Commissioner Richard Rothschild was testifying in Annapolis and not at the commissioner meeting to participate in the vote.
What was he testifying about..?

How much will this cost the County taxpayers..?
The Commissioners have made a decision to break the law intentionally...and to use tax dollars in an attempt to cover their asses while breaking the law. Not good.
The Commissioners should be forced to pay for these legal expenses out of their own pockets and should pay severe penalties for this and other flagrant violations of the law....can't wait to see which judge will hear this one..

"I would be wiling to avail ourselves of the process of what was recommended [by the attorney general] and let the courts weigh in on this once and for all," Howard said.
Would you be willing to pay for this process out of your own pocket Howard?...or are you a boob that seeks perceived shelter from the law at the taxpayers expense?

I understand the PIA but to what end does the CaCoTimes want our email addresses? What are they going to do with them? Publish our private info in the newspaper for all the world to see? What the heck CaCoTimes, it's none of your business! Just another example of "our" local paper "helping" the community! UGH!

Here we go again. The county commissioners really know how to waste taxpayer dollars on frivolous lawsuits while attempting to cut tax dollars from xcritical programs like education. They seem to think that taxpayer dollars are their own personal legal fund.

Is the wasted cost or the intent more disconcerting? The fact that some of these Commissioners apparently have something so terrible to hide that it necessitates such a ridiculous showing, should be very concerning to citizens. If they are using government email for non-Carroll County purposes, this a clear violation of their oaths. When the smoke finally clears on all the obfuscation and they are finally forced to give up the e-mail lists will they resign over their activities in disgrace? Of course not. They will make up some lame Tea Party inspired excuse why the interest of all Carroll citizens are somehow served by these emails and newsletters to people outside the county spinning their ultra-conservative agendas. If they really were strict Constitutionalists and not just self-serving politicians, the shame of ignoring their oaths of office and violating the public trust would be enough to make them resign. Don't count on it. They view the laws as a mere annoyance thinking themselves above them. Total hypocrites.

The original issue was that the county staff was using County time and money to send a newsletter to "certain" people...it was surmised that this was political in nature, and against the law...So started this chain of events. This has been an issue for over a year. Richard Rothschild has muddied the waters by saying that the email addresses would somehow (without a shred of any evidence ) be used to tap into peoples' bank accounts, etc. The purpose of this law is to establish what is on paper between our elected officials and the general public. The names and addresses are not something that will be published...they are available as a record if a PIA were submitted on a particular issue, i.e., the airport..., The unilateral redacting of the names is already against the law...Carroll has chosen for over a year to snub its nose like a petulant child--"make me." Thee is a process of appeal in place if the County Attorney thinks that there are good reasons to withhold the names and addresses...and the County has 10 days go to Circuit Court about the matter. Rothschild was in Annapolis about the GPS issue in cars to establish mileage used on the roads, etc. Fraizer probably would've gone too but perhaps the Economic Relief package issue was more her concern as in signs, and detatched housing...the business community interests in other words...

Oh, and on taxpayer money....both Rothschild AND Fraizer are in Annapolis today on a variety of bills...do we still have a delegation? Lobbyist??

This whole issue of the new forms of communication presents interesting situations--not the least of which is the delete button. Will all forms of interaction between elected officials-emails, tweets, phone calls...will there have to be some sort of 'record' to show who did what on what matter with whom? Will we have to break it down to "subject line"? I can see people's heads spinning...

As if our worthless delegation wasn't enough of an embarrassment down there, Rothschild & Frazier, our most embarrassing public officials need to show their faces in Annapolis? Maybe Rothschild is testifying for the bill he forced the delegation to support concerning forcing MDE employees to ride their bikes to work one day a week or the one requiring minimum credit ratings for anyone handling financial budgets...afterall "Raving Rich" thinks that poor credit scores=poor ethics. I happen to think that most Tea Party politicians are total hypocrites...but I'm confident that there are more concrete examples of this than what Rothschild can produce for any of his crazy conspiracy theories.

