Why we Need an Independent Inspector General for MCPS

Why we Need an Independent Inspector General for the Montgomery County School System — Joan Fidler, President, Montgomery County Taxpayers League  (Dec. 2, 2014)

The Montgomery County School system has an annual budget of $2.3 billion, student enrollment of 154,176 and a staff of 21,580. It is an organization that rivals many counties in the nation not only in the size of its budget but in the number of people it employs. Yet, despite that, it lacks an independent authority within the organization that has oversight over waste, fraud, abuse and just good management, in general. One wonders why. It does have an audit staff that reports to its Chief Financial Officer but not directly to the Board of Education.
Fairfax County Public Schools with an annual budget of $2.5 billion, student enrollment of 186,785, and a staff of 23,447 recently appointed an Audit Manager located within the Office of Internal Audit but reporting directly to the Board of Education. The Audit Manager is responsible for analyzing school operations and efficiency “through independent and objective analyses and evaluations.”
The 9 members of Montgomery County’s Board of Education work part time and have administrative/secretarial staff but none with financial or audit expertise. Yet the Board has oversight of a large school system with an enormous budget that must rely on the very bureaucrats that run the system to provide it with analyses. So the Board is totally dependent on the school system staff who must have the time, the energy and the motivation to respond to Board requests...

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Taxpayer League Testimony at the Co Council Operating Budget Hearings

Testimony before the Montgomery County Council

On the Proposed FY 2013 Budget

April 11, 2012

Thank you for this opportunity to comment on the FY 2013 budget proposed by the County Executive. I am Joan Fidler, President of the Montgomery County Taxpayers League. Like Mark Anthony I come here not to bury the budget, but, in some area, to praise it.

In the budget, the County Executive has exercised restraint in many of his spending proposals for which he is to be commended. Mr. Leggett has proposed a fiscally prudent pay increase in the form of a one-time bonus for county government employees. And last year, he increased the employee share of healthcare premiums. But more needs to be done. The gold-plated health benefits of county employees and the platinum-plated benefits of our school employees continue to be the envy even of federal workers, who are often cited as the most pampered public employees in the nation. Just a side-by-side analysis will show you glaring disparities. As health care costs continue to increase we cannot continue our generosity in this area. Yes, we know that "cost shifting" is anathema to our unions. But what is our choice? Magnanimity to our county and school workers? Or provision of essential services to county residents who subsist at 100% of the Federal Poverty Standard?

On the subject of taxes: we are greatly disheartened that the proposed budget extends the energy tax. This tax was considered an "emergency" and was sold to us as "temporary." Extension of the tax will be a broken promise to taxpayers. And what does this do to our reputation as a business-friendly county? It definitely does not enhance the view. As for the increase in property taxes, this is tax creep personified. Property taxes creep up while the value of our properties stagnate. Taxes increases should be our last resort. The State is bludgeoning us already.

And now to the sword of Damocles - the budget of the public schools, which accounts for 50 percent of the county budget. The fatally flawed maintenance of effort law has now shown itself for what it truly is - a maintenance of emolument law. It will continue to increase the salaries and benefits of the adults in the system. The school system seems to think that it has a cost-plus contract with taxpayers, the kind that bakes in past inefficiencies and shirks off any notion of compensation containment. With 90 percent of the schools budget devoted to employee compensation, and with the State's iron curtain of protection drawn around it, the services offered to the rest of the residents of the county will suffer. You have just a finite number of dollars. But a solution lies before you. Why not move all school-related services to the school system? They cannot have it both ways. They have the funds; they can pay for the services.

Budgets are a matter of choices. The State has made a choice for the school system; you can make a choice for the rest of us.

Thank you.

Montgomery County Taxpayers League Program: Doug Prouty (MCEA) and Gino Renne (MCGEO)

The next monthly meeting of the Montgomery County Taxpayers League is scheduled for Thursday, April 14, 2011 from 7:30 - 9:30 p.m. in the Council Office Building, 100 Maryland Avenue, 5th Floor Conference Room, Rockville, MD.  For directions go here.


Speakers: Doug Prouty, President, MCEA and Gino Renne, President, MCGEO

Topic: The Role of Public Sector Unions in Montgomery County
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These are the questions that have been sent to Messrs. Prouty and Renne in advance of the meeting:

1. Public employees at the federal, state and local levels perform very similar functions for the public (except for foreign policy and defense). They are protected, like private sector workers, by a wide range of laws. Unlike the private sector, they benefit from more stable and dependable employment. Why are public employees deserving of collective bargaining rights?

2. Collective bargaining at the federal level does not cover salaries and benefits but does cover conditions of employment. Why do public sector unions in Montgomery County deserve collective bargaining rights that cover the whole range of compensation while federal unions do not?

3. Federal unions, like Montgomery County unions, are well-organized and appear to have a strong influence on lawmakers. However, federal employees, unlike Montgomery County public employees, are prohibited from most political activities as they are governed by the Hatch Act. Why should Montgomery County public employees not be restricted in the same way? What effect would this have on your unions?

4. Across the country, public service unions have been confronted with the choice of either (a) retaining employment levels but receiving a decreased level of benefits or (b) reducing employment while maintaining the level of benefits. While many in the private sector opt to retain employment at the cost of reduced benefits, it appears that your unions have chosen benefit retention at the cost of reduced employment. Could you explain the thinking behind choosing reduced employment levels?

5. When the economy was strong, county tax revenues were also strong, county taxpayers were getting jobs and buying houses and county employees shared in those revenue increases. But with the economy now weak, county tax revenues are also weak, and county taxpayers are losing their jobs and their houses. Should county employees also be expected to share the same burdens as the taxpayers who support them?

6. What are your views if contracts for all unions in Montgomery County, including the MCPS unions, were approved by the County Council?

7. Why is the MCEA health benefits system more generous than that of MCGEO-covered members? Why do teachers get supplemental pension funding when no other teachers in the state of Maryland do? It appears to us that county workers covered by MCGEO are sacrificing more towards the county's ongoing budget deficit than those covered by MCEA? Why are MCEA members exempt from benefit cuts?

8. MCPS teachers have a system of 20-step increases within each salary grade, all of which are automatic. The current system of step increases has resulted in the highest pay going towards athletic instructors. MCEA continues to defend step and grade increases over merit pay? Why?

9. The federal government, most of the private sector and much of the Montgomery County Government has moved away from a defined benefit system of retirement towards a defined contribution system. When will MCEA-covered workers move in the same direction and if not, why not?

10. Both MCGEO and MCEA have been very successful in gaining generous salaries and benefits for its members, many of whom do not live in the county and do not pay taxes but who gain much from the Montgomery County taxpayer. What could be done to encourage those non-resident union members to move into the county?