The answer: They all take American Express® --- and they've all taken the MCPS American Express credit card issued to Karen Crawford, the supervisor of the Student Member of the Board of Education (SMOB).
Ms. Crawford doesn't use her MCPS credit card often, but when she does, it's usually at stores in Frederick County. Repeat: Frederick County, nowhere near her MCPS office.
Records show that Ms. Crawford has also used the MCPS credit card at Amazon.com and to make a purchase from Mark, who accepts PayPal. (Merchant information partially redacted by MCPS.)
Fortunately, MCPS has rules in place that are intended to prevent credit card misuse. Purchase card holders are required to submit Card Member Transaction Logs (MCPS form 234-21) in any month that their card is used.
So we were curious. What items did the SMOB's supervisor need to purchase that weren't available from the immense MCPS Department of Materials Management?
The answer should have been easy to obtain by reviewing Ms. Crawford's Card Member Transaction Logs.
Except for one small problem.
Ms. Crawford did not submit any Card Member Transaction Logs for the nearly 14 month period shown in the above Cardmember Activity report, according to the MCPS public information office. And somehow, the "approving official" assigned to review Ms. Crawford's credit card transactions every month never noticed that she had not turned in any logs.
We have nothing that indicates that Ms. Crawford made inappropriate purchases with her MCPS credit card from Wal-Mart and Safeway in Frederick County, Amazon.com (online) and a California merchant named "Mark" who takes PayPal. But with no logs to show what was purchased, it's anybody's guess as to exactly how these taxpayer funds were spent.
Ms. Crawford has devoted her life to students as a former teacher and now as support staff for student governments. She has been recognized nationally by NASC and regionally for her service http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/community/awards/2009.shtm. She has helped hundreds of students in the Hispanic and Black Emerging Leaders Program and runs the Drive for Supplies campaign for underprivileged children in MCPS. On top of all that she provides institutional support to student governments across the county. This post leads me to believe that this group is a bunch of racist, elitist parents who don't want their children to be empowered. How about next time you refer to her by her title Coordinator of the Student Affairs Office and not some arbitrary title that you bestowed upon her? Show her some respect. Your senseless defamation of her and Tim is disgusting. The fact that she commutes to her office in MCPS from Frederick and the fact that she tries to skimp on resources for an already under-supported student government should be commended. FOR SHAME.
ReplyDeleteAnd the reason there are no required Purchasing Card logs (detailing the purchases), receipts, or supervisor approvals for these purchases is...?
ReplyDelete$368.59 is hardly "skimping" when the purpose of the MCPS Purchasing Cards (AMEX cards) is for PROCUREMENT of items less than $50 that are needed for MCPS OPERATIONS. It is not for restaurants or meals.
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/materials/miscellaneous/procurement/COO_Approved_PurchaseCardGuide042309.pdf
As of the last known public information, there are 1,400 AMEX cards in the pockets of MCPS staff.
If every MCPS staff member with a AMEX card made $368.59 in undocumented purchases that would total
$516,026
That's almost exactly the amount that Superintendent Weast has proposed to cut to eliminate 8 Reading Initiative teachers in the FY11 Operating Budget - $513,437
http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/budget/FY2011/pdf/BudgetPossibleReductions_Recommended.pdf
It's posts like this and the second reply that give Parents Coalition a bad name despite some good work that they do. Ms. Crawford is absolutely without doubt one of the hardest working staff members in MCPS. The work she does is wonderful and the "title" wrongly attached to her by the original poster (and thankfully corrected by the first commenter) shows his disdain for and lack of knowledge about who she is and what she does. To further pile on the second replier commented that "$368.59 is hardly "skimping" when the purpose of the MCPS Purchasing Cards (AMEX cards) is for PROCUREMENT of items less than $50 that are needed for MCPS OPERATIONS. It is not for restaurants or meals." So Ms. Crawford spent a whopping $368.59 over a FOURTEEN MONTH (that's 14) period; all of $27 per month. I also highly doubt that she had meals in places like Wal-Mart and Safeway as the second commentator SNIDELY suggests.
ReplyDeleteParents Coalition, keep doing the good work that you do, but try to refrain from this type of vendetta and snippy remarks made by the second commentator.
To Anonymous of 4:06 PM -- Are you saying that Ms. Crawford's accomplishments exempt her from completing the purchase logs? Where in the MCPS purchase card manual is that exemption spelled out?