Will the Judge that hears this mess be provided with the email list that Carroll County Times has requested?

If the Time's receives the email list, as it should by law, and somehow uses it in a way that violates privacy of a private citizen, they could very well be held accountable by law.The Commissioners must comply with the very same laws that pertain to open government as it is in fact law. This law has been clearly interpreted, but yet the intent is to continue to break the law... the Commissioners need to be swiftly smacked down on this one...the intent is ill.

All I can say is " ALL I CAN SAY IS HERE COMES THE JUDGE" The Commissioners are saying that they dont want to reveal the address of the e-mails they receive. I love to hear just one good answer, why is their something to hide. I personally rather see the message that these e-mails are sending. Then we certainily would know who has a choke hold on the commissioners.

Perhaps this will help. Here is an email message that was obtained some time ago from the County Attorney through a PIA request.It shows that Rothschild and his Special Assistant Fuller have been conducting non-County business, using County resources:
From: Nancy Carr in Lincoln, NE,
To: Rothschild and Fuller (at their County email addresses)
On 5/13/11
Subject: Addresses for Lincoln city/county.
Body of message: “Kathy, I hadn’t hear back from you—did the list of names and addresses get to you? I would like to send the Tom DeWeese flyer to the members of the City Council and the County Commissioners, but I would rather wait until Richard has actually written to them. Please let me know if I need to resend that email or when Richard has mailed off the letters. Thank you both so much! Have a blessed day!" And there's more!

Here’s another one.
From: Kathy Fuller (at her County email address)
To: "undisclosed recipients"
Subject: “Fwd: Recap Agenda 21 "One Bay Area" meeting”
Sent: 5/12/11 6:05 AM
Body of message: "For all of you whom have contacted this office, I thought you would be interested in reading the account at the bottom of how a 'consensus building' or 'visioning' meeting is held, what to watch for and how to stand up and show it for what it is."

In a reply to the above message, Lorna Wharton from Lake Oswego, OR, wrote: “Thank you Kathy – I will be handing out the “How to Fight Back” document at my class in Lake Oswego, Oregon tomorrow, Saturday. I am presenting Agenda 21 to the 912 group there. I hope to have a video of the event and will send along with the documents I hand out for people to do their own research to find how the county and city is linked to the UN. Please thank your commissioner for all that they [sic] are doing and sacrificing. Lorna”

More abuse of County resources and proof that Rothschild and Fuller have been conducting non-County business on County taxpayers' dime.

And another:
From:Rothschild at his personal email address which is teamrothschild@aol.com
To: Kathy Fuller (at her County email address)
Subject: “Re: Fwd: Recap Agenda 21 "One Bay Area" meeting”
Sent 5/13/11 at 10:26 AM
Body of message: “VERY POWERFUL MATERIALS- 3 docs. – Rich”.

Fuller replied to the above message that same day, as follows:
From: Kathy Fuller
To: Rothschild (at his ‘teamrothschild@aol.com” address)
Subject: “Re: Fwd: Recap Agenda 21 "One Bay Area" meeting”
Sent 5/13/11 at 12:44 PM
Body of message: “I forwarded the delphi technique to those who have contacted us. We have on our regular send list the Freedom Advocates how to fight back manual.”

On our "regular send list"??? So there's proof positive that these lists exist. Rothschild simply doesn't want you - the taxpayer whom he is sworn to represent - to see them!

Both of the above were part of an email thread from this message:
From: news@freedomadvocatesnews.org
To: news@freedomadvocatesnews.org
Subject: “Fwd: Recap Agenda 21 "One Bay Area" meeting”
Sent: 5/11/11
Body of message: “Stack and Pack the People! The emails below show how to defend against the Delphi Technique. The same manipulation tactic is being used throughout the country! The San Francisco Bay Area represents ICLEI’s largest concentration of member cities in the world and the current Agenda 21 plan comes from a regional kingpin called “One Bay Area:. See how informed citizens are taking steps to prevail against Agends 21’s big roll out and how they work to defend their community’s independence. For updates on these meetings be sure to check out the Town Crier section of the www.FreedomAdvocates.org website."

