Don't follow the rules? Lose credit card!

But this doesn't apply to MCPS! The "don't follow the rules - lose the credit card" decree comes from the Maryland-National Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) in Miranda Spivack's 8/11/09 article in The Washington Post.

Here are the sentences uttered by the executive director of the M-NCPPC that will never be attributed to the MCPS Superintendent or Board of Education. In MCPS credit card misuse is accepted.

"I don't want to leave the impression that something was stolen," he said. "No one believes that. But there are rules and regulations for how you use the cards, and if you consistently don't follow them, you lose your right to the credit card."

Rodriguez said that during the probe, which began in April, officials took back the credit card of Henry Mobayeni, a high-ranking technology official who works for Stanley. Stanley also surrendered his card. Mobayeni's card was used to make some of the purchases that are under scrutiny...

...Stanley said the technology spending under scrutiny is limited to an $800 emergency purchase of a computer system security firewall. Rodriguez said Monday that the problem is bigger than that and includes other technology purchases, none of which appear to have been made using proper contracts...

In all of our IT spending, we review everything very carefully to ensure that all of our purchases are properly executed."

And don't worry about IT spending at MCPS being scrutinized. IT equipment can be purchased in MCPS without contracts and without the signature of the Board of Education President. There is nothing to review in MCPS because rules aren't followed!

One credit card cut up! Thousands to go!

Unlike Montgomery County Public Schools where eating out on the MCPS procurement card is a perk that goes with the job, Montgomery County's Planning Director Rollin Stanley has been ordered to turn over his agency credit card. The Washington Post's Miranda Spivack reports.

Montgomery County's planning director Rollin Stanley has been ordered to turn in his agency credit card and has paid back about $600 for meals and other expenses auditors said were wrongly charged to the agency, officials said. Stanley also reimbursed the agency for about $600 in personal cellphone calls....

Amazing! If Mr. Stanley worked for MCPS he would have just been called an "administrator" and he would have simply been one of 1,400 employees able to charge the taxpayers!

...Stanley, 51, who joined the Montgomery planning agency 18 months ago, said he is being singled out for special scrutiny and is "frustrated" by the probe....

True enough. In MCPS using a procurement card for restaurant meals, gifts for a co-worker or candy for staff is considered part of the job and no audit will change that, even if those uses were prohibited by MCPS policy in place at the time.

..."If I am accountable for something, it is that I haven't been giving them [detailed] receipts and I owe them $11 for a beer I bought for a guy who had worked for 38 years and retired," he said. He said he had never been audited to this extent in previous jobs...

Not turning in receipts and logs? The Maryland Office of Legislative Audits discovered those issues at MCPS. But MCPS didn't take any action on that issue.

...Acting Montgomery Planning Board vice chair Jean Cryor, who also sits on the bi-county commission's audit committee, said she thought the audit would help the Montgomery agency improve internal practices. "An audit is done to find the challenges and procedures that aren't followed as well as they should be . . . to find how we can do better with taxpayers' money."...

Don't worry Delegate Cryor, the next generation knows better! Just take a look at what the Whitman High School students wrote about MCPS' credit card usage here!

NPDES: A Primer

A recent article in the Post by one of our favorite reporters, Miranda Spivack, focused on the story of how one school system, the Montgomery County Public School system (MCPS), Maryland, was ‘surprised’ that they now have to follow one law. As an outlaw agency they are not used to obeying any laws. So this is a new one on them. They appear flummoxed. What to do? Well of course the first thing to do, get an extra $500,000 from the Montgomery County County Council. Unclear what they will be doing with that money, but the MCPS higher-ups can always use an extra $0.5MILLION in taxpayer dollars. And the council, as we know, is always happy to oblige. Will we see follow-up? Let’s ‘wait’ and see.

What law do they have to follow? They have to conform to the NPDES Permit issued by the EPA under the Clean Water Act of 1972. The permit regulates the discharge of pollutants.

What is NPDES? NDPES stands for ‘National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.’ That means that, thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972 (33 U.S.C. §1251 et seq.), MCPS has to make sure that the runoff they create with their acres and acres of asphalt parking lots, access roads, buildings, and artificial turf fields, meets the NPDES Permit. Because every time it rains, water flows across artificial surfaces like synthetic turf and asphalt, carrying pollutants with it, into our county streams, which as we all know, flow into rivers, the Chesapeake Bay, and the oceans of our planet.

If you aren’t sure how this works, take 2 pitchers of water. Pour one onto your grass lawn. Pour the other one onto a piece of plastic stretched across the sidewalk. Notice how the grass immediately absorbs the water? And what happens to the water you poured over the plastic? Absorbed? Nope. That’s runoff. To make this experiment more realistic, sprinkle some carcinogen-laden tire crumbs over the experiment area. Oh wait, that's for another story...

The Clean Water Act allows the Federal government to regulate the discharge of pollutants in these United States. That includes Montgomery County, Maryland. And no, folks, adding ‘solar panels’ and ‘encouraging recycling’ doesn’t do much to mitigate pollutant runoff.

According to the EPA website, “The CWA requires anyone who wants to discharge pollutants to first obtain an NPDES permit, or else that discharge will be considered illegal.” Yes, folks, “illegal.” That is not a word that MCPS usually hears. So let’s hope, for the very first time, they will comply with the law. I guess there’s a first for everything.

This is from the EPA website:

Water pollution degrades surface waters making them unsafe for drinking, fishing, swimming, and other activities. As authorized by the Clean Water Act, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the United States. Point sources are discrete conveyances such as pipes or man-made ditches. Individual homes that are connected to a municipal system, use a septic system, or do not have a surface discharge do not need an NPDES permit; however, industrial, municipal, and other facilities must obtain permits if their discharges go directly to surface waters. In most cases, the NPDES permit program is administered by authorized states. Since its introduction in 1972, the NPDES permit program is responsible for significant improvements to our Nation's water quality.

Do you have tips on artificial turf and its environmental effects? Email them to artificialturftips@yahoo.com.