Poll Tax Back: Foer Profits!

Dearest Readers:

The big Ferrar - Trumbauer - Burkhardt debate occurred last night. And the winner was: Paul Foer.

Yes, Mr. Foer made a bundle last night. At least 200 paid $15 to hear a debate of public candidates. That's at least $3,000. For the privilege of hearing public candidates debate public issues.

Observers saw him running around with pockets stuffed with cash. Hitting on everyone who entered for money. With no receipts or accounting.

Will there be a public disclosure of how the monies were spent?

No.

What share will Mr. Marquardt claim of it?

We don't know.

Will he finally clean up his legal problems with the Comptroller's office now that he has money?

Probably not.

Mr. Foer was well known for fashioning his blogging around those who paid him last fall during the citte elections. Those who paid, they got a pass. Those who didn't, they got excoriated.

Mr. Foer has certainly brought traditional pay-to-play politics to a new low level:

His own.

King of George

Summer's Over & Aldermen Attack

Mes Amis:

The summer is almost over and our minds have begun to clarify.

But not completely. Enough latent heat still exists to create some residual fireworks.

This afternoon things got a little hot in the Ancient Citte before the big Trumbauer - Ferrar slugfest. You see most of the Council was at a reception for volunteers of the Boards and Commissions. And words were exchanged about Josh's attack mailing against Chuck Ferrar.

Ouch!

Can you match the hot-head with their comment?

A. "Josh, I have disdain for your mailing."
B. "It was hateful and wrong. You are the Mayor!"
C. "It's OK Mr. Mayor. I'll take care of you."
D. (Snickers)
E. (Silence)

Hot-heads:
1. Alderman Ross Arnett
2. Alderwoman Sheila Finlayson
3. Alderman Kenny Kirby
4. City Attorney Karen Hardwick
5. Mayor Josh Cohen

If you matched in sequence (A-1, B-2, etc...), then you are correct!

Come by my polo pony's stable at Clagett Farms to collect your prize.

King of George

Trumbauer's Faked Foto

Dearest Readers:

Chris Trumbauer doesn't need Photoshop. He has the Mayor. Who will trade just about anything to get the right people in the shot.

If you see Cohen and Trumbauer with a camera - run.

King of George

Cohen's Kid's Amateur Tricks

Dearest Historics:

The King loves a sophisticated political trick or two. Like the time dear Liz tricked cousin Mary back to Scotland in 1561. And then, somehow, she lost her head.

Bully!

But, as political tricks go, it has been amateur hour lately. Especially in County Council District 6, where the grizzled veteran and General George S. Patton look-alike Chuck Ferrar is battling Cohen clone Chris Trumbauer (see: Josh's Kids vs. the Veteran, 23 July).

Normally ho hum, what makes this race so note worthy is the personal role being played by Mayor Cohen himself. Exhibit A - the above scans - a letter to the King from the Mayor. He has unwisely decided to put significant portions of his political capital at risk. If Trumbauer loses, then Cohen's political clout will be minuscule.

Given the high schoolish antics of Mssr. Cohen and Trumbauer, that is seemingly more likely than ever:

-- Pictures with Chris. At least one elected official was asked by the Mayor to stop by for the announcement of Trumbauer's candidacy. So he did. And snap. A photo was taken.

Next thing he saw was his face in Trumbauer literature. With others who were there for the announcement but had not made the decision to support Trumbauer.

Then last week, apparently, the Trumbauer campaign announced that he had endorsed him. When, in fact, he had endorsed Chuck Ferrar. Hate blogger Paul Foer, in purported concert with the Trumbauer campaign, picked it up and spread it around even more. And said elected official spent rest of last week denying it.

Not good street cred for Mr. Trumbauer.

-- Don't ask the Mayor for a favor. Or a photo. On Labor Day the Elks Club on Northwest Street have a parade. And every year they ask the City to waive fees. This year, at the same time they made their request, they were asked by the Mayor to pose with Chris for a photo. So they did. And snap. A photo was taken.