Some strong words, but still about a community over which we - the Carroll County taxpayers - have no control nor any interest in. So why is Rothschild so entangled with these people? And why does he keep using County resources to communicate with them? And why doesn't he want us to know who they are?

And one last one. This is a portion of a message for which only the first page was made available to me. Again, it demonstrates that Rothschild and Fuller have been conducting a national campaign, using County staff and resources. Let's be clear. It doesn’t matter what the topic of their little personal campaign is. What matters is that Rothschild is abusing his authority as a Carroll County Commissioner, is not focusing on the people whom he is sworn to represent, is shirking the real work that needs to be done here, and is using YOUR tax dollars to do it! This is why he doesn’t want to have his email distribution lists revealed!
From: George D.
To: (not shown)
Subject: Recon/Recap of the “One Bay Area” Agenda 21 meeting.
Body of message: “This is the way to PREVAIL against Agenda 21. This is an excellent recounting of the personal experience of someone who cares about America, and will not be BRAINWASHED into ‘buying” the Elitist Agenda. Unless we STAND UP NOW against this blatant power grab, then it will truly be a very sad day for our children and grandchildren. Most of the planks of a Fascist Stage are already laid. It happened on our watch, so we have only ourselves (message stops here)."

Wow! Elitist? Brainwashed? Fascist Stage? Yes, folks, these are kind of nutjobs Rothschild hangs with. I've been saying for two-plus years that this guy is a paranoid extremist. Now you've got a little taste of where he gets it from.

@Bonnie-Thank you for sharing this with us! It's frankly exactly what I feared and you are absolutely right, this sort of crazy paranoid extremist stuff should have no place in Carroll or anywhere else! The fact that he would use the county e-mail and his county paid staff to promote his nutty Agenda 21 theories across the country is a terrible abuse of the trust his bone-headed constituents have placed in him. He may think he is only responsible for serving the narrow interests of his sycophantic followers, but that's not the oath he took. If he's so stinking righteous about upholding the constitution of the county, Maryland and the US and is SO knowledgeable about the law (and everything else), than he should promptly resign over these obvious transgressions. The sooner he comes clean and stops fighting the inevitable truth from coming out, the better it will be for all of us. He is just too extreme in his views and this proves beyond a doubt that he doesn't have the sense to understand what it means to hold public office.

Could someone please speak in defense of Richard here....Richard perhaps..?
Clear air is much easier to breathe ...clear the air, enough is enough..

As I suspected, there was a reason why some commissioners don't want to release their e-mail contacts (Rothschild and Frazier). These two seem to operate as their own little board. They always support each other at meetings, they are constantly in Annapolis for hearings, meeting with MACO and other coalitions we have joined. I thought those organizations have their own lobbyists (which we pay for ) to do the groundwork. If these commissioners have such a deisre to pursue state and national issues, they should run for other offices than commissioner. This may explain why Frazier is so clueless at meetings or admits she has not had time to study the issue.

I wont' be surprised if Rothschild and Frazier offer minority budgets for the county and the school system as well. If Frazier believes in what she says, she should respond to calls and tweets from the media. But then again, she chose not show up at forums once she won her primary over token opposition. As for Rothschild, his e-mail account may reveal both his Agenda 21 business and his work with the institute on the comstitution. They wanted this institute to teach a mandatory class to all county employees. Both he and Kathy Fuller had involvement with this institute and had taken their classes. Now I know why she is always on the WTTR radio show with Rothschild. They have to pursue their agenda (not necessarily the county's). It gets curiouser and curiouser.

