County report reveals that highest paid MCPS employees tend to live outside of Montgomery County

For MCPS employees, there is a striking inverse correlation between earnings and the inclination to reside in Montgomery County. The statistics for FY2023 highlight this stark disparity, with a mere 58.6% of highly compensated administrators and principals choosing to make Montgomery County their home, in contrast to a significantly higher proportion of 81.6% among relatively low paid clerical workers, janitors, teachers' aides, and blue-collar employees.

These findings strongly suggest that principals and administrators are opting to establish their residences outside of Montgomery County not due to financial constraints, but rather because they perceive other counties as more conducive to their preferred way of life. Meanwhile, it is noteworthy that relatively modestly paid secretaries, janitors, and blue-collar workers continue to favor Montgomery County as their place of residence, despite the often-cited "lack of affordable housing" in the area.

The situation is equally discernible among teachers affiliated with the MCEA, as they, too, exhibit a higher tendency to reside outside of Montgomery County compared to their lower-paid counterparts, such as secretaries, janitors, and blue-collar workers represented by the SEIU. In fact, the data from FY2023 illustrates that only 63.8% of teachers chose to reside in Montgomery County, whereas a substantial majority of 81.6% of SEIU members elected to call Montgomery County their home.

 https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council/Resources/Files/agenda/col/2023/20230512/20230512_3.pdf

Pages 43 to 44 (PDF 47 to 48):

MCAAP - Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals -- Typically paid $130,000 to $300,000.

MCBOA- Montgomery County Business and Operations Administrators -- Typically paid $80,000 to $130,000.

SEUI - Service Employees -- Typically paid $20,000 (part time) to $50,000.

MCEA - Teachers -- Typically paid $57,000 to $110,000.

Given the above data, it seems disingenuous for teachers to claim that they can't afford to live in Montgomery County when a significantly greater percentage of lower paid MCPS employees are able to afford to live in Montgomery County. 

Montgomery Co. sues consulting firm McKinsey for helping ‘turbocharge’ opioid sales

Montgomery County, Maryland, has filed a lawsuit against consulting firm McKinsey and Company for what it calls the company’s part in fueling the opioid epidemic by marketing drugs to the public and medical providers.

According to the lawsuit, the company’s employees served as marketing advisers to a number of opioid companies, helped to offset the “emotional messages” from families of overdose victims and encouraged Purdue to “turbocharge” opioid sales.

The county’s lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, was announced in a news release Thursday.

County Executive Marc Elrich called the actions of McKinsey “immoral, inhumane, and unconscionable” and said the company needs to be held “accountable.”..

Montgomery Co. sues consulting firm McKinsey for helping ‘turbocharge’ opioid sales - WTOP News

@RamirezReports ·EXCLUSIVE. While @MCPS makes its own decisions in consultation w/ @MoCoDHHS , DHHS Director Dr. Raymond Crowel did give @fox5dc more insight on what’s going on w/ closures from DHHS’ perspective.

EXCLUSIVE. While @MCPS makes its own decisions in consultation w/ @MoCoDHHS, DHHS Director Dr. Raymond Crowel did give @fox5dc more insight on what’s going on w/ closures from DHHS’ perspective. Crowel: the challenge is what do you do and how do you balance using that data? pic.twitter.com/veMueItLho

— Stephanie Ramirez (@RamirezReports) January 10, 2022

Carlita Nelson* is a Watkins Mill graduate and registered nurse who, for the last year, has been working in the COVID-19 department at White Oak Medical Center.

 ...“I was working in the [intermediate care unit] when the pandemic first hit us last February,” Nelson said. “It would later be turned into the coronavirus department, because it was the only section of the hospital with negative pressure rooms, which prevent the spread of airborne diseases.”

Nelson expressed how the pandemic exhausted her mental health and affected a lot of people negatively. “A lot of my coworkers quit. Many of my associates already have backup plans in case they leave as well,” she said.

“I go days without eating, [and] nights without sleeping,” She continued, “If I could describe it all in one word it would be ‘fatigue.’ Fatigue of seeing people die all around me. You just get really tired of it all.”..

https://wmcurrent.com/27703/features/wm-alum-fights-on-the-front-lines-against-covid-19/

Arlington: Bishop O’Connell High School Goes Fully Virtual After Two COVID-19 Cases Reported #HalloweenParty

 

Bishop O’Connell High School went fully virtual on Friday, and will remain so until December, out of an abundance of caution after two positive cases came to administrators’ attention.

