And from the Planning Board members that were appointed in violation of Maryland law, we get this:
Showing posts with label alcohol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alcohol. Show all posts
Friday, January 5, 2024
Montgomery County Planning Board settles with ousted planning director
Reminder how the public was shut out of the Planning Board appointment process. https://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2022/10/parents-coalition-obtains-financial.html
Friday, February 3, 2023
The school [BCC High School] failed to fulfill one of its basic duties: keeping parents in the loop about their child’s safety. @mcps @mocoboe
That Tattler reporters set the narrative for parents and other news outlets alike is extraordinarily inappropriate. The school failed to fulfill one of its basic duties: keeping parents in the loop about their child’s safety.
...MCPS’s duties are shockingly opaque. A concerned parent or student cannot even access the “Principal’s Handbook” or their “Parent Involvement Toolkit” on the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) website. How are we supposed to understand if administrators are doing their jobs correctly if we don’t even know what they’re being instructed to do? B-CC administration can hold all the town halls it wants. The fact that these Potemkin villages pop up after every one of these incidents seems like a tacit acknowledgement of wrongdoing...
What We’ve Got Here is Failure to Communicate – The Tattler (bcctattler.org)
Thursday, October 20, 2022
ABC7: Montgomery Council accused of violating law by appointing new planning board in 'mad rush'
Montgomery Council accused of violating law by appointing new planning board in 'mad rush' | WJLA
ROCKVILLE, Md. (7News) — A Potomac resident is accusing the Montgomery County Council of defying the law by scheduling to appoint five new Planning Board members this coming Tuesday, Oct. 25, less than one week after the council released a list of everyone who has applied to be on the board.
"Bad things happened and there's a rush to cover up the bad things, to sweep it under the rug," resident Janis Sartucci told 7News Wednesday. "And unfortunately, [the county council] has decided to violate Maryland law, which guarantees how this process is supposed to proceed."..
..."They're supposed to give us three weeks and they're only going to give us one," Sartucci remarked.
Sartucci provided 7News with the Maryland Code and Court Rules regarding appointments to the M-NCPPC. It notes that the county council must complete its list of applicants "three weeks before an appointment is made" and that the list is "made available to the public."..
Montgomery Council accused of violating law by appointing new planning board in 'mad rush' | WJLA
Sunday, October 16, 2022
BACC Calls for an Independent Investigation Into Montgomery County Parks and Planning: The Victims Demand Justice
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo
(240) 731-9577
Entire Montgomery County Planning Board has Resigned in Disgrace
BACC Calls for an Independent Investigation Into
Montgomery County Parks and Planning: The Victims Demand Justice
Bethesda, Maryland, Thursday, October 13, 2022—For seven years the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition (BACC) has been exposing Casey Anderson’s (et al’s) role in the desecration of Moses Macedonia African Cemetery and the willful exclusion of the descendant and Black communities from the decision making process—with the results being that Parks and Planning issued permits for developers to haul our ancestors off to a landfill and the desecration has escalated. There are living victims here. Now, the entire Montgomery County Planning Board and its chair have resigned in disgrace.
We would like to thank everyone who has marched with BACC and supported our efforts to remove these bad actors. We hold, however, that accepting the resignations is incompatible with the severity of the acts these officials permitted. BACC calls for an independent investigation of how these acts were tolerated and who collaborated in the process. The removal of the entire Planning Board is only the first step in dismantling what has long been toxic policies that disproportionately affect the Black community, and that was approved by the County Executive, throughout the entirety of the county’s land use policy administrators.
Montgomery County Council President, Gabe Albornoz, said in a press release yesterday, “The Council has lost confidence in the Montgomery County Planning Board and accepted these resignations to reset operations. We are acting with deliberate speed to appoint new commissioners to move Montgomery County forward.”
BACC says, NOT SO FAST! ALL of the County’s agencies that control land use have had a hand in the desecration of Moses Macedonia African Cemetery and the exclusion of the descendant and Black communities from the process. “Over BACC’s strenuous and repeated appeals, the County Council nominated every member of the now disgraced Planning Board, and County Executive Elrich approved them. BACC provided abundant evidence to Marc Elrich for him to reject Casey Anderson’s contract renewal—but he approved it anyway,” said BACC President, Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo.