Can you guess the rest? A flyer with their picture was in the African American community within days.

Did the Mayor tie the waving of fees to the photo? We don't know.

But at least one member of the Elks Club thinks so.

-- Cynthia who? There once was an Alderwoman who represented the 6th Ward named Cynthia Carter. She is African American and is, to this day, well respected by the community.

In the Mayor's office works one Cynthia Gaines. She also happens to be an African American but is not as well known as Ms. Carter. And Mayor Office Cynthia has been making calls on behalf of Mr. Trumbauer calling herself 'Cynthia'.

A factual statement, to be sure. However, many of those receiving the calls think she is Ms. Carter. And Ms. Carter has endorsed Chuck Ferrar.

Ok, just a little bit of hocus pocus.

The larger question may be the time of day Mayor Office Cynthia has been making the calls. Ms. Carter has suggested the impostor calls may be being made during work hours. Furthermore, the 'voluntary' nature of this relationship is suspect. Forget whether it is in any way appropriate for a direct report to the Mayor to be engaged in his political effort at all.


The King would really hope that Candidate Trumbauer and Mayor Cohen could step up their level of chicanery and self dealing. It's embarrassing to be this inept at political perfidy.

We have a reputation to maintain.

King of George

Mr. Marquardt's Dilemma

Dear Readers:

Mr. Marquardt has a problem. The ground has shifted under him and he doesn't know what to do. Except the same old thing.

About three years ago Landmark, the owners of The Capital after the death of Phil Merrill, tried to sell their paper. It was the height of the financing craze and before the market crash of October 2008. With $2 to $3 million in adjusted profits plus being a media property, they expected to get a good price.

A offering memorandum on The Capital was produced and a number of buyers said they looked at the deal. Landmark's expectations were purported to be $25 to $30 million. Yet no one had any interest at that price level and Landmark pulled it off the market.

Then the market crashed. Anything involving print was heavily discounted. The Internet continued to make inroads. And The Capital's operations purportedly began to hemorrhage cash.


Through draconian cuts – foisted on Annapolis by Landmark management in Norfolk - the paper returned to cash flow neutral. Since then, some advertisers have also returned, albeit in a limited way. And a semblance of order has returned to the operations.

The problem is they returned to their old business and editorial model and have hit the ceiling.

Lead by Mr. Marquardt, they have exhausted their aging white male demographic, which will continue to slowly decline. An editorial policy, to cover certain things in certain ways, has also begun to break down while unparalleled negativity has infused its pages. The policies of the paper have actually increased this trend through editorial voices like hate blogger Paul Foer and the vicious news coverage of last year's city elections.

Mr. Marquardt's own self dealing has also fed this. One example is his famous personal editorializing for third span of the Bay Bridge. If that ever came to fruition, then it would certainly significantly raise property values on the Eastern Shore.

A place Mr. Marquardt has much of his net worth tied up in real estate.

Oddly, in the middle of this, The Capital attempted an expansion into four color magazine print pieces. An ill advised attempt to compete with the 'What's Up Annapolis' franchise, it is likely to take years to get to a true break even at its current run rate. This effort is draining important resources and attention away from their core asset, The Capital, and will surely deplete additional value for Landmark.

There is little likelihood the newspaper can regain financial value – even to where it was a few short years ago – with this existing business model and management practices.

Under the leadership of Frank Batten Sr. and now Jr., Landmark has proven itself to be a deft manager of media properties time and again. It's success with creating value and liquidity at The Weather Channel was extraordinary. They get it. And they know how to do it.

Time is getting short. Landmark's manager, Mr. Marquardt, has a nearly impossible task. This, added to his own purported lack of imagination and recent financial challenges, will make the task for Landmark clear.

Change.

King of George

Cohen Outsources Annapolis

Fellow Citizens:

It's been said Britain is a nation of shop keepers. If so then Annapolis is a citte of fudge and ice cream purveyors, t-shirt hawkers and gin joint operators. A motley crew.

