By Kenneth C. Rossignol

ST. MARY’S TODAY

LEONARDTOWN — Its all about how they are spending your money and this irregular feature of the past will become a weekly report in coming weeks as the boneheaded commissioners, with the notable exception of Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R. Golden Beach) prepare the next budget.

The Board has already turned down Jarboe’s request to keep from raising taxes again, with Republican Kenny Dement failing to support Jarboe’s motion that the constant yield be maintained and that the tax rate be lowered to make up for the increased assessments on property.

Jarboe sought to have the board instruct departments to come in with budgets of 5% less than last year but instead the Board instructed department heads to bring in budget requests with increases of 5% making another tax hike, on top of last year’s $14 million a sure thing.

County Administrator /

General Fund

— National Association of Counties $1,691.00. Membership in this organization and dozens of others that county staffers then use as excuses to travel to conventions always held at resorts with golf and casinos, continues to drain tax dollars. Air fare, hotels and meals frequently amount to thousands of dollars for just one week. Find out how many of these staffers would feel that the professional organizations are worth belonging to if they had to pay them out of their own pockets. Just ask them.

— Barbara Canavan, leave payout for the late Land Use Director Denis Canavan, $21,799.18, proving that the taxpayers never get a break and even have to continue to pay county department heads, who work on a contract and are not employees, after they kick the bucket. An expert in compensation issues tells ST. MARY’S TODAY that this expenditure is legal and payment of unused leave is proper.

Human Services

Chesapeake Cab Inc. for taxi requests from 6/13 to 10/11/08, $252.00. This apparently funds taxi rides for drunks from local bars. Perhaps a good idea if you own a bar and don’t want to give a ride home to a patron and have him or her throw up in your car, just call a cab. If this program were operated by the bar owners it would be more fair to the taxpayers who pay for their own cab rides, drink at home, or don’t drink at all. But the free lunch for the boozers perhaps saves the lives of those the drunks might otherwise have killed on the roads. The bar owners don’t mind paying into a licenced beverage association to hire a top lobbyist in Annapolis to represent them before the General Assembly but when it comes to being responsible for those who they get intoxicated in their bars and taverns, the barkeeps take the money and send the drunks out the door, washing their hands of any responsibility. Now the taxpayers fund the ride home for the drunks and miss all the fun.

Dept. of Economic & Community Development

Woodlawn Properties LLC., reservations for 11/7-8/08, $1,125.00
The department spent the taxpayer funds at an estate called "Woodlawn" located in Ridge, not out of county travel, to be sure, but pricey nonetheless. The following is a description of the estate from their website:

"Most corporate retreats betray the notion of a ‘retreat’. A Woodlawn retreat truly separates you from the corporate jungle. Our historic property along the Chesapeake waterfront offers sweeping views of water, gardens and lawns that inspire executives and associates to expand their vision, reflect on possibilities and deepen relationships. It is the perfect site for a corporate retreat.

Whether your retreat is a larger one day large group (up to 40 in our Gathering Room) or an overnight stay for smaller groups, Woodlawn offers a blend of solitude and the amenities one needs to meet important goals and objectives."

Circuit Court

— New coffee maker from Staples at a cost of $59.85. The best place for taxpayers to buy their coffeemakers is from Walmart but it is not the business of the Circuit Court to save taxpayers money. But is it the business of taxpayers to buy coffee for the Judges, attorneys and their staffs?

Judges Raley, Stamm and Abrams all make $140,000 a year (EACH…THEY ALL MAKE THAT AND DON’T SPLIT IT UP) and don’t work much at all most days of the week and frequently are gone by noon when they are on the bench. When they retire they make their full salary and come back to hear cases, often proving that when they are retired, they aren’t too much better on the bench as when they were active. But they sure don’t mind making the taxpayer pay for every last frill. When Judge Abrams took the bench she billed the taxpayers for her robe! What a cheapskate! What do you want to bet that when she retires she takes the robe with her?