The two cases were traced to what head of school Bill Crittenberger called “an off-campus gathering” with “quite a few young people” on Halloween (Oct. 31).

The two cases, one confirmed and one presumed, were reported to the school on Wednesday. The second case was confirmed on Thursday. The two students likely came to school on Tuesday, with the 500-student cohort that comes Tuesdays and Thursday, though it’s also possible one or both were in on Wednesday, with another 500-student cohort comes in on Wednesdays and Fridays....

https://www.arlnow.com/2020/11/06/bishop-oconnell-high-school-goes-fully-virtual-after-two-covid-19-cases-reported/

The Universities at Shady Grove has only 2,000 Undergraduate Students

https://shadygrove.umd.edu/sites/default/files/u80/USG%20At%20A%20Glance%20-%20Executive%20Flyer.pdf

Father blames 'loophole' in Maryland law for allowing alleged (Montgomery Co.) molester to walk free

ROCKVILLE, Md. (ABC7) — A Bethesda father believes a loophole in Maryland's criminal statute allowed an alleged molester to wiggle his way out of criminal charges.

The father, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explains his only daughter wanted to learn how to play the electric bass guitar. It was 2006. His daughter, now 29, was 17-years-old at the time. The father found a highly-rated music instructor in Wheaton. The male instructor was in his 50s and appeared kind, gracious and dedicated to his craft.

Nearly every Saturday for two years, the father drove his daughter to the instructor's modest one-story brick home. The instructor, who ABC7 is not naming, took the teen to a spare bedroom, which he had turned into a soundproof music studio. Each lesson went for one hour.

The father would relax on the sofa in the adjacent living room, reading magazines, watching television and occasionally napping. Not once did he suspect a sliver of impropriety.

"This was a man I welcomed into my home, we fed him, we went to his concerts at area restaurants and the zoo," the father told ABC7 during a concealed identity interview. "I paid him $50 for 80 lessons, that's $4,000, and he was doing terrible things behind my back."

In August 2008, the girl, then 18, stopped taking the private music lessons and enrolled at Montgomery College. The separation wasn't hostile or unfriendly; the arrangement had simply run its course...

https://wjla.com/news/local/father-poses-loophole-in-maryland-sex-abuse-law

22 Montgomery County employees appear to have used work addresses to sign up

Ashley Madison Leak Includes 22 D.C. Government Employees

http://dcist.com/2015/08/ashley_madison_leak_includes_22_dc.php

Montgomery County Fiscal Plan Update

From today's (12/9/14) Montgomery County Council meeting:

http://montgomerycountymd.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=6&event_id=1700&meta_id=74654

Press Release: Discrepancies Between Services Contracted for and Services Received by Consumers of Treatment Center

For More Information, Please Contact:

Lisa Lowe, Heroin Action Coalition of Montgomery County

240-370-1436 / LisaALowe AT aol.com

2/12/2014

  

Dear Governor O’Malley:

I am seeking resolution regarding the disparity between substance abuse treatment services outlined in the Montgomery County contract with Maryland Treatment Centers and the actual services which consumers are receiving.  I am writing to respectfully request the following:

Ø  An investigation into the disparity between the services contracted for, as outlined in the License Agreement Between Montgomery County, Maryland and Maryland Treatment Centers (Attachment #1: License) and the services that consumers actually receive at Avery Road Treatment Center (ARTC), as reported by family members and consumers of services; and

Ø An investigation into the legitimacy of the Montgomery County Local Drug and Alcohol Abuse Council (LDAAC) to disallow discussion or investigation into the aforementioned disparities. 

I have outlined areas where there are disparities between the ARTC License Agreement and the experiences of consumers (Attachment #2: Discrepancies). Attempts to resolve this issue at a local level have not been successful. 

