Mary Sturm, Tyrone's New Planning Commissioner

If you thought Ginger Blackstone was bad, meet her replacement Mary
Sturm, the mother of all commissioners. In her very first hearing on
zoning proposals held March 13, Mary Sturm wasted no time in lecturing
applicants on their duties and responsibilities as citizens.

On a variance request she let Matt Geipel know that if he didn't have
sense enough to get a survey of his property, then he was a victim of
his own doing. Mr. Geipel stated that he "wondered if anyone noticed how
rude Ms. Sturm was"?

On a request for better notification when the government decides to
take property rights away, Mad Mary told Dick Shelley that he had a
responsibility to read the Fayette News legal ads everyday to see if Tyrone's
government was going to have a hearing that might take away his
property rights. And furthermore, that a tiny two inch ad was sufficient
notice for anyone, even if the property owner was out of town when the
paper came out, in the hospital or was 90 years old and disabled with
Alzheimer's disease. This in your face commissioner left no doubt that
loss of income, property rights, and devaluation of market value was of
little concern to her, even if your livelihood depended on it.

Mary Sturm didn't seem to mind if her government officials didn't carry
out their duties and legal responsibilities. When the discussion had
to be cancelled because Valerie Fowler Caldwell was negligent in her
duties to provide the Planners with the applicant's full application
which was missing 41 pages of highly relevant facts, Mary said not a word.
Apparently, she doesn't hold her government to the same standards
she requires of the citizens.

When Mary Sturm herself didn't know what ordinance she was operating
under, or amendment #454, she was silent as to her own duties and
responsibilities on these issues.

But Mary was back in the applicant's face on his request to reinstate
the deleted use of warehousing, telling him, "that was not a use she
wanted in the C-2 district." Mary Sturm, however, fell silent again when
the applicant pointed out that Valerie illegally discriminated against
him by issuing permits to another C-2 business recently for
warehousing. And again, Mary had no arrogant lecture for Valerie.

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Tyrone Govenment
Submitted by rm.snell on Thu, 03/20/2008 - 12:56pm.

Mary Sturm, you didn’t just happen to get a chance to apply for a position on the Commission. Dozens of people worked day and night for over a year to get the message out to voters that Tyrone needed a new Council who would correct twelve years of wrong doing. And to appoint a whole new Planning Commission whose members would look at the facts and make reasoned decisions. Not come in and accuse applicants of having “blinders on”. There’s a big history that brought you to this government. You’re here on demand of the voters to make proper changes. Hundreds of citizens signed a petition to get rid of Barry and Valerie, which was given to the new Council. Barry’s gone. The Town has been sued over Valerie’s actions. Kathy Winton was appointed to Planning last September. Four months later she’s gone for belittling applicants.

Margot, If you noticed most of the planning comission are part of "the friends of Grace Caldwell and Gloria Furr and the Mayor". It was a no brainer as to who was to be chosen from the candidates that applied. The sad thing is there is no diversity on the comission. Gordon Shenkle did not get all the votes for council so he was placed in the planning commision to help rule the roost. (The hen's roost of Gloria and Grace) I went to many of last year's comission meetings and never did I see Kathy Winton belittle any applicant. She belittled the council women with what she wrote on this blog, and that was her undoing. I have not gone to any of this year's meeting and after seeing what you wrote about Mary I think I may have to attend. Ginger was good for entertainment but, Mary may be a whole new animal. I can not wait. I just hope that the planning comission will do what is good for the town and not what is their own beliefs.

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Tyronelady you are right on
Submitted by Shaquita on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 9:04pm.

Your rebuttal to Margot was very clear and well presented. Here are a couple of additional facts you might find useful. Ordinance 454 did not rezone any property; it did change the allowable uses but the zoning of the property stayed the same (big difference from what someone wants people to think). You also left out the fact that according to the Secretary of State’s office Mr. Shelly is a licensed real estate broker who much like your position on Mr. Geipel being a contractor should be familiar with zoning regulations. Just an FYI

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My My Shaquita
Submitted by oldbeachbear on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 10:13pm.

the more you type, the more you give away. You really have some ...SERIOUS... inside knowledge of the workings of Tyrone. I use to think you an unhappy candidate for office, so did a lot of others.

