Will he talk? If so, when? What will he allow to open? Why doesn’t he keep a regular public schedule? Why only hours’ notice for new Executive Orders?
These are questions Marylanders face each week. This is no way for government to operate. Gov. Larry Hogan is misleading Maryland. We need him to stay off national television, refrain from touting how many conference calls he has led as head of the National Governors Association and focus on Maryland. We need to him to revamp his entire communications strategy. The Republican governor is out of touch with his own state. Amid a firestorm of criticism, at least around these parts, the governor continues to post silly stories touting his actions on his Facebook page multiple times a day. Hogan’s unprofessional conduct, poor communication skills, elitist attitude, indecisive judgment and poor leadership in recent weeks has now become malfeasance.
What Hogan has created across the state is disgraceful. It’s an impossible process to successfully navigate through with no evidence of a clear process or plan being followed. Hogan likes to refer to his “Roadmap for Recovery” as the outline to follow, but he contradicts it repeatedly. There appears to be no rational approach behind these decisions.
His greatest weakness now has become his communication policy. He announces his press conferences on Facebook mere hours before they are to be held with no hint of what he will announce. Residents and businesses must tune in and see what their almighty leader will decide is now safe to reopen and what industries – such as tourism — must continue to suffer through economic devastation.
These weekly press conferences are ripe for mockery. The problem here is these are serious times. Desperation has set in. Some businesses are faring better than others, but most are at least 35% off their normal revenue pace and having to work incredibly hard to achieve that. Operators who are at half their sales are much more common while facing rising costs and personnel troubles. It’s a nightmare with no end in sight.
The concept at this point for businesses in this area is do whatever it takes to survive, not thrive. The latter would be unrealistic. To think too big would be foolish and only lead to disappointment because faith is lost in the governor’s strategy for economic recovery.
Equally appalling to his poor communication is the lack of coordination between Maryland and Delaware. Restaurants a couple miles apart are on opposite extremes of the survival spectrum and it makes no sense from a science or logic perspective. The marquee at Liquid Assets this week said it all – “Indoor seating 7 days a week at Our Harvest 5 minutes north.”
Maryland is being mislead and it’s a crying shame. The governor must change before it’s too late.