1)      I attempted to bring this issue to the policy table through the LDAAC at both the September and October meetings.  While members were willing to discuss the need for repairs to the building in great detail and subsequently propose that our County Executive request building funds from the state, they refused to discuss the services disparity, stating that to do so would be “insulting” to the Executive Director of the ARTC and other ARTC employees who are members of the LDAAC.  When I insisted that this issue warrants further examination, the Chair of the LDAAC implemented a new rule disallowing non-voting members from speaking until the final five minutes of the council, thereby silencing any further discussion regarding discrepancies in the License Agreement.  During the past four years that I have participated on the LDAAC, community members have always been able to speak freely during the entirety of the meeting. 

According to Debbie Green, Director of Treatment and Recovery Services at ADAA, one of the primary purposes of LDAACs are to include the input of “knowledgeable citizens” in the “identification and recommendations regarding system improvements”.  These recent LDAAC actions, which serve to protect the for-profit treatment provider from public scrutiny and accountability, seem to be contrary to the spirit in which the LDAACs were created.  It would seem that the LDAAC is willing to represent the interests of for-profit treatment providers at the expense of the community which it purportedly serves.

2)      On November 3^rd, I wrote to the Montgomery County Council’s Committee on Health and Human Services (HHS), asking them to address treatment issues with ARTC.  I received a reply, suggesting that I continue raising the issue with County HHS officials, even though I am an unpaid volunteer and not a paid consultant or lobbyist. 

3)      On January 7^th, three parents and an ARTC alumni, met with Uma Ahluwalia, Director, Montgomery County DHHS to report their experiences with ARTC.  They each provided anecdotal evidence to show that they did not receive the services which ARTC is contracted by the County to provide.  Ms. Ahluwalia sent me an email on January 10^th, stating that she would postpone articulating “clearly outlined next steps” until an unspecified future time.  

4)      These same families scheduled a meeting with County Executive, Isiah Leggett for February 3^rd.  However, we were informed shortly before the meeting that Executive Leggett did not have time to meet with us, and Mike Subin would be meeting in his place.  In reply to one young adult’s account of rampant illicit drug use inside the ARTC, Mr. Subin commented that all treatment facilities, like jails, are full of contraband.  In reality, Mr. Subin has no idea which facilities may have contraband and which do not, and he was obviously not willing to rely on information provided by individuals and families who have actually utilized many of the treatment facilities throughout the state.  Mr. Subin also stated that he would not be able to discuss this issue with Mr. Leggett until sometime in April, more than two months away, and we could expect a response from the County Executive “sometime in the next 4 ½ years”.  In light of Mr. Subin’s notoriety for “bullying” community advocates, as noted in several online articles, the members of our committee found it inappropriate for the County Executive to delegate Mr. Subin to meet with us in his absence. 

5)      Lastly, a colleague from another Montgomery County grassroots advocacy organization relayed that she had received phone calls from three county officials attempting to discredit our legitimate complaints involving county contracts.

Frankly, the lack of responsiveness of county officials in addressing the discrepancies between a written contract with a service provider and clear anecdotal evidence from consumers receiving those services has been disappointing at best.  We are beginning to wonder why our county officials and agency administrators are shielding a for-profit treatment provider from legitimate complaints by concerned citizens.  We are aware that there is a substantial block of funding flowing from the federal government, through the state, and into county programs, including the ARTC.  This is tax payer money and we have a right to ask how it is being spent.  Three programs owned by Maryland Treatment Centers show combined revenues of approximately 25 million dollars. 

We are calling for an unbiased and thorough investigation into whether:

·         ARTC is acting within the legitimate parameters of the County License Agreement; and

·         The LDAAC operated appropriately by refusing to discuss community concerns regarding obvious and glaring contract discrepancies. 

Apparently, Cecil County Councilwoman, Diana Broomell, has had similar complaints regarding her LDAAC’s failure to allow legitimate community concerns to reach the policy table.  It is my understanding that she has already sent you a letter outlining those problems.  Additionally, the grassroots organization Project Hope, in Frederick County, has had similar complaints regarding their County LDAAC. 

I await your timely reply regarding this grave matter.  Please make good on your promise to reduce overdose deaths in Maryland, by taking these allegations in the serious light with which they are intended.  Please feel free to contact me by phone at 240-370-1436 or by email at LisaALowe AT aol.com.

Respectfully,

Lisa Lowe

Heroin Action Coalition of Montgomery County

MoCo County Attorney Responds to OMA Complaint

Did Michael Faden have a bad day at the office?  Or has he been breathing too many fumes from the artificial turf advocates frequenting the County Council Office Buildings these days.