BACC has consistently appealed to the county executive, the county council, the planning board, MCHOC, the state’s attorney, the historical trust—all of whom have done nothing to stop the desecration and exclusionary prohibited practices that continue to escalate.
“Montgomery County says it lost confidence in the Planning Board,” said Rev. Dr. Segun Adebayo, Pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church—the sole surviving cultural institution of a once thriving River Road African and Black community. “After years of appealing to county officials to intervene and stop the desecration—to no avail— WE have no confidence in these same county officials. We have tasted the bitter realities of the collusion that continues to allow the desecration. Do you honestly expect us to believe that Mr. Anderson only recently installed a bar in his office?”
BACC exhausted all administrative remedies years ago and still our ancestors languish beneath a parking lot—and in a landfill—where county officials permitted them to be carted away like trash.
Were the county to replace all of the “bad apples,” the corruption would continue apace: land use governance in Montgomery County is a Jim Crow relic. Its most recent manifestation is Casey Anderson’s Thrive 2050. It must go the way of its chief architect, Casey Anderson. This upheaval in the Planning Board provides an opportunity for the county to own its history of slavery, desecration of Moses Cemetery, industrial scale breeding of African women, rape, torture, lynching, and murder. There is no need to rush to fill a Planning Board that would operate within a systemically racist organization.
Mr. Albornoz, we don’t need deliberate speed—we need deliberation—that includes an honest and sober assessment of how we arrived at this sordid state. Absent an independent investigation, we are doomed to replace the disgraced Board with another panel of good ol’ boys and girls that works against the Black community.
Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Montgomery Council accepts resignations of entire Planning Board, including Casey Anderson
ROCKVILLE, Md. (7News) — The Montgomery County Council has accepted the immediate resignations of the five-member Montgomery Planning Board, the council confirmed in a press release Wednesday afternoon.
The surprise announcement — considered to be unprecedented in Montgomery County history — followed weeks of leaked documents that revealed scandals within the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), which the Montgomery Planning Board falls beneath...
Montgomery Council accepts resignations of entire Planning Board, including Casey Anderson | WJLA
Tuesday, October 4, 2022
3/5 of Montgomery County Planning Board Given Reprimands for Inappropriate Conduct in the Workplace: Casey Anderson, Partap Verma and Carol Rubin. Council "Disappointed."
Montgomery County Council Issues Reprimands for Montgomery County Planning Board Chair Anderson and Two Planning Board Commissioners Partap Verma and Carol Rubin.
ROCKVILLE, Md., Oct. 4, 2022—Montgomery County Council President Gabe Albornoz released the following Council statement about issuing reprimands for inappropriate conduct in the workplace for Montgomery County Planning Board Chair Casey Anderson, Vice Chair Partap Verma and Planning Board Commissioner Carol Rubin:
“The Council is extremely disappointed in the violations of Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) policy by Planning Board Chair Casey Anderson, as detailed in an advisory memorandum from M-NCPPC’s inspector general. The memorandum also found violations of Commission policy by Vice Chair Partap Verma and Planning Board Commissioner Carol Rubin.
“Montgomery County Planning Board leadership must model the behavior that we want all employees to display. In order to hold the three commissioners accountable for their actions, the Council has issued reprimands that will result in Chair Anderson losing four weeks of his salary and Vice Chair Verma and Commissioner Rubin each losing one day of their respective salaries. The three commissioners also must attend Employee Assistance Program counseling which is consistent with the Commission’s protocol.”
# # #
Wednesday, September 21, 2022
Sunday, September 18, 2022
The report, a copy of which also was obtained by The Washington Post, concluded that “alcohol was stored and served from Chair Anderson’s office(s)” and that it was “reasonable to conclude, most of Chair Anderson’s senior staff and Montgomery County Planning Board members were aware of these activities.”