The hostility here is truly shocking. It seems to me that Rothschild's 'agenda' is no secret, and he was elected as Commissioner by the people of Carroll County. It looks to me as if he is doing his job and collaborating on very real issues (just how is Agenda 21 a 'crazy conspiracy theory'?) to protect a community he obviously loves and is looking to protect. How exactly are these 'obvious transgressions'? Someone disagreeing with you does not make them a 'nutjob' or 'paranoid extremist'. Frankly your obsession with these email distribution lists comes across as more 'crazy paranoid extremist stuff' than content regarding strategies for 'how they work to defend their community's independence'. Come to think of it, it really stinks of it considering I don't think I've ever read any true investigative reporting in the CCTimes. Huh. Seriously guys, if those emails above are what you've 'feared', you might want to look at who's calling the kettle black - no offense.

If that's the case, why not release the lists and let the public decide? As I said earlier, these are just the tip of the iceberg. If everything is on the up and up, why is there such secrecy? Besides, it's the law! No offense. (Oh, and Agenda 21 isn't a conspiracy theory...unless you talk to Rothschild and his ilk. Watch out for those black helicopters!)

Buck- TWO THINGS: (1) In the MDOT 2012 implementation guide, the state overtly telegraphs its intentions to require GPS tracking of your personal vehicle for purposes of levying a mileage based tax IN ADDITION to gas taxes. I initiated legislation that would prohibit this because I believe it constitutes a gross violation of your fourth amendment rights. The courts have already weighed in on this, yet MDOT seems undeterred. During testimony, under heavy questioning, MDOT reluctantly admitted they are considering this. (2) There's one and only one reason we do not want to release email addresses. Simply stated, the last time it happened, citizens got upset. Nothing more. Nothing less. I agree that an email address contained in a letter requesting a zoning change or other policy issue SHOULD be released. But a straight list, void of a policy issue does not appear to serve any purpose. I find it amusing that the same complainers find it perfectly okay when Governor O'Malley refused to provide his email list to a citizen that wanted to know who would be part of his online discussion related to PlanMD. Ironically, I actually agreed with the governor. Why would people want to provide email addresses if they though they would end-up in the hands of political hacks that would likely use them for nefarious reasons? Call me if you want to discuss. Thanks -Rich

Buck- One more thing- Thanks for giving me the opportunity to respond before rendering judgment. Much appreciated! -Rich

Excuse me, Commissioner, but isn't that why we have a local delegation, to handle State issues? Protocol used to dictate that our Commissioners worked with our delegation to get things done on behalf of Carroll's citizens. Why is it that you see fit to try to take on their jobs yourself? Are you gunning (pardon the word choice) for one of their seats? And what about that whiz-bang lobbyist we've been paying for all these many months. How often does he report to the BOC and on what issues? What's the taxpayers' ROI on that not-so-modest expenditure? And how do taxpayers find out about that? Who does the lobbyist (or are there two of them?) actually report to? Care to address these questions?

Oh, and that Institute on the Constitution? That is a church-based group and it has no place in local government. Seems there's this little thing called separation of church and state, you see. Google them, poke around on their website a little bit, and see for yourself. Google the names of the organization's leaders too. Then feel free to share your thoughts here about the organization and its place in government dealings. There are plenty of legitimate nonreligious scholars of the Constitution that could be brought in for this; apparently they don't fit Rothschild's and Frazier's personal agendas.

I don't think it is "hostility" ... it is a matter of "over reaching" on the part of some on the BOC, inappropriate use of County staff on the taxpayers' dime and time, half-truths about any number of issues (which, in my opinion is worse than a lie...), and self-promotion and use of elected office and title which is unethical and distorts the constituents' true beliefs. If you had followed the saga of the email lists, you would understand that it is not paranoia, the selected newsletter recipient's names and email addresses would reveal a group of people that perhaps have a cozier relationship with certain commissioners than us common folk. Therefore, that is a political issue...which is against the law. In PA, it has resulted in a court case which has been called "theft of services" because of illegal use of staff, resourses, and Government time. Commissioner Rothschild can do whatever he wants, and can believe anything he chooses to--but not to use our time, our employment of him as a Commissioner, and our "house" to further his political mission. The same for Robin Fraizer believes that the County office building and its employees (our)..are her mission...literally. There are too many examples to go into here... Hostility? No...just an appropriate reaction to inappropriate behavior.