Read Mike's response to an Open Meetings Act complaint filed September 24, 2011 by two members of the Parents Coalition concerning the Artificial Turf Work Group that recently recommended more plastic fields in the county.

http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/72104513?access_key=key-2jvu42eb9jld7khjd4oz

Mike apparently thinks that he can use his taxpayer funded status to bully those who ask questions.  He writes:

This complaint verges on the frivolous because its authors cited absolutely no legal authority on which to base a violation of the Open Meeting Law.  . . . Were this case filed as a court case, sanctions for misuse of the judicial process would be in order.

I hate to break it to you, Mike, but we aren't in court, we pay your salary, and if the case were frivolous, the Open Meetings Compliance Board simply would have called up the filers and asked that they try again.

And part of the reason why the complaint was filed in the first place was that many community members couldn't figure out exactly what this working group was doing, who was on the committee, and when did it meet.  If the workgroup or whatever it was and whoever met were a bit more transparent, open meetings issues would be moot.

Just so we are reading from the same page, here is a link to the Open Meetings  Act:

According to the Act, "it is the public policy of the State that the public be provided with adequate notice of the time and location of meetings of public bodies, which shall be held in places reasonably accessible to individuals who would like to attend these meetings."

And, under the Act, the complaint needs the following:

• identify the public body, specify the action of the public body, and the date and the circumstances of the action, and
• signature of the complainant(s).

So, Michael, did you not check the rules applicable to Open Meeting Act complaints before you responded to the allegations?   

Or are you just trying to bully some of the same taxpayers who pay your salary?

And, if you had a truly horrible, no good, very bad day like Alexander, maybe it's best in the future to assign these matters to another staff member in your office.

DC Examiner: MontCo residents to take legal action against county over soccer fields

A Potomac community is taking the first step toward suing over Montgomery County's plans to turn an organic farm into soccer fields.

Residents of River Falls have joined with the county's Citizens Association and other activists to file official notice on Tuesday "to preserve a claim for monetary damages," according to a flier circulated by the coalition. The notice is a formal way to alert a party that a lawsuit could hit them if the matter isn't resolved.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/education/2011/08/montco-residents-take-legal-action-against-county-over-soccer-fields#ixzz1WTaiwTTP

Them That's Got: Leggett Pays Crony $160K Salary

Thanks reporter Brian Hughes for this revealing article in today's Examiner.  Here is how Ike Leggett is spending your tax dollars.  A salary of $158,464 to meet four times a year.

Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett's office is spending nearly $160,000 annually on salary and benefits for a longtime political ally and former County Council member to head a commission that meets four times a year.



Budget documents reviewed by The Washington Examiner show that the county is doling out $158,464 in compensation to Michael Subin, executive director of the county's Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission, which is tasked with "coordinating communication" among Montgomery's law enforcement agencies.

and

"It looks bad," said one high-ranking county official who asked to remain anonymous. "To be paying that much to one of your political buddies -- for, let's face it, not that much work -- is outrageous with our budget situation."

Read the full article here.

Them That's Got: Leggett is Riding in Style

Here is more news on where your money goes.  Again, our thanks to The Washington Examiner for covering our county.  Our thanks to reporter Freeman Kloppott for this latest news on how your money gets spent by the people you elected to watch over the funds.

Pricey Rides for Region's Top Officials

The region's top elected officials continue to ride around in pricey sport utility vehicles despite tight budgets and a gloomy economic outlook.

Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett has not one, but two SUVs. There's the $47,698 Chevrolet Suburban driven by a part-time security guard that Leggett uses for official county business, and there's also the $38,665 Jeep Cherokee Leggett uses when he drives himself.

and:

Montgomery County officials are working to fix a $300 million shortfall and at least one county councilman may want Leggett to get rid of a ride.

"The council should review the executive's vehicle situation to determine if it should be scaled back during these difficult times," said Phil Andrews, D-Gaithersburg. "We have a budget coming over soon, and we'll be looking at a wide range of cuts and this is one of them."


Leggett spokesman Patrick Lacefield said the county executive has one vehicle, the Jeep, and the other belongs to "county security." He has the Jeep "for times when he does not need security and drives himself. It is easier and more cost effective for him not to pull [security members] off their duties," Lacefield said.