...A photo sent by the tipster, authenticated by the IG and included as part of the report, shows two shelves in a cabinet stocked with approximately 20 bottles of alcohol and mixers. A second photo, provided by Anderson to the IG, showed the cabinet was later emptied.
Details of the inspector general’s findings were first reported by ABC7, which obtained a copy of the confidential report.
The report, a copy of which also was obtained by The Washington Post, concluded that “alcohol was stored and served from Chair Anderson’s office(s)” and that it was “reasonable to conclude, most of Chair Anderson’s senior staff and Montgomery County Planning Board members were aware of these activities.” The report said, however, there was no evidence alcohol was consumed during working hours and while there was no evidence of “direct coercion to participate,” one person told the IG that there was “self-pressure to participate to fit in.”
Anderson told the IG he was aware of the commission’s policy, which prohibits the “manufacture, distribution, sale, presence or use of controlled substances and alcohol in the workplace, M-NCPPC vehicles, and other agency property.”..
Montgomery official apologizes for keeping alcohol in his government office - The Washington Post
Saturday, September 17, 2022
A Montgomery County Official Kept An Incredibly Well-Stocked Office Bar. We Made Him A Cocktail Menu
A whistleblower reported Casey Anderson’s liquor cabinet, which reportedly has more than 30 bottles of liquor in it, along with citrus squeezers and other bar tools, ABC7 reported. An investigation by the Inspector General of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, which administers the county planning board, turned up at least three employees who acknowledged drinking alcohol in Anderson’s office, according to the report. In a statement to ABC7, Anderson apologized for keeping the bar at the office.
Montgomery Council launches probe of official who kept well-stocked bar in his office
...In an interview, Council President Gabe Albornoz (D) said he and his colleagues are “very concerned” about Anderson’s practice of drinking at work and have launched their own review.
“The Council oversees Casey, because he is a political appointee,” said Albornoz. “So whatever action is taken will be the council’s responsibility.” He said the panel cannot disclose details because they consider the issue to be a personnel matter.
Albornoz declined to speculate on potential sanctions, but he said the council would be guided in part by how the commission has handled instances in which other employees have engaged in similar conduct.
“There are factors that are going to be considered. Scope and any sort of precedent. We’re looking at commission rules [as well as] how as the commission handled other incidences in which alcohol has been involved with merit-level employees to see if there is some guidance,” he said. “All of those are factors that we’re going to weigh.”..
Friday, September 16, 2022
Planning Board Chair had alcohol in office: there may have been “self-pressure to participate to ‘fit in.’” #PersonInPositionOfAuthority
...The OIG made clear that it found no evidence that Anderson’s drinking took place during normal working hours nor did it find evidence that Anderson directly coerced anyone to participate, but rather that there may have been “self-pressure to participate to ‘fit in.’”
In 2014, the Montgomery County Council appointed Anderson to be the Planning Board Chairman. In turn, it oversees him in an official capacity.
On Tuesday, the council held a lengthy closed session to review Anderson's conduct. M-NCPPC Inspector General Renee Kenney attended that meeting to answer any questions. The council only has the ability to discipline M-NCPPC members, like Anderson, who it appoints...
Montgomery Co. official had full bar in office, drank with employees, OIG report says | WJLA
Saturday, July 27, 2019
@mcps Admin. Says: "The lack of compliance to county and state policy is so widespread that it was an unacceptable way to do business."
...In 1997, Montgomery County Public Schools hired Jules as a special education teacher. Over the years she rose the ranks to the administration level.
Arora explained that Jules' job at Damascus High School was negatively impacted by the October 31, JV football team locker room sexual assaults. The case rocked the tight knit community and quickly made national headlines due, in large part, to the sheer brutality and alleged negligence by school leaders.
"Ms. Jules’ department was being questioned pretty heavily and pretty routinely," Arora noted. "She was being asked to provide statements on a regular basis, answer to parents, things of that nature."
The workdays were long and the worknights consisted of drinking copious amounts of alcohol to cope with persistent police investigators and upset parents...
