I thought of Yogi Berra, the king of the malaprop, when I heard about the goings-on during this week’s Town Council meeting. Frank Holtz, who has been a law enforcement professional for 23 years, was nominated by Ken Reid for the Town’s Standing Residential Traffic Committee. It would seem to Yogi and any other clear thinking individual that the Town would be lucky to have such a professional advising the Council on traffic and public safety. Then politics got in the way of reason.Kelly Burk suddenly announced that she had several other, presumably, more qualified candidates. Mayor Umstattd, at Burk’s request, asked the Council to table the appointment. The night before, when Reid discussed this appointment at the Town Council work session, there was no objection. What happened between late Monday and Tuesday night? Frank Holtz announced that he would run for the Town Council next May, and Burk discovered that Holtz was helping Jim Clem in his reelection bid for the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. Clem’s opponent? Kelly Burk of course. A three-year-old can connect these dots.
I remember well three years ago when Katie Hammler tried to appoint yours truly to the Airport Commission. A long line of speakers, including former Council members, Town managers, and prominent citizens spoke to support my nomination. There were no negative comments. Yet, Umstattd, Burk, Martinez and Kramer, the Democratic gang of four, voted no and the nomination failed. Was there any connection to the fact that a year earlier I had worked on Bob Zoldos’s campaign to unseat Umstattd? You connect those dots.
Umstattd and Burk do not need Halloween costumes. We are tasting the witch’s brew, and watching the cauldron bubble.
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