I have felt for a long time that OUR County Commissioners are not being trustworthy just by doing the things like blocking the PIA. You work for US, the people of Carroll County. I feel some of you have your own personal agenda that is not always good for this County. Stop wasting our money and time, work to make OUR county better.

Commissioners Rothschild and Frazier,

Your assistants are only sappose to do work as your assistants ony when it concerns the people of Carroll Couty in your district. The Carroll County Times keeps us informed of the Commissioners agenda. If you or your assistants are doing work outside of the couinty or district, both of you and your assistants owe Carroll County a refund

And to all who visit this comments section, please take note of two Tea Party tactics employed here by Mr. Rothschild. 1. Defect: When accused, quickly change the subject to another issue which will get your audience stirred up (the GPS stuff), and 2. Make unfounded claims about your accusers' beliefs ("the same complainers find it perfectly okay when Gov O'Malley..."). I can assure you that Rothschild and I have never discussed the Gov's PIA request; he simply uses this little trick to lump together all who don't agree with him. He once tried to pull that on me in an Open Session, and when I refused to agree with him, he reverted back to No. 1. There really is a Tea Party Handbook (I've read it - Google it), and these two tricks, along that Delphi Technique mentioned on one of the emails above, are all in there. He has memorized it, lives by it, and teaches others how to use it. This man is NOT representing the majority of Carroll Countians.

Sorry, the above should read "1. DEFLECT".

Will we have a Democrat or Republican Judge hearing this question? ..
Who will decide?

Deflect??? Read the thread. The first two items are legitimate questions from Buck He asks: "What was I testifying about and how will it benefit the citizens of Carroll County." ANSWER: I sponsored legislation to prohibit our illustrious governor from installing a GPS device on our citizens' cars for purposes of tracking driving to levy a mileage based tax. NOW... I have a question for all of you: Do you agree with my position on this matter? -Commissioner Richard Rothschild

Deflecting again. Speak to the issue at hand Commissioner. The article is about email distribution lists. If I must, I will put forth a specific question. Will you release all of your email distribution lists, and those of your "Special Assistant" Kathy Fuller? And here's another one that comes to mind due to the content of the emails that I have shared here: Have you and Ms. Fuller engaged in conducting non-County business using County resources, ie, staff, computers, phones, etc.? Want to take a stab at those? Or are we still going to play witht he GPS thing? I also raised questions about our lobbyist. Don't break down the door getting to those, Sir!

How did a County Commissioner "sponsor" legislation in Annapolis???

Richard, I dont want to get into a legal battle with words, but you said that you sponsored legislation. May I remind you Richard, that you can recommend or have legislation requested on a particular bill, but only elected legislators can sponsor legislation

BTW, if you want to know "the rest of the story" about that group that Rothschild is defending earlier in this thread, The Institute on the Constitution, take a moment to visit this site. Look at all the videos, articles, editorials, etc. You'll see that this was no small matter. www.eyeoncarroll.com/toxic-stew/ And there's lots more on that site. It gives a good perspective on "The Fighting 59th."

Bonnie, Ross You are both right. When I was Chairman Of The Board Of License Commissioners (Liquor Board) for eighteen years, I was instructed by the Chief Of Staff himself that I was not to use any county owned computer or letter head stationery, county automobiles, equiprment etc. for personal use. Nor was I entitled to any mileage allowance, meals lodging etc. unless I was traveling out of town on authorized county business. That also applies to Carroll County Commissioners.
Commissioners Rothschild and Frazier traveling to Annapolis attending MACO meetings, is not necessary that two Commissioners attendend these MACO meetings. Bothe Rothschild and Frazier need not also attend any Legislative meetings to testify for or against any bills as Carroll County has Maco, Carroll County Elected Delegation there, as well as two paid county lobbyists. If both Commissioners Rothschild and Frazier wants to change jobs with those elected Legislators in Annapolis, I suggest they file and campaign for those elected legislative offices.