By Kenneth C. Rossignol

ST. MARY’S TODAY

LEONARDTOWN — Where can the St. Mary’s County Commissioners cut their budget in the coming cycle to prevent another horrible tax hike like the $14.5 million property tax hike enacted this year at the same time that property values dropped in half?

The places they can look should be no surprise to ST. MARY’S TODAY readers.

All during the year, dozens and dozens of St. Mary’s staffers leave their offices, leaving unanswered voice mail, email and unprocessed work in order to go to conventions, seminars and conferences, some in state and others as far away as Paris, France; some of which are required and needed and some of which are just plain fun.

The Paris trip two years ago set the taxpayers back by $4,446.00. That was for one person. County Administrator John Savich approved the trip as essential to the conduct of county business.

The Maryland Association of Counties has their annual convention during the height of the tourist season in August in Ocean City when the highest rates are in force while the Maryland Farm Bureau, who’s members pay their own way, meet in December.

The MACO convention is attended by the same dozen or so people from St. Mary’s County, year in and year out.

In fact, St. Mary’s Commissioner Tommy Mattingly (D. Leonardtown) hasn’t missed a year for the past ten years, each time, going for a vacation at taxpayer’s expense, where he stays in an expensive oceanfront hotel room and goes from party to crab-feast to golf outing, all paid for by taxpayers who stay at home and pay for their own fun.

After the first five years of attending seminars on subjects such as zoning or sewers, one might assume that Mattingly would have all this government stuff memorized. He goes to meetings most weeks in Annapolis and gives testimony on such subjects as allowing doctors to perform more procedures in their offices.

The cost of each official who goes to the MACO conference generally averages about $1200 each for the four day stay at the popular Maryland resort each August.

Some of the officials just don’t know when to stop billing the taxpayers.

When St. Mary’s Commissioner Jackie Russell was elected in November of 2006, he was sworn in as commissioner, he was entitled to attend the winter conference of the Maryland Association of Counties, although it is clear that in current times, all such trips by all officials should be curtailed.

But in December of 2006, even though he had not run for reelection as a county commissioner, Tommy McKay, leaving office, attended the Maco convention anyway, all at taxpayers expense.

In addition to elected officials running out of the county on adventures paid for by the taxpayers, are the many county staffers, who somehow are allowed by the commissioners to serve the citizens of St. Mary’s while in Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach and Atlantic City.

Recreation and Parks staffers Arthur Sheperd and Kenny Sothoron attended a Sports Congress in Washington, D.C., likely a welcome distraction to counting volleyballs in Leonardtown. The registration fee alone for each of them was $300.

Sothoron and Christina Bishop attended a MRPA conference in Ocean City each spent $251.79 for motel rooms, paid for by taxpayers. Meals were $128 and $122 respectively and registration for each came to $175.00.

Kim Collins found Gymnastics training in Allentown, Pennsylvania, while citizens can find the same available on early morning cable TV for free.

Kristi Schools, Michelle Stratton and Paula Moschler were allowed to go to a Gymnastics Model/Congress in Atlantic City, New Jersey at a cost of $205.00 each for registeration. Schools booked a $293.26 hotel room and $139.00 was listed in expenses for the trip for a hotel room. Kim Collins, Riki Hudson, Robyn Clark and Kelly Imhof were all listed for a $403.41 hotel room in King of Prussia, Pa., for Gymnastics training.

Perhaps St. Mary’s Parks and Recreation should only hire instructors who are already trained or instructors who want to go to the beach for training should pay for that training and expenses themselves.

Parks Director Phil Rollins spent $250.00 of tax money in 2006 for registration for the Maco beach junket; he charged taxpayers $183.89 for gas and tolls, $850.00 for a ocean front hotel room and $119.50 for meals.

In 2007, Rollins blew $175.00 on registration for the annual Maco beach fling in Ocean City; he spent $183.89 on gas and tolls, $174.00 for hotel and $100.75 for meals.

Would it ever occur to a voter and taxpayer of St. Mary’s County that maintence staffers in this county would have to be sent to the mountains of West Virginia for anything other than hunting?

Parks Director Phil Rollins approved sending Robert Bailey and James Oliver to Parks and Recreation Management School in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Don’t forget that Kenny Dement raised your taxes this year, on some homes by as much as $500 to $1500 more just for one year!

Be sure to ask Kenny why he raised your taxes to fund expenses such as sending Bailey and Oliver to West Virginia to learn how to maintain picnic benches, drag ball fields and fix broken pipes in a restroom.

The hotel bill for Bailey was $508.96. The hotel bill for Oliver was $508.96. Most hotel rooms come with two full size beds and could be shared, but heck, the taxpayers are paying all this, so live it up!

The registration fee was $395.00 each. $72.28 was listed for "other", perhaps a visit to a local nightspot. $111.66 and $109.46 were listed as meals for the pair.

Tyrone Harris, Bernard Copsey and David Guyther all got their turn at the beach, going to the MRPA conference in Ocean City in 2007. With registration fees of $175.00 each, hotels of $231.00 each and $117.25, $101.50, and $87.25 respectively for meals, it appears that while they could bunk up at the hotel that they may have shared a ride with just under $200 listed as gas and tolls for the trip.

Running a summer camp used to consist of going to a community recreation center and organizing games and crafts. Not anymore. Parks Director Phil Rollins sent Kelsey Bush to Philadelphia, which wasn’t very nice considering what a bunch of killers run loose in that city. But Bush was sent to the Summer Service Learning Institute (Preparing families, schools and communities through service learning.) Now that may sound like a line of baloney to the average taxpayer but this baloney is pretty pricey stuff. The hotel bill for Bush was $477.00 and the registration fee was $335.00. Bush was sent to another conference, the 2006 Cross Stream Conference in Princeton, New Jersey. The hotel bill for this one was $204.12. Other costs associated with these two trips were not provided in an information request to ST. MARY’S TODAY.

Parks Director Phil Rollins decided to send Sabrina Wartnaby to this corker of a conference for an agency that is supposed to be running relays, basketball and soccer games. It was called the "Mult-Agency Basis Drug Intelligence Analysis, in Alexandria, Va. Even though thousands of St. Mary’s taxpayers get on commuter buses to get to the DC area day, Rollins approved the expenditure of $640.10 for hotel bills for this conference, $168.64 for mileage and tolls, even though there are no toll facilities between here and Alexandria and the commuter bus trip is about 10 bucks each way. $273.00 was spent on meals, which ought to explain why taxpayers have so little left in their pocketbooks to pay for their own meals.

In addition to the approval of Parks Director Rollins, all of these expenses are approved by the Board of Commissioners each week when they pay the bills, which are listed in a long print out sheet for their review.

The county has all kinds of software available in it IT department, a very well financed agency, all at the expense of the taxpayers who never spare any expense in supplying, outfitting or providing any need of county government.

But instead of using in-house resources, or going to the College of Southern Maryland or to the public school system for assistance, Parks Director Rollins approved sending Kim Cullins to a brochure design seminar in Columbia, shelling out $72.75 for travel.

Typical software in the county’s vast resources would include a variety of brochure designs which can be utilized by the parks and museums for their needs.

A complete listing of those St. Mary’s staffers who attended the Maco 2007 beach blast, at taxpayers expense is as follows: