By Rocky Lopes.
"D-19 Reporter" Ginger Ramsey ("unmasked" here as Senator Lenett's disgruntled ex-employee) is continuing her smear attacks on Senator Mike Lenett (D-19). Her latest mudslinging was to blast an email on July 26 and post on a website she has devoted to her smear attacks against Senator Lenett a copy of what I thought was a private email that was sent to me by Joel Mazelis, President of the AGWG (Allanwood, Gayfields, Willson Hills and Gaywood Estates) civic association and the next-door neighbor and supporter of Senator Lenett's challenger, Delegate Roger Manno.
When I asked Ms. Ramsey where she got the email, she replied that Mr. Mazelis gave permission for her to send it out in a mass email. Mr. Mazelis denies this, but admits to redistributing his email to me to others without my knowledge.
Mr. Mazelis sent an email to me on July 7 where he made certain negative claims against Senator Lenett that, after doing some checking with various sources, I found are based on false information. I had replied to Mr. Mazelis on the same date pointing out the inaccuracies, but apparently that did not cause him to correct the falsehoods, nor stop the redistribution of his email.
Nor did it stop Ms. Ramsey from publishing it to the world. Whether it was true or false obviously does not matter to Ms. Ramsey. All that matters is that it is negative against Senator Lenett. It is very sad that a disgruntled former state employee who has a personal vendetta against a good, hard-working public official has resorted to engaging in such repulsive tactics, dividing neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, Democrat against Democrat. In my opinion, she is behaving shamefully and has brought political discourse to a new low. Given her slanderous motive and tactics, she has zero credibility and nothing coming from her should go anywhere but in the trash. I truly regret the divisiveness undertaken by Ms. Ramsey. Negative politics has never worked for me, nor for many of my friends and neighbors who vote in District 19. Most of us understand that Ms. Ramsey is on a rampage, and just ignore her. You should too.
This whole matter is so darn unnecessary. Let's talk about issues. Let's talk about records. Let's not engage in distributing false, negative attacks in this election year against anyone. Such conduct is totally uncalled for, unhelpful, divisive, and just plain rotten. I commend Senator Lenett who has had this mud hurled at him, yet continues to remain above it.
Rocky Lopes
Rocky Lopes has been involved in various civic activities and non-profit organization leadership roles in Montgomery County for decades. He is a life-long resident of the county. Disclosure: Rocky serves as the webmaster for Mike Lenett's campaign website.
Monday, August 02, 2010
Ginger Ramsey's Divisive Actions
Sunday, August 09, 2009
A Move of a Treasure
By Rocky Lopes.
Imagine my surprise when I drove east on Bonifant Road past Layhill when I glanced to the left at a community landmark and treasure, the National Capital Trolley Museum. I had to do a double-take: it was gone!
No track, no buildings. Like it was never there!
I knew that the ICC construction was going to affect it, having heard such discussions but I have to admit, I had not been paying close attention.
Fortunately, our community treasure is only moving, as they say, "just up the hill" and will re-open later this summer. Their website gives details about the move, how the trolleys were relocated, and provides photos of their new digs.
I have always enjoyed bringing family and friends to visit the National Capital Trolley Museum. I had been concerned after the 2003 fire that destroyed so much, including some irreplaceable street cars of old that my elders rode and told me about. I recall that my mother and father told me about how they would get on the trolleys to go to work, shopping, and even for the occasional visit to Glen Echo with my older siblings. The line had stopped running by the time I was old enough to ride it, so I had to settle with visiting Glen Echo in the back of my uncle's station wagon.
I can't wait for the grand re-opening of the Trolley Museum at their new site, and see the huge smiles on the faces of our neighbors who enjoy this community treasure, as I do.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Maryland Public Television Snows Leisure World
By Rocky Lopes.
On April 14, 2009, without notice to customers, Maryland Public Television (MPT) converted to digital-only service. People who view MPT via basic Comcast service suddenly found snow on Channel 22. This was very upsetting to residents of Leisure World, in particular, since they view Channel 22 using the master cable infrastructure provided by Leisure World to its residents and funded through monthly assessments charged by the mutuals.
This incensed me when I found out about it. I have family and friends who live in Leisure World who described with angst (and some anger) that they thought can't get MPT any more. I wrote to MPT, and eventually received a "fact sheet" (reproduced below) describing the options. Essentially what they are saying if I read it correctly is that Comcast is required to provide ONE public television station in the basic, non-digital tier, and that MPT is not the one. They don't say it, but we know that the one public broadcast channel that Comcast must provide in Montgomery County is WETA (Channel 26).
