Feb. 26, 2002
 
 So how is it that every member of our Delegation and County Commission missed government class in high school? Any thoughts on that?
 
 The fact that they seem to have no idea how government works occurred to us after a meeting between the two bodies last Saturday. At the meeting, Delegate Casper Taylor and Commission President Dale Lewis were arguing over House Bill 732, an innocuous little bill floating around the House of Delegates in Annapolis that would put the issue of slot machines to a statewide referendum.
 
 The bill, as written, would allow 2,500 slots per location. Only those who hold a racing license in the state would qualify to have slot machines, and the four slots licenses that would be created would be distributed through a bidding process. Which means Bill Rickman, of the Little Orleans track debacle, could get all four licenses. But we digress.
 
 It’s a lovely little bill, House Bill 732, and its ramifications for Allegany County are ENORMOUS.
 
 At the meeting Saturday, the County Commissioners complained to the Delegation about questions they have been getting from the public about this bill. Until recently, their response was to wring their hands and say they couldn’t do anything. Which isn’t true, since they’re allowed - even expected, in most communities - to tell the Delegation their thoughts on any legislation impacting their community.
 
 That doesn’t happen a whole lot around here, but the poor Commissioners have gotten so many questions about the slots bill they actually wrote a letter to the Delegation asking our state delegates to clarify a few key points in the legislation.
 
 An astounding development, to be sure, but a development some members of the Delegation didn’t, shall we say, appreciate. They didn’t like the letter at all. They didn’t like the conversation about the letter, either. They were pretty cranky, those delegates. But then they seem to get that way when asked questions about what they’re doing.
 
 At Saturday’s meeting, Commission President Dale Lewis said he and the other Commissioners had been getting questions from the public about the slots issue, questions they could not answer. Mr. Lewis said that while he had spoken about the issue with Mr. Taylor and other Delegation members informally, they had never discussed the issue in depth.
 
 Mr. Taylor then denied having spoken to Mr. Lewis about the issue, which is pretty weird. Did they talk, or didn’t they? And if they didn’t, why not? Aren’t our Delegates SUPPOSED to discuss issues that could impact our community with other elected officials?
 
 Mr. Taylor then announced that people shouldn’t be asking the County Commissioners about this issue, and that the Commissioners should send those with questions to the Delegation. Except that right now most of the time they’re in Annapolis, but what the heck.
 
 At that point, Mr. Lewis asked Mr. Taylor why the Delegation hadn’t had any public forums on this issue to explain the slots bill to the public.
 
 Cas Taylor shot back that the very meeting they were in was a public meeting, so there.
 
 Well, yeah, Mr. Taylor, it was a public meeting, a public meeting 99% of the public didn’t know about. Note to Cas Taylor: when you’re having a “public meeting,” you have to let the public know it’s taking place.
 
 Which brings us back to our original point: these guys apparently have no idea how our system of government is supposed to work. Our Delegation is SUPPOSED to discuss the bills they plan to support and those they plan to oppose with our other elected officials. Those other elected officials are supposed to voice their opinions about those issues. And ask questions, even.
 
 And both the Delegation and the Commission are SUPPOSED to talk about these same issues with the public. This will probably be a big, big surprise to our state Delegates and our County Commissioners, but our system of government works from the bottom up, not from the top down.
 
 In other words, their habit of never bothering to tell the citizens what they’re doing until “it’s a done deal” is screwy. They’re supposed to come to us, the citizens, with their ideas, and we then we’re supposed to tell them what we think. And we’re supposed to tell them any ideas we have to improve our community, and they’re supposed to act on those ideas, if possible.
 
 Sound familiar, guys? Is it all coming back to you now?
 
 Maybe they can take a remedial government course at Allegany College.