— Coffee Mate packets from Staples, $53.10. Apparently the Judges like cream in their coffee. The poor taxpayers better hope that the Judges don’t take sugar too. Most offices have a coffee fund to buy coffee makers and incidentals, with those using the coffee, chipping in to pay, but since the taxpayers are chumps, what the heck.

— Envision Consulting & Management, paid $1,812.00 for consulting on 12/8/08

The following information explains who the clients are of this firm which is located in Alexandria, Va.:

"Our Clients

Our clients come from a wide variety of disciplines, but they all have one thing in common: They’re big enough to need a network, but not so big that they need full-time IT Staff.

Envision Consulting is dedicated to the small business market. Envision Managed is set up to provide the consulting, engineering, and product support so that you get the benefit of a multi-person IT staff for a fraction of the cost of a single IT professional.

In fact, if you think of us as an employee—we’re usually the cheapest one you’ve got—and we don’t need dental insurance."

Therefore, even though the taxpayers of St. Mary’s County fund a large IT department, and they all have dental insurance, the Circuit Court Judges have decided to bring in outside experts to keep their computers humming…but did the IT techs bring their own coffee or was it free while they were working, compliments of the taxpayers?

— The electric bill for the Circuit Courthouse was $16,695 on Dec. 17th, the electric bill for the jail was $18,543. The Carter building, which houses the social welfare crowd, the District Court and numerous other offices had a bill of $12,909. The jail has inmates there around the clock seven days a week except for when they escape. The courthouse is staffed for one shift for five days. Can someone at the courthouse turn off some lights? The school system is proud of the savings they make on their usage but don’t expect too much from elitists at the Circuit Court who drink coffee and make you pay for it. Folks these cats are related to the cats in DC who are driving you to the poorhouse. Don’t let them get away with it.

Sheriff’s Department

— Adler Display Studio Inc., Table Throw, $390.00
The following may explain what a table throw is, apart from the traditional use of the term "Table Throw" which might accompany a police press release about a fight in one of the redneck bars in Sandy Bottom:
"Tabletop displays from Adler Display come in a wide range of styles to fit any budget. From rollup banner stands used on a tabletop to custom table displays with multimedia components, Adler Display’s tabletop displays experts will help design a tabletop display that is right for you."

— St. Mary’s County Chamber of Commerce, membership dues for Sheriff Tim Cameron, $210.00. Sheriff Cameron’s ability to visit Chamber of Commerce meetings to discuss crime with their members shouldn’t mean he has to join the club at the expense of the taxpayers. Clearly he doesn’t get it about being a Republican, unless he joined in order to investigate white collar crime. But more likely, his membership is designed to enhance his reelection and his campaign should fund this membership, not the taxpayers. Let the Sheriff immediately reimburse this expense to the county treasury unless he wants to look like a wasteful public official.

— Staples for nameplates. The Sheriff sent out for 25 nameplates for those who got promotions. The promotions came about due to Capt. John Horne wanting to be the rank of major. The Sheriff argues that since raises for the deputies in the middle of the financial crisis weren’t likely that he wanted to give promotions to higher grades without increasing pay. But apparently there are 25 senior ranking members of the department who have offices and desks that require nameplates thus the taxpayers shelled out $13.06 for each one. A solution: Of course if there wasn’t a requirement for the brass who sit on their a—to have brass nameplates, one of the perhaps scores of computers in the Sheriff’s Department could be utilized to print out nameplates on card stock and slip them into nameplate holders instead slamming the taxpayers with this silly cost. Of course, the taxpayers would take this approach and the expectation that government cares a hoot about your money is absurd. This Sheriff is doing a great job and is a breath of fresh air, the best Sheriff since Wayne Pettit, but he needs to give Common Sense a chance at life in the agency.