..."I never witnessed and experienced a more challenging and stressful work assignment. The lack of compliance to county and state policy is so widespread that it was an unacceptable way to do business...
...Despite the two, recent DWI convictions, Jules has managed to keep her administrative job with MCPS...
..."If on my probation you pick up another drunk driving offense and I hear about it, short of an extraordinary reason, I will give you all of the backup time. And that is to hopefully help deter you from picking up another drunk driving offense," the judge said during the December 2017 sentencing hearing.
Jules' second DWI arrest occurred 15 months later, within her 18-month probation window. It remains unclear why the judge in the first case did not keep to his word of imposing all of the "backup time" for failure to comply.
..."If on my probation you pick up another drunk driving offense and I hear about it, short of an extraordinary reason, I will give you all of the backup time. And that is to hopefully help deter you from picking up another drunk driving offense," the judge said during the December 2017 sentencing hearing.
Jules' second DWI arrest occurred 15 months later, within her 18-month probation window. It remains unclear why the judge in the first case did not keep to his word of imposing all of the "backup time" for failure to comply.
Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Lee Middle School Parents Voice Concern About New Assistant Principal
Some parents at Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School in Silver Spring are questioning the hiring of a new administrator who started at the school Monday, the same day she was sentenced for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Maniya Jules, 51, of Potomac pled guilty on Monday and was sentenced to 60 days in jail with all but two days suspended by a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge, according to court records. Jules was placed on three years of probation with conditions that she abstain from alcohol and receive professional treatment, according to court records. Jules was also fined $250 and the judge ordered an interlock device be installed on her car that requires the driver to blow into a mouthpiece before starting the vehicle.
Jules, who was assistant principal at Damascus High School at the time of her arrest, was cited for driving under the influence of alcohol in 2017, according to court records.
In late June, Lee Middle School Principal Kimberly Hayden Williams sent a letter to community members announcing Jules was reassigned to the school and will serve as an assistant principal.
“She is bringing a wealth of knowledge and experiences to Lee Middle school and we are looking forward to welcoming her to our community,” the principal wrote...
Monday, May 20, 2019
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Kevin Lewis NEW: A Quince Orchard High School staff member is in trouble after attending a private graduation party where students "openly consumed alcohol and participated in alcohol-related games."
NEW: A Quince Orchard High School staff member is in trouble after attending a private graduation party where students "openly consumed alcohol and participated in alcohol-related games."— Kevin Lewis (@ABC7Kevin) May 18, 2019
That's according to an email sent by Principal Beth Thomas.
MCPS has notified MoCo Police. pic.twitter.com/nZ8Wu6777f
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
ABC7: Damascus H.S. assistant principal charged with 2nd DWI, arrest caught on body camera
DAMASCUS, Md. (ABC7) — An assistant principal at Damascus High School is on personal leave after police charged her with drunk driving for the second time in less than two years.
Maniya Jules, 50, a 22-year veteran of the Montgomery County Public Schools system, is facing jail time for her alleged improper behavior.
Around 12:45 a.m. on Friday, March 22, an officer was dispatched to the 8800 block of Tuckerman Lane in Potomac for a suspicious vehicle call. According to law enforcement sources, that officer found Jules behind the wheel of a Honda with two flat tires. The disabled vehicle was idling on the side of the road near Herbert Hoover Middle School...
Friday, September 23, 2016
Bethesda High Schools To Hold Sept. 29 Town Hall Meeting on Underage Drinking
Bethesda High Schools To Hold Sept. 29 Town Hall Meeting on Underage Drinking: Organizers hope to give parents information on how to confront the problem
...The Montgomery County Board of Education considered updating its underage drinking policy following the controversy related to the graduation, but it hasn’t taken action. A discussion of the district’s policy was not on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting of the board’s Policy Management Committee...
...The Montgomery County Board of Education considered updating its underage drinking policy following the controversy related to the graduation, but it hasn’t taken action. A discussion of the district’s policy was not on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting of the board’s Policy Management Committee...
Monday, August 1, 2016
After drunk students, MCPS school board reviews conduct policy
The Montgomery County Board of Education’s Policy Management Committee held a meeting Tuesday to discuss possible changes to the way schools handle situations where students have violated the student code of conduct.