Thus, the only way to get MPT in Leisure World any more is to do one of three things, according to their fact sheet:
1. Install an antenna. Yeah, right: outdoor antennas are against the covenants of Leisure World.
2. Get a digital converter box for Channel 22 from Comcast which will be provided free for one year (after that, there will be a monthly fee.)
3. Convert to the digital tier, requiring installation of a digital box and payment of a monthly digital service fee (on top of the fees included for Comcast by the fees assessed to residents by the mutuals).
The problem is, at least for my loved-ones who live there, they are not interested in using one type of set-up to watch one channel, and then switch to another set-up to watch others. Switching inputs is a technological challenge to many.
My perception in reading between the lines of what MPT provided in their "fact sheet" is that there is sniping going on between MPT and Comcast, each blaming the other for this problem.
Meanwhile, Channel 22 is dark for those unable or unwilling to install yet another technologically challenging system to get it back.
It's such a shame this has to happen. It has nothing to do with DTV transition that will occur nationwide on June 12, yet similar issues arise. If MPT does this, what's next? It just plain ain't fair.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Saving Money on EZ-Pass
By Rocky Lopes.
This is a reminder that effective July 1, 2009, holders of Maryland E-ZPass toll transponders will be assessed $1.50 per month "cost recovery fee" per account, regardless of usage. For an explanation about this poor decision by the Maryland Transportation Authority, see the earlier post on this blog.
Casual users may find that paying $18/year for the privilege of having transponders from Maryland not to be worth the cost, when you can get transponders from other EZPass participating entities for free or lower cost. A list of providing entities and a cost comparison is here.
I just got mine from another provider, for free. There is no account maintenance charge, either. I am sending back my Maryland transponders to the state with a letter of explanation (the address is: PO Box 17600, Baltimore, MD 21297.) I have asked that they close my Maryland account and refund the remaining balance to me.
If you haven't ordered yours from another provider yet, it's time to do so because it takes several weeks to get them. Do it now, and return your Maryland transponder(s) to the address above. Tell 'em by doing so that they can extract their "E-Z Tax" from people who don't read this blog.
Friday, February 20, 2009
The New E-Z Tax
By Rocky Lopes.
The Maryland Transportation Authority (MdTA) governing board voted on January 29, 2009, to impose cost-recovery fees for the Maryland E-ZPass system and increased tolls for certain classes of vehicles. As a casual user of E-ZPass, this caused me and many other Marylanders to become upset. The main issue that bothered many of us is that Maryland has now imposed the highest fees of any state that participates in the E-ZPass compact: $1.50 “account maintenance charge” assessed each month ($18/year), whether or not you use it, starting on July 1. (A state-by-state comparison is here).
The themes that many who are angry about this decision seem to agree on include:
1) The MdTA is an independent agency, governed by nine people appointed by the Governor; the Maryland General Assembly has no authority over any decisions made.
2) The MdTA had a comment period open about the new fee structure, but it was not widely publicized and seemed already to be a “done-deal” since I received a pre-written email defending their decision before the governing body met to formally consider it.
3) The word “fee” is just the same as another three-letter word, “tax.” Charge a fee or charge a tax; regardless, it comes out of the pockets of the taxpayers. But because it is a “fee,” the MdTA can impose it without legislative review. To many, this is a sneaky way to impose a tax.
Comments on articles written in several newspapers in the Baltimore and Washington Metro areas, as well as Red Maryland, indicate many Marylanders feel the same way.
E-ZPass offers a convenient way to bypass lines to pay tolls by cash in 13 states. Quoting from the Maryland’s EZ-Pass page, “with E-ZPass, you don’t need to worry about finding correct change for tolls or waiting in traffic! This convenient technology lets drivers pay their fees in advance and bypass toll station bottlenecks.”
Not only does E-ZPass offer a convenient method to get through toll plazas quickly, I have heard many elected officials in our state extol the virtues that using electronic toll collection methods reduces air pollution because cars aren’t idling in long lines wasting fuel.
The MdTA states on its website that the Chairman and eight Members of the Authority approved a cost-recovery initiative expected to generate approximately $60 million annually. It does not seem to be that the MdTA’s Governing Board really had a clue about how many of us will return our E-ZPass transponders to the state and close our accounts to avoid paying a nuisance tax, when we can get the same service from another participating state for free or for a far lower cost. I firmly believe this decision will backfire on them and our state, and not produce the projected revenues that they envisioned. I know that I am not alone in planning to return my Maryland E-ZPasses before the fees kick in on July 1.
