Mr. Edwards did not respond to repeated requests for the names of the people whose dinners were covered by the $362.86 charge.
After a lengthy delay -- in response to a Maryland Public Information Act request -- MCPS Public Information Director Dana Tofig finally revealed the names of the dinner party participants. Here is the list that Mr. Tofig sent:
The American Express card member transaction log that Mr. Edwards completed states "Split check - dinner for 10 - Broad", yet the list provided by Mr. Tofig shows only 9 attendees. Mr. Tofig explained the discrepancy by stating "This is due to a clerical error [by Brian Edwards] on the American Express member transaction log."
Mr. Tofig did not explain why Mr. Edwards ignored our earlier requests for the names of the dinner party participants, or why Mr. Edwards, who is paid approximately $200,000 per year by MCPS, has difficulty counting to 10.
Update: We have reason to believe that the $362.86 payment is just a portion of the total bill, and that the bill might have been split among two or more participants based on the note "Split check" on the credit card log. Unfortunately, it is likely to take a considerable amount of time to acquire the additional documentation that reveals the total amount of the bill.
Night before Broad prize announcement? So what hotel did this group stay in or did they all just stand on the street all night?
ReplyDeleteOctober 19, 2010 Broad Prize announcement
ReplyDeletehttp://www.broadprize.org/asset/0-tbp%202010%20press%20release.pdf
A lot of what this site has to say is very valuable, but when it focuses on petty things like reasonable business expenses ($40pp is not bad for a business dinner), the important stuff you are discussing often winds up getting devalued.
ReplyDeleteDid any of these folks also submit or request reimbursement for their own meals? $40 may be reasonable, but not if they put in for their own expenses too.
ReplyDeleteThis dinner was NOT $40 per person. This check was split. $40 is only what we know was spent. We don't know what the rest of the bill was and we don't know who paid it.
ReplyDeleteIf the bill was split in half then the per person average was $80, not $40.
And oh, by the way, the MCPS Procurement Cards are not supposed to be used for meal purchases. They are Procurement Cards for procuring supplies for schools.
This expense also shows that this group traveled to New York City the day BEFORE the Broad meeting. So, did they sleep somewhere or just stand in the street all night? We would guess that yes, they had a hotel. That means another expense per person. Then add in 3 meals for the next day and the total for this large group to travel to NY City for a non-classroom related activity was??
This is only the tip of the iceberg.
That's $40 per person that was uncovered in ONE request for ONE person's credit card logs.
ReplyDeleteWe don't know how many other $40 "business dinners" are being paid for by county taxpayers.
The Public Information Office has told us that we will have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to get the entire list of credit card purchases -- even though it is available to MCPS as a no-charge, downloadable file from the American Express billing system.
We do know, however, that MCPS has paid millions of dollars of bills on behalf of holders of MCPS American Express cardholders, but without the individual purchase records, we do not know who is spending the money and where the money is going.
Where was Jerry Weast? We know he went to New York for this event but he isn't listed as being at this dinner. Where are his travel expenses?
ReplyDeleteAdd up the entire trip for 10+ people and get the total spent on a PR activity for administrators and Board members.