As part of the discussion, the school board committee looked at how other districts handle drinking and alcohol use by students. In Anne Arundel County, for example, students who violate the board’s policies on alcohol — or other controlled substances — are barred from taking part in all senior activities, including commencement. In Fairfax County, students can be suspended from taking part in all school-sponsored activities, but graduation isn’t mentioned specifically. In Howard County, graduating seniors can appeal a decision to be barred from graduation ceremonies.
The Montgomery County policy actually discourages principals from barring students from commencement, and Deb Ford, the PTSA president at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, thinks that’s a mistake. Being able to use attendance at the graduation ceremony as leverage over seniors “is truly the only thing that will resonate with high school students,” Ford said.
“Anything else, they can just blow off,” she added....
http://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2016/07/drunk-students-montgomery-co-school-board-reviews-conduct-policy/
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Md. top court: Hosts can be held liable in underage-drinking cases
Adults facing potential liability in these cases cannot defend themselves by arguing that the underage person was contributorily negligent by having consumed the alcohol, the Court of Appeals said.
The high court’s ruling marked the first time it has recognized the potential liability of party hosts for the alcohol-related harm caused by their guests under the legal drinking age of 21.
The Court of Appeals based its landmark decision on a Maryland criminal law that makes it illegal to serve alcohol to underage individuals outside of immediate family or a religious service.
Section 10-117(b) of the Criminal Article, with its goal of protecting youngsters from the evils of alcohol, intrinsically contains a civil cause of action for people harmed by the adult who violated the law by permitting the underage drinking, the court said.
“[W]e hold that there exists a limited form of social host liability sounding in negligence – based on the strong public policy reflected in CR Section 10-117(b), but that it only exists when the adults in question act knowingly and willfully, as required by the statute,” Judge Sally D. Adkins wrote for the court.
“We view CR Section 10-177(b) as a recognition by the General Assembly, based on convincing evidence, that children under 21 are often less able to make responsible decisions regarding the consumption of alcohol and, as a result, are more susceptible to harming themselves or others when presented with the opportunity to drink in excess in a social, peer-pressured setting,” Adkins added. “It therefore carved out that specific class for special protection against adult social hosts who knowingly and willfully allow consumption of alcoholic beverages on their property.”
The Court of Appeals’ decision revived two lawsuits victims of drunken-driving incidents brought against adults who hosted parties leading to the underage intoxication.
Nancy Dankos’ claims her 17-year-old son, if sober, would not have accepted a ride in the back of a pickup drunk from a drunk partygoer at Linda Stapf’s Ellicott City home. When the truck crashed, Steven was thrown from the back of the vehicle and killed.
In the other lawsuit, Manal Kariakos suffered fractured vertebrae and a lacerated kidney when she was struck in Cockeysville by drunk driver Shetmiyah Robinson, an 18 year-old who had allegedly been served vodka shots by Brandon Phillips.
...
‘Alex and Calvin’s Law’
The high court’s decision follows the General Assembly’s strengthening last session of the criminal law by permitting adults to be jailed for up to one year for knowingly and willfully providing alcohol to or hosting drinking parties attended by those under age 21 who become impaired and seriously injure themselves or others in driving from the event.The amendment, dubbed “Alex and Calvin’s Law,” was spurred by the deaths of two recent high school graduates who were killed in a drunken-driving crash after attending an underage drinking party. Supporters of the legislation called it obscene that the adult who hosted the party, Kenneth Saltzman, was merely assessed a $5,000 fine and faced no potential jail time under current law.
Alex and Calvin’s Law, which Gov. Larry Hogan signed May 19, goes into effect Oct. 1.
...
The Court of Appeals rendered its decision in the consolidated cases, Manal Kariakos v. Brandon Phillips and Nancy Dankos et al. v Linda Stapf, Nos. 20 and 55, September Term 2015.
http://thedailyrecord.com/2016/07/05/court-of-appeals-underage-drinking-liability/
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