You are missing the big point. I doesnt matter if Shelly has a real estate license or runs a house of ill repute...the guy spent the time to put together a 47 page document. In my eyes.. it was trashed by someone having the nerve to paraphrase it copying only a few pages for the planning commission. Not only did they waste Shelly's time, they wasted the planning committees and the possibility of ending a lawsuit that has been in the air. Who died and made this person God? The new planning committee was put in place to help people have their say, and grant them what they want, or tell them why they didn't get it. To sweep him under the rug cause some employee wants to spend time getting their talons manicured or their fangs polished, is unacceptable.

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Oldbeachbear wrong as usual
Submitted by Shaquita on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 9:53pm.

I am not an elected official or forma elected official nor an employee or x-employee just a concerned citizen willing to do my own research and make up my own mind. I do not listen to the bloggers that spew nothing but innuendoes, personnel attacks, and other garbage calling them “facts”. If someone tells me something, even a friend, before I will put my name to it I check it out for myself (you might try it). About 3 months ago a blogger challenged me to go to the court and look at the Shelly lawsuit. Well it took me a while, I have much more to do than sit and blog all day (my church, family, and job all come first) but I did go over there and after looking at the documents, much of what has been in the blogs is false. Someone is just trying to sway public opinion. As far as Mr. Shelly’s occupation, if you are not just a short timer you might remember he had a real-estate office on Senoia Road several years ago. From my perspective his occupation is very important to his case. If you know something is not allowed (or should know it because of your profession) and do it anyway should you not be held accountable, or do you think the government should bail out everyone that makes a bad decision? There is a saying, “All that is needed for evil to flourish is for good people to say nothing.” Too many good citizens have kept quite for the past two years and evil has flourished, but enough is enough. I will have my say.

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is that this thursday>
Submitted by oldbeachbear on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 10:15pm.

Sorry, I just think we are all gonna see your spots this Thursday...I'm not wrong, you just have an ax to grind...I don't know why you keep this up...tell me why this guy being is real estate gives a town employee a right to give 6 pages of a 40 plus pages this guy gave her, the reason to do this to him, or for that matter, any of this...I'm sorry, if I want my day in front of the town....I will have it...and Barney and Thelma Lou will ...NEVER paraphrase it...not over my cold dead body...I have more intelligence in my toenails than their combined intellect.

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Leaking Confidential Government Information
Submitted by I Watch on Wed, 03/19/2008 - 11:09am.

This Shaquita has access to confidential information from Tyrone. This blogger has made several statements over the last three months that could only be known by the lawyers and those present in the council's executive sessions. I predict that when the financial audit is complete and all the other evidence is out, some people will be criminally indicted, more civil suits for malfeasance of office will be filed, discovery subpoenas will be issued to identify certain bloggers, these bloggers will be forced to testify as to the truth or falsity of their assertions, and former officials will not be immune. Someone is going to lose their job.

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At least you are at the Meetings, Margot
Submitted by TyroneLady on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 3:16pm.

Thank you for your comments, Margot. If I am the to quote you "Mother of all Commissioners" maybe we will get more citizens at our meetings.
Actually, this was our THIRD meeting. Did you miss the first two?
Regarding Mr. Geipel, while I went into the Planning Commission WORKSHOP prepared to recommend the variance at our regular meeting, it became apparent from Mr. Geipel's own comments that a) he is not a first time homeowner (in which case I would have given him some slack) and b) he is a pool contractor himself and is well aware of setbacks.
His statement that he didn't know where his lot lines were (especially as a second time homeowner) was without merit. At the very least, when he closed on his house, he was given a legal description of his property.(As was pointed out by another Commission member) I am sorry I missed, according to you, Mr. Geibel's statement that he "wondered if anyone noticed how rude..." Had I heard the comment, I would have apologized to Mr. Geibel as my intent was not to be rude. But, he is in the Pool Business and, as I have already stated, is quite familiar with the regulations as to pool placement.
As to Mr. Shelley, I am sorry that I have no control over the prior Planning Commission's decisions to change zoning. Margot, had you been as attentive to this commission's entire dicussion of the matter and the Town's Attorney's comments regarding a legal matter concerning this,you might have realized that one of our main concerns was, in fact,the Distribution and Warehousing wording. I am sure you would not want a LARGE Distribution & Warehousing operation in a C2 location. You seem to be taking a lot out of content with your comments. You seem to have missed my comments to Mr. Shelley about the wording used--specifically Distribution/Warehousing. A better usage would have been storage. Unfortunately, Mr. Shelley appeared to have, for lack of a better description, "blinders on" when discussing this. We are not trying to deprieve him nor anyone else of their property rights, income, nor devaluation of market value. Mr. Shelley presented his comments at our Workshop to give the Commission a better understanding of his position before he comes before the Planning Commission's regular meeting. The workshop showed the Commission did not have enough information to make any type of recommendation at our next regular scheduled meeting.
Also, you forgot to make mention that Mr. Shelley became the owner of the property in question, AFTER the C2 ordinance was changed.
And I did mind that the Commission did not receive a full package from the Staff, however, that was addressed by Ms. Venice. Unfortunately the staff member who's duties include providing the Planning Commission with the data was not present and could not be questioned at that time. Further discussion was cancelled at our attorney's request.
I do know what the specific 454 ordinance is, however, I did not have a copy of the signed ordinance by our prior mayor. We do, however, have the list of specific zoning changes by category.
I deferred to our attorney's advise when Mr. Shelley commented that he was discriminated against.
I don't mind being "bashed" but, at least give the full picture, not just "bits & pieces".
Had you bothered to ask me what my personal position is on certain matters, I would have been happy to enlighten you. However, my position on the Planning Commission must be based on our Town's Current Zoning and Laws whether I personally agree or disagree with them has no bearing. As a Citizen of Tyrone, I would hope you would not want personal feelings by any Town Official to control how our Laws and Ordinances are enforced.
I hope to have the opportunity to meet you at our next meeting. Please introduce yourself.