Advanced Life Support Unit

* The Advanced Life Support Unit was reimbursed $700.00 that they spent on web hosting, a service which could have been provided by the county, since the St. Mary’s IT department is capable of designing and hosting the website for the ALS unit, which is an appendage of the county government. The taxpayers pay for the vehicles used by the ALS and last year began funding for medics due to the volunteers being stretched thin.

Public Facilities division of Public Works

* Douron Inc. was paid $20,288.03 for bookcases. God help the taxpayers if they now have to buy new books to fill them. And if the taxpayer already owned the books which will go in these bookcases, where in tarnation were the books being kept before these NEW bookcases were purchased, in the very early stages of the New Great Depression, which apparently hasn’t hit home in the minds of the St. Mary’s County Commissioners, of course, with the notable exception of Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R. Golden Beach) who voted against raising taxes but apparently voted to pay for this item.

Parks and Recreation

* Md Parks and Recreation Association for an operators course for the Aquatic Center. Gary Reed was paid for lodging expenses for the course, at a cost of $300.00 held Jan. 8 & 9 at an undisclosed location.

* Varsity Spirit Fashion & Supply, $5,753.45 for cheerleader uniforms.

* Wentworth Nursery was paid $257.04 for mulch, which the county public works department gives away free at the St. Andrew’s landfill. The county even has a loader parked next to the mulch which will load a truck for free. But what the hell, the taxpayers are loaded.

* Food, hard liquor and beer for the Wicomico Golf Club, which has a restaurant which instead of being leased to a private catering outfit such as Bailey’s, which operates the Old Breton Inn. The County spent $7,107.91 on these items in December. Only Commissioner Larry Jarboe supports leasing the facility to a vendor instead of the county operating a cocktail lounge and restaurant for those who enjoy a country club setting but don’t want to pay the true cost of belonging to a country club. The electric bill for the public country club for December was $3,512.30, a cost that those who play there and hang out in the cocktail lounge do not have to pay. You do. You also get to pay the cable TV bill for the cocktail lounge.

* The Director of the Parks and Recreation also belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and that business group fleeces the taxpayers for $210.00 for this additional membership. Director Phil Rollins makes a pretty good salary, well over $100,000 and if he wants to hang out with the big business types, who haven’t bellied up in the New Great Depression, then he ought to pay his own way and not hit up the taxpayers for his membership. Or he can quit.

Paid on Dec. 24, 2009

County Administrator Fund

— Golden Retriever Rescue Fund, a contribution of $50 in the memory of Denis Canavan. It is quite one thing for his widow to be paid for his unused leave, but for County Administrator John Savich to dig into the pockets of the taxpayers, with the approval of the Bozo Board of Commissioners, instead of his own, and at $140,000, he can afford it, to make a donation in memorial to the land use director who died last year. Can Savich show how this is a legitimate expense of the taxpayers who involuntarily provide the funds for the operation of the government? Savich needs to pay back the taxpayers for this one as this is just another example of the FLEECING of the taxpayers. Do those orphaned Golden Retrievers feel so much better now that the taxpayers of St. Mary’s County have bought them a new winter bed and a case of Alpo? Get real. The taxpayers can decide when to contribute to a worthy organization they don’t need a bunch of ignorant politicians and arrogant bureaucrats deciding it for them.

Economic and Community Development

— Chesapeake Bay Field Lab, owned by Commissioner Jackie Russell, was paid $200 by the Tourism division of the Department of Economic and Community Development for a skipjack trip on Nov. 8th. Russell leases this boat he owns to the Foundation he created, he takes a salary, charges $3500 a month for the Foundation to use his boat and he leases his oyster house and parking lot for another $600 a month and then he charges nearly $25,000 for his wife to be the Executive Director. Then he has hte nerve to charge for the use of the boat for a county commissioner event. Russell’s conflict of interest in this matter should be the subject of a complaint to the Ethics Commission of St. Mary’s County, which of course is an oxymoron. Russell should make up his mind that he is either a commissioner or a boat captain. But since no one ever challenged Commissioner Tommy McKay on county employees being sent to his family’s grocery stores to buy food for county activities, the taxpayers of St. Mary’s County need to understand that this is the way that they have always done it here and until someone beats their stupid heads into the ground they will keep it up. This smells like a bushel of rotten crabs.