The following is from an email that I received from someone at the MdTA writing for Ron Freeland, the MdTA’s Executive Secretary:You should know that monthly costs must still be paid by the Authority to the contractor who administers our E-ZPass system for each account, whether or not the account holder makes any trips. Even if the $1.50 charge per account is approved, we still will pay our contractor about $.25 more per account monthly that will not be passed along to our customers. Please be assured that we are not making money on this proposal, but rather attempting to recover the costs of operating the E-ZPass system.
It seems to me that the MdTA got itself into a rotten contract that is bilking them for a lot of money to operate the Maryland portion of the E-ZPass System, and that is why they are imposing the $1.50 monthly account maintenance charge.
My counter-proposal: since the Maryland General Assembly has not yet passed this year’s state budget, ask them to cut the budget for the Maryland Department of Transportation by a like amount - $60 Million. I suggest that they direct the funds be placed into a reserve to fund costs that the entire State of Maryland will incur from the Obama Administration's Environmental Protection Agency, which will get on our state's case about air pollution. We're already not doing so well in that regard – and many anticipate that the new Administration will be much more regulatory than the last one. Thus, I anticipate that our state will incur greater costs to combat pollution from vehicles - which E-ZPass decreases simply because vehicles don’t have to wait in long lines.
Mr. Freeland stated in an additional email message to me, “E-ZPass will still continue to offer convenient pre-paid tolling, significant time savings … and vehicle emissions reductions.” The irony here is incredible.
I offer my counter-proposal because I seriously think that the MdTA’s Governing Board, chaired by Transportation Secretary John Pocari, is being penny-wise and pound foolish – setting our state up for yet another disaster compounded by poor decision-making with anticipated revenues that will not nearly be met. When that happens, I’m certain we will see more “fees” imposed or increased, thus spiraling the problem into worse conditions.
Rocky Lopes is President of the Layhill Alliance and is a long-term civic activist in Montgomery County.
Monday, February 02, 2009
A Tribute to Don Praisner
By Rocky Lopes.
Don Praisner always said, “I'm not a politician” followed closely with, “but I have some ideas.” Don shared a vision of pragmatism and being fiscally conservative with his beloved wife, Marilyn. He also was keenly aware of the concerns that many in District 4 shared about the county Growth Policy as led by Marilyn during her term as Council President in 2007. He listened to many of us about matters related to development and pressures on infrastructure. He regarded our concerns seriously, and voiced them appropriately where it mattered.
Those of us who befriended Don really grew to like him. He was always gentle, thoughtful, and caring. He was easy to talk to, and would listen to your concerns with rapt attention, as if you were the only one in the room, despite the fact that often times that room was filled with many others.
I couldn't help but smile when I got him on my Harley for a photo op at his July '08 party that he organized to thank his legion of volunteers. Don had the biggest grin on his face. I think if he weren't otherwise occupied, he would have settled back on the passenger seat and gone for a ride with me that day. Don said that the party wasn't to be a celebration for his special election win, but rather to give thanks to everyone who worked hard to get him elected, and to help him carry through the vision we shared and to protect Marilyn's legacy of leadership, integrity, and independence. Don was always thinking about others, never himself.
A quiet, humble man, Don worked hard at whatever he did with a firm and respectable work ethic. I didn't know him as well as I knew his wife, Marilyn, who I had known for some 29 years. But when I dropped by their home, or when I was working on one of Marilyn's campaigns, Don was always there, organizing things. And you could always see how he loved and cared for his loving wife, children, and grandchildren. You truly felt the sense of “family” every time you were around Don. He would just glow when his grandchildren asked “Pop-Pop” a question.
As I grew to know him better during his special election campaign and after he took his seat on the County Council, my respect and admiration grew even deeper. Don was a very special man, who served our country, our state, and our county with distinction and honor.
His service on our County Council, though brief, brought stability and meaning to District 4. His sense of humor and calm reserve helped the Council deal with some tough issues from his first Council session to the last, and also during committee meetings.
Those of us who had the opportunity to get to know Don and his family cherish the time we spent with him and appreciate the chance to help him carry out his vision, explore ideas, and continue the work he had planned.
What a sad loss for District 4, and for our county as a whole. But more importantly, the Praisner family. Our warmest and most heart-felt prayers are extended to them.
Details about the celebration Don's life and arrangements to pay respects can be found on his website, one of my last duties as his “Loyal Webmaster.”
Editor's Note: Rocky Lopes is the President of the Layhill Alliance and is a long-time civic activist in District 4.