To read the rest of the story, go to the Examiner here.

Alert on Rewrite of the Housing Element (Chapter) of the General Plan

All,
I am passing this (below) on from Jim Humphrey, of the Montgomery County Civic Federation
Thanks.
Paula Bienenfeld
Education Committee Chair, Montgomery County Civic Federation

Your action needed to help protect Montgomery County's residential neighborhoods

The County Council's PHED (Planning, Housing, and Economic Development) Committee has scheduled worksessions for March 7 and 14 to consider a draft revision of the Housing Element of the General Plan. The draft revision would remove strategies that currently exist in the Housing Element which are designed to preserve and protect residential neighborhoods in the county, and the draft would recommend allowing accessory apartments in residential zones by-right (rather than by current Special Exception process which lets neighbors and community groups weigh-in).

Please send an email right away to PHED Committee members (no later than Friday, March 11) -- subject: "Draft Revision of the Housing Element of the General Plan" -- and urge them to:

 - retain the neighborhood protection strategies currently in the Housing Element of the General Plan (i.e.; channel through traffic away from residential streets, discourage spill-over parking from non-residential areas, plan uses at the edges of high-density centers that are compatible with existing neighborhoods); and,
- keep accessory apartments by Special Exception.

The email addresses for the 3 PHED Committee members are:
Councilmember.Floreen@montgomerycountymd.gov (she is Chair of the Committee)
Councilmember.Elrich@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Leventhal@montgomerycountymd.gov

It would be best if we can influence the PHED Committee to recommend changes to the draft Housing Element revision in order to retain the objective of preserving and protecting residential neighborhoods, since the other six members of Council usually go along with the Committee recommendation. But -- if PHED recommends the full Council adopt the new Housing Element as drafted, we will have to mount an effort to persuade the six other members of Council to keep neighborhood protections in the Housing Element.

Background
The last time the General Plan--the overall master plan for the entire county--was revised was in 1993. In mid-2009 the Planning Board transmitted a draft revision of the Housing Element (chapter) of the General Plan to the Council, the body with authority to approve master plan revisions. The Council held its public hearing on the Housing Element draft revision on December 1, 2009. The issue has not yet come up for a Council vote, but now the PHED Committee has restarted work on it with the intention of making a recommendation.

The General Plan is used as a blueprint for all community master and sector plans. If neighborhood protection strategies remain in the General Plan, then that objective must be addressed in all community master plans, too. So it is critical that the objective of preserving and protecting residential neighborhoods is retained in the General Plan Housing Element!

The existing Housing Element from the 1993 General Plan, and the draft revision being considered by Council, can be found via the "Current Issues--Planning and Land Use Committee" page on the Montgomery County Civic Federation website here: http://www.montgomerycivic.org/currentissuesPLU.html

Thank you for taking the time to email your concerns to the members of the Council's PHED Committee. Please forward this message to your friends, neighbors, and local listserv members.

Jim Humphrey
Chair, Montgomery County Civic Federation (MCCF) Planning and Land Use Committee

New Superintendent Search Update: Leadership Profile Report

After the public and private forums held by consultants HYA, who were hired by the Montgomery County (MD) Board of Education, the next step is the preparation of a draft and final 'Leadership Profile Report.'  To see what this will look like, take a look at the Leadership Profile Report prepared last month (Jan 2011) by HYA for the Beaverton, OR public school system.  Beaverton, OR is also searching for a new superintendent and have also hired HYA to conduct the search.  Their timeline is very similar to the timeline for MCPS.

Paula Bienenfeld
Education Committee Chair, Montgomery County Civic Federation

Beaverton or Superintendent Search HYA Leadership Profile Report

And so I checked out a book at the library...

Here is the story of Robert Nay, of Spanish Fork, Utah who at the age of 14 has just created an iphone app, a game called, Bubble Ball, that is suddenly wildly popular and has been downloaded more than 2 million times. Where did he research and develop the app? At his public library. "And so I checked out a book at the library..."

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/tween-tech-prodigy-23867645

Tell Montgomery County government we need our libraries.  Tell the Government not to cut the library budget any more. Enough is enough.

To tell your council members click here.  To tell County Executive Ike Leggett, click here.  Just click, that's all it takes to protect our libraries.

