Developers money. Slutzky’s work for the Developer’s of Harford County continues.
Boy is that the truth. Harford County’s inability to look beyond party labels cost itself big time here. What a shame. When you are confronted with a candidate as qualified as is Jim Thornton, intelligent people really must learn to set aside party in favor for what is right.
The votes cast people cast in Harford County didn’t miss “our chance” over nothing. He lost, by a lot. Fill out a hurt feelings report and send it to someone who cares.
Are you inept? A heavy majority did not want this person elected and voted for the winner. That’s called an election.
Please, hit “reply” and “tell me how it is” and how “bad its going to be.” I really care.