Found Cash to Defy Resolution: $45,410 for Somerset Elementary School's Artificial Turf Field Consultant #perks #surplus

UPDATE 9/8/2015 at 3:00 PM:  The Board of Education will approve this spending despite their earlier resolution "because" the parents at Somerset Elementary School want to start the project before they have finished raising the total funds needed for the project.  

In addition, MCPS' Director of Construction claims that the $45,410 will be included in the funds raised by Somerset ES parents, even though MCPS does not know what type of field will actually be put down or the actual final cost.  Usual pie in the sky planning by MCPS administrators that leaves taxpayers on the hook for the final bill.  See Wootton High School artificial turf purchase for proof that MCPS spends without a plan and taxpayers pick up the excess tab in the end.  

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Isn't it great when Larry Bowers "finds" cash in a drawer?

Once again, Larry Bowers has found cash to pay for a perk for a Green Zone school.  This time he found $45,410 for a no bid "consultant" for the artificial turf field that is going in at Somerset Elementary School.

Now, the actual resolution that the Board of Education voted on back in May of this year stated that no "design and construction activities" would begin until the funds had actually been raised. But, who pays attention to Board of Education resolutions anyway?

Let's be clear on this cash, this consulting fee is over and above the cost of the artificial turf field.  Supposedly, the Somerset Elementary School parents are going to raise $550,000 to pay for the plastic grass, but that money doesn't cover the consultant's fee of $45,410.

And, we remember how that Wootton High School fundraiser for plastic grass went, the taxpayers ended up paying for part of that plastic field.   

Meanwhile, no one needs any classroom teachers in MCPS, right?  Good thing, because there goes the salary for another teacher, off to pay an outside, no bid consultant for a perk at one school.  They do not call it the Green Zone for nothing! 

   Consult Appt Civil Eng Servcs Somerset ES Turf by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland