Phil is so phunny

Phil Kaufman, President of the Montgomery County Board of Education, still doesn't get it.  In the Washington Post, Phil once again defends his use of outside counsel to review the allegations of credit card misuse by Board of Education Members.

Its not the review that gives us heartburn.  Its the approximately $140,000 charge for Venable and Karl Racine.  

From the article:

When concerns were raised last spring about Montgomery County Board of Education member expenses and credit card usage, the board and I knew it was important that we undergo a swift and thorough process to understand the scope of the issue and look for ways to improve our procedures. We also knew that an external review would be needed to assure the community that the board was taking this matter seriously.
Some are questioning the cost of hiring lawyers to conduct this external review, but I believed then — and I believe now — that it was the right thing to do.

Did you really need fancy lawyers to tell you to tear up the cards?

Did you really need fancy lawyers to tell you to get real policies in place?

What on earth could a $500 per hour lawyer do to run up a charge of $140,000?

Do the math - at an average rate of $500 per hour that is 280 lawyer hours.

You've got to be kidding if you think that anyone believes that this took seven weeks of lawyers to review this mess.

Some more questions for Phil.

Will Venable continue to rack up oops, I mean, monitor the BOE members continued use of their expense accounts?

What about the other credit card holders in MCPS?  A while back, we estimated that over 1000 MCPS employees have school system credit cards.  Who is watching them?

Wait - we have the Maryland Association of Boards of Education meeting coming up this week in Ocean City.

You'll have a great opportunity to demonstrate your fiscal responsibility at that meeting.

Note to our readers:  Stay tuned for a blog posting once the expense logs are submitted.