But they are our motley crew.

Mayor Cohen has said he wants to help them. “Buy Local” he says.

His rhetoric is not keeping up with his actions.

You see, the City has moved many of its purchases out of town. Printing, for example, is now being done in somewhere named “Millersville”. Annapolis still has three independently owned and operated print shops. At least one of which probably go out of business this year. As one did in 2009.

Even attorneys are not immune from the 'off shoring' by the Cohen Administration. The lucky – and connected - multinational law firm of DLA Piper was recently awarded a $50,000 retainer to do legal work on the Markethouse. Over a number of local firms. Including one that relocated out of downtown last year over the harassment it received by the City in trying to operate out of the Historic Core.

And, of course, the $50,000 retainer is just the beginning of the billing.

Mayor Cohen's pushing of work out and off is not limited to the work itself. He has stiffed City payments. This has included holding off owed monies to a number of small business people and sole proprietors who are due in some cases significant funds – tens of thousands. This has created an appearance of non-payment for crass political reasons. Or just incompetence.

Do we need to mention the level playing field provisions of the 2 am bar ordinance? That this Mayor fought. One group of owners had them. And profited. While others were excluded. And lost. (Some have suggested that those without often appeared to be deprived of an equal playing field for reasons of ethnic or religious background. An off chance only I'm sure.)

And now these new license applications are mired in red taped at City Planning and Zoning.

Not since the days of Mayor John '10%' Apostal has government said one thing and done another quite at this level. While shaking down and damaging businesses in Annapolis.

Yet all of this leads us to agree with the Mayor. It is a long held objective of many of us to take commerce out of the Ancient Citte. Return the streets to sheep grazing and illegal games of chance run by street corner entrepreneurs.

This capitalism thing has gone too far.

King of George

The Capital Hates You

Dearest Readers:

The good old days of the press in Annapolis are past. Jonas Green's type setting in the front room on Charles Street. After his untimely death, his wife Kathy's efforts to maintain and stabilize the ship. The Gazette was a lively publication that bound Annapolis with the scatterings of knowledge in the Atlantic world.

Yet the current crew of the The Capital, nee Gazette, are lost at sea.

They have a story line they will not deviate from: Crime in North County. Political shenanigans in Annapolis. African Americans who create social unrest. Women who are unfit to lead.

They hate her. They hate him. And, ultimately, they hate you.

Aided by incessant turnover of staff, the current crew might be 12 months thick. Reporter Josh Stewart, with a shallow knowledge of Annapolis, sees only what he is told to see. And then some. Eric Hartley cannot compensate in intellect for his grafted attitudes. They have created no network of sources or trust with those they 'interview'.

And then comes columnist and hate blogger Paul Foer. Need we say more?

They want transparency, but do nothing to create it. Closed meetings of the City Council don't deserve a notice from them. And the attempts of Former CAO Doug Smith to create a shadow government this spring never received even a note.

They are against self dealing - but this last week printed a screed from Trudy McFall advocating privatizing public housing. Ehhh, and who would have the most to gain from said privatization? Perhaps the President of Homes for America, Ms. Trudy herself?

The newspaper is now published by Mr. Tom Marquardt. Of the Eastern Shore. Not a resident of Annapolis. Or even Anne Arundel County.

Bully for him. I won't want to live in the mess he has created either.

Former Mayor Ellen Moyer returned from a tour of the US this Spring with one singular impression. The local papers she saw were not negative and bound up trying to make enemies and vilify their own communities, neighbors and readers.

In the longer run The Capital and its current owner, Landmark, have a problem. The market for hate mongering and fear is finite. Conservative white males 50+ that live in the County are getting older. And may still buy papers. But not forever.

The current staff will have moved on. Tom Marquardt will have wisely moved out of state. And The Capital itself will become another relic of the Ancient Citte.

King of George