ReplyDeleteMrs. Crawford has never misused the MCPS Credit Card and the implication of such is ridiculous. As a student that works with Mrs. Crawford on a regular basis, the reason that she buys many of these things in Frederick, is because that is where she lives. And these things that cannot be found in Materials Management? Most often they are the few refreshments that are provided for a meeting. Such meetings like the Student Leaders meeting with the Board of Education. I think if you were to sit through meetings for six hours you would want some water or a cookie too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tim for your "anonymous" comments.
ReplyDelete@ anonymous 4:44 PM
ReplyDeleteThat is a pretty serious allegation but since this is just an anonymous comment readers can take it with a grain of salt.
MCPS AMEX cards are not to be used to purchase meals/food. They are not snack cards, they are for purchasing equipment, tools, parts, instructional supplies for schools.
If it is true, that Student Government leaders are eating off of tax dollars that have been appropriated for classrooms, then that would explain why no Board of Education Student Member has ever spoken up about the misuse of these cards.
Are the Student Government leaders on the "meal plan" too?
http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2009/10/its-not-just-job-its-meal-plan.html
So, Ms. Sartucci, when you sit at 6 hour meetings where you work, do you bring your own water and your own snack? As a Montgomery County tax payer and a human being, I have no problem with the county taxpayers footing the bill for water and cookies at meetings. You can quote policies and procedures until you're blue in the face, but right now you and your Parents Coalition look extremely petty.
ReplyDeleteThe issue isn't whether meeting participants should bring their own water and snacks to meetings. The issue is that Mrs. Crawford has flagrantly disregarded the rules -- which are easy to follow -- for use of a credit card issued to her by MCPS. And making matters worse, in over fourteen months of noncompliance, no one at MCPS has taken corrective action.
ReplyDeleteHow many other MCPS credit card holders have not filled out their purchase card logs?
At business meetings that I attend, participants aren't handed bottled water and fed snacks during the meeting. Water, if needed, is obtained from the drinking water supply and placed in pitchers on the tables. Food is consumed only during a lunch break. Munching away during a business meeting is generally considered rude and distracting.
And is there a problem with the water that is piped into the Carver Center? MCPS students drink and fill their water bottles from the water fountains at their schools. Who comprises this elite set of students, BOE, and MCPS staff members whose palates can tolerate only bottled water?
@ anonymous 9:14 AM
ReplyDeleteHmm...every school day students sit in class for 6 hours with no bottled water or snack served. Water is at the fountain and snacks are brought from home, if allowed.
If this anonymous comment is true, then it is easy to see why the MCPS student government leaders have been silent while the other 139,000 students must contend with the imposition of illegal curricular fees, the withholding of report cards, and charges for attending their own graduation.
Again, this is only an anonymous comment so the hope would be that it is not true.
This blog EDITS comments ladies and gentlemen. I wrote a respons to Louis wilen's comment from 12:02 pm at approximately 12:30 this afternoon further criticizing this entire thread and it has not appeared. I wonder why?
ReplyDeleteSome open and transparent organization this is. If you criticize one of their posts, they get all bent out of shape and respond with comments like those of Janis Sartucci who obviously has very thin skin, or they just don't bother to post your comment. That's why you have to wait for "approval" before your comment appears. If they don't like it, it never appears.
This isn't the first time my comment hasn't appeared here, and I have kept copies of the ones that don't make appearances. Maybe the next time I see a member of this group on TV or hear them on the radio pontificating about transparency, I'll contact those media sources with this information.
As is self-evident by the fact that the above comment was posted, this blog does NOT censor comments. Comments that are posted under "Anonymous" do require approval -- which sometimes take a few hours, depending on whether someone is monitoring the blog. This is done solely to prevent spam from being published. Comments that are posted under an authenticated ID are automatically posted.
ReplyDeleteAs for a response to my 12:02 PM comment, no such response has been sent to this blog. If you are having problems using the comments feature of the blog, please email your commments to me and I'll post it on your behalf.
It would also help if you would post your comments under an authenticated ID. In the interest of supporting open discussion, this is one of very few blogs in the area that allow "anonymous" comments, but authenticated comments are always preferred.
Anonymous said: Maybe the next time I see a member of this group on TV or hear them on the radio pontificating about transparency, I'll contact those media sources with this information.
ReplyDeleteWe would welcome such a response. Since you are posting here anonymously, will you also be appearing on TV or radio anonymously?