What the rest of the State thinks about MoCo

Here is an excerpt from an editorial that ran in the Baltimore Sun on December 15th. (yellow highlights my own)

Maryland's ATM?

Our view: If Montgomery County is treated as a cash cow, it's only because that's where the “milk” is found

In the tony village of Potomac, one of Montgomery County’s most exclusive enclaves, the average home sells for about $1 million, but it's not hard to find properties that list for a great deal more money. People living there generally earn more than those who live elsewhere in the county, but they also pay much more in taxes, too.

Yet when Montgomery County was struggling to pay for government services during the recession that hit eight years ago and raised property taxes at a rate higher than that of inflation (where it's normally capped by the county’s charter), you didn’t hear Potomac residents claiming they’d been treated as an automated teller machine by middle-income Wheaton and Silver Spring. Those who live so close to the nation’s capital city are more sophisticated about government, economics and democracy than that.

So it was disappointing to hear Montgomery County Executive Isiah “Ike” Leggett tell Martin O’Malley at a breakfast meeting this week that the county that provided so many of the votes to re-elect him governor should not be regarded as the “ATM machine for the rest of Maryland.”

That Mr. Leggett doesn’t want state aid reduced next year and his own county budget woes worsened is understandable. But how disappointing for him to adopt the inflammatory language of a raging parochial. He's starting to sound like developer, political gadfly and community newspaper columnist Blair Lee IV who constantly derides the county for empathizing with the plight of Maryland's poor.

No doubt the county executive is most focused on a potential loss of teacher pension money. Right now, the state pays the full employer contribution to teacher pensions, a formula that greatly benefits Montgomery County, which not only has more teachers but pays them more money (and thus allows them to earn higher pensions) then other jurisdictions.

But here’s what happens if in closing a projected $1.6 billion budget shortfall next year, Mr. O’Malley and the state legislature look elsewhere for reductions: Poorer subdivisions will get hit harder. Is that really a better or fairer way to go?

It’s not clear whether Mr. Leggett’s remarks were directed at the governor or to placating critics like Mr. Lee. If there is a rising anger toward the governor and General Assembly for shortchanging Montgomery County, it certainly wasn’t reflected in the last election. Despite supporting the so-called “millionaire’s tax,” the temporary surcharge on high-income residents that was vigorously opposed by some in the county's delegation to Annapolis, Mr. O’Malley won re-election in the county with 68 percent of the vote. Mr. Leggett, a millionaire’s tax opponent, was re-elected with 65.5 percent.

The Peary Sale: Did the County Government follow the law? Read the Regulations and See for Yourself

When the County Council voted 8-1 (all in favor with the exception of Councilmember Phil Andrews [D-District 3]) to sell the publicly-owned 19.5 acres of downcounty property for $1.9 million to a private school, the Berman Academy, was the law followed?  The Board of Education opposes the sale.  The Montgomery County Civic Federation opposes the sale.  The Montgomery County Council of PTAs opposes the sale.

Read the regulations: COMCOR 11B.45.02, Reuse, Leasing, and Sale of Closed Schools, and see for yourself.  If you don't think the law was followed, let the Board of Public Works know.  Call 410-260-7335. The Board (Nancy Kopp, Treasurer, Martin O'Malley, Governor, and Peter Franchot, Comptroller) will be voting on the sale soon, on December 15th.  This secret deal was fast-tracked by insiders in your county and state government, and even the federal government.  According to insiders, 'the pressure was unbelievable.'

Reuse, Leasing, And Sale of Closed Schools

Artificial Turf: How hot is it?

Summer practice is starting up.  Just how hot are the artificial turf fields?  Remember, these fields are heat islands, trapping heat, ALL the time.  Not just when children are playing on the fields.  Artificial field heat islands can be seen from space, as we wrote about in this space months ago.  Next time you pay your electric bills, remember, this is what you are paying for.  And, don't forget the added tax on energy the Montgomery County Council tacked on to your bill.  Those added tax dollars are always needed at MCPS, which eats up 57% of our tax dollars.  Check this short video, from WBAL TV and WLWT TV comparing natural turf fields and artificial turf fields at schools -- 92 degrees F on natural turf; 130 degrees F on artificial turf.  "Anything above 104, you have to terminate your practice."  That would be for safety reasons, however, its unclear if MoCo follows those safety practices.