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You missed the point Mary Sturm
Submitted by Margot on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 8:39am.

I don’t know if your rudeness will bring more people to the Tyrone meetings or not. But I do know that it will keep citizens from asking help from their representatives. The point was, no one wants to pay $500 to be lectured to about their personal duties. They come there for a need or a problem. I don’t think Mr. Geipel is a lawyer. He depended on a lawyer, who didn’t provide him with a survey. He was simply asking for help.
You do have some control over prior zoning decisions. You can work to change harmful decisions. An amendment is a change. Mr. Shelley was asking to amend the ordinance. He wasn’t asking you to not follow the current law. If you ever get his full application, try reading it.
Speaking of Valerie, if you will recall, the whole purpose of having her get the information to officials by the Friday before the meeting was to give time for you to familiarize yourself. So what does Valerie immediately do? She doesn’t get the information to the Commission at all. Citizens are fed up with this kind of crap. Remember at your first meeting that Valerie neglected to get the Town Manager a simple one page information sheet for Planning members to fill out?
Mary Sturm, you didn’t just happen to get a chance to apply for a position on the Commission. Dozens of people worked day and night for over a year to get the message out to voters that Tyrone needed a new Council who would correct twelve years of wrong doing. And to appoint a whole new Planning Commission whose members would look at the facts and make reasoned decisions. Not come in and accuse applicants of having “blinders on”. There’s a big history that brought you to this government. You’re here on demand of the voters to make proper changes. Hundreds of citizens signed a petition to get rid of Barry and Valerie, which was given to the new Council. Barry’s gone. The Town has been sued over Valerie’s actions. Kathy Winton was appointed to Planning last September. Four months later she’s gone for belittling applicants.
The citizens are watching all our new leaders. The revolution isn’t over. We demand proper, informed, professional representation from our representatives. That’s the big point.
And don’t be concerned whether citizens come to hearings. We read the minutes, share information among ourselves, and research the files.

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What's a busy girl to do?
Submitted by oldbeachbear on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 5:18pm.

I wonder why Valerie just did 'a few' pages of this man's 41 page explanation. I'm sure he spent a lot of time getting it together and must be quite frustrated. Did she:

1. run out of ink for her copier?

2. assume she could make better decisions than the planning committee and therefore just give them what ..SHE...thought relevant?

3. Or, more than likely just use the old iny miny miney moe to decide which pages to copy....after all...gee whiz...41 pages....that would take her at least 5 minutes and thats just too long!

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Can I select - All of the Above?
mudcat's picture
Submitted by mudcat on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 7:00pm.

This is sick puppy we have here in Tyrone. Power mad with most of her power coming from BA (that's Barry Amos, for those of you in Southhampton). BA was VF's mentor, rabbi, guide and close friend. Somebody - maybe the current city manager needs to dump her and get someone less power-hungry and now that it is becoming politically correct - maybe we can get someone with a personality that actually cares about the town or has the appearance of being helpful - not too hard for some people, but not VF.


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