The State Law the County Council will Ignore Tomorrow

On Tuesday, November 13, 2012, the Montgomery County Council will vote to approve the expenditure of rebate funds that have come back to the County after MCPS overpaid for services. The County Council has control over these funds under Maryland law.  Here's the specific section of Maryland law that establishes the control that the County Council has over these funds:

(c) Expenditure of nonlocal funds received after adoption of budget. -- Except as provided in subsection (d) of this section, nonlocal funds received by a county board after the adoption of the annual budget by the county fiscal authority may be spent by the county board if the county fiscal authority is notified and approves of:
   (1) The source and amount of the funds; and
   (2) The manner of spending the funds.

But, instead of using the oversight granted to them by Maryland law, the County Council will simply approve whatever Superintendent Joshua Starr puts in front of them.  The County Council will not investigate the manner in which the funds will be spent.  Instead, the Council will do a lot of talking about how they can't control MCPS, and can't get involved in how MCPS spends $14.5 million dollars of taxpayer funds.  

In the case of the $14.5 million dollars for Promethean, Dell, Cisco, and Banc of America, the County Council will ignore the LOCAL MONTGOMERY COUNTY BUSINESS that could provide the same products.  The County Council will ignore the MANNER in which these funds will be spent by MCPS.