Is Leonardtown’s water supply so bad that it can’t be consumed by

Leonardtown Mayor Chip Norris says: "It’s all I drink. It tastes good and the Town has a water fountain, not a water cooler with bottled water. We all need to save money where we can, even local governments."

Land Use and Growth Management

— Paid Snow Valley $149.65 for bottled water as the county employees don’t want to either drink from the same public water system that the Town of Leonardtown provides for the residents of the town or they don’t want to bring their own bottles of water to work.

— Land Use paid Staples $391.00 for a new desk chair, which is the most expensive chair available at the California Staples. That same department spent another $378.75 for another bureaucrat to snuggle their lead derriere. Many chairs are available for half the price and this is another FLEECE JOB of the taxpayers.

Public Works

— Paid 7 area contractors "Snow Plow Retainers" of $250 each. These contractors would be glad to show up to plow snow in the event that the county actually has any and this new expenditure of county government is hard to understand or justify unless the contractor gives the county credit for the retainer against the bill for services.

Sheriffs Department

* How much can this guy eat? Deputy William Raddatz was paid $2,528 for meals advance by the county for a training trip out of the county from 11/30 to 12/6. That’s a lot of donuts. He was reimbursed $837.12 for lodging and $107.58 for parking. Can you even guess what the explanation will be for this? There wasn’t any indication that other cops were on this training junket.

Public Works

— It never ends. The Airport, which has been a huge country club for airplane owners since its inception, had its runways built too short and in the wrong direction but it was close enough for government work. The county, every few years, hires new consultants to come to the same conclusion, this latest time they have brought it consultants it cost the taxpayers $6,959.40 which was paid to Delta Airport Consultants Inc.

Recreation and Parks

Board of Commissioners

* Paid out of the county administrators fund on Dec. 23, 2008 was $204.69 to Deer Park for a water cooler and water so the county commissioners don’t have to drink that rotten Leonardtown water or bring their own bottles of water to their meetings.

* Don’t think that when the commissioners get a cup of coffee that they have paid for brew themselves, of course only the taxpayers are stupid enough to buy their own coffee. The Board of Commissioners spent $102.50 of your money for "coffee kits" from Superb Coffee and Snack LLC.

Office on Aging

* Tucked into the long list of legitimate expenses for the older folks of St. Mary’s County such as the pre-packaged meals for the senior centers was $1,500.00 for ads on cable TV. What in the world would the free services at the senior center need with ads. The geezer population knows they are old, they don’t need an ad on Comcast to help them understand that. The old folks know that they can get services or go to the senior centers. But the ads must be part of a public relations campaign of the commissioners to make themselves look good to the public. The money would have been better spent getting meals to the old folks.

Information Technology

* Aside from expenditures for a memory module for $112.00 and the technology of the last century, fax machines, at a cost of $564.60, was one check to pay Staples for sugar and Coffee mate of $92.09 and also on Dec. 23rd, $99.06, also for Coffee mate and sugar. Apparently the IT department salaries of $80,000 to over $100,000 isn’t enough to make these cheapskates buy their own coffee. But on top of paying for drunks to get home from bars it appears that it is a responsibility of taxpayers to buy coffee for the IT Department that the Circuit Court doesn’t trust to effectively operate the court’s computers….and you get to buy the IT crew judged incompetent by the Judges, coffee. It’s your county!

Public Safety

* The communications dispatchers, Mattingly and Pettit, had their membership dues in the Association of Public Safety paid for by the taxpayers, at a cost of $92.00 each. These staffers would benefit from lessons from the IT department on how to use the internet to gain the information that belonging to this group provides.