County Council Meeting Highlights

The Council meeting set off to a somber note with a kind words and a moment of silence for the passing of Richard Hazel lead by Councilman McCain. Again, Mr. Hazel you will be missed.
The first order of business was the discussion of the 2009 State Capital Project grants. Each branch’s representative spoke the usual on why their department were needing and deserving of the grant money for the 2009 fiscal year. There were no major objections by anyone in the public crowd during the hearing. Under General Government the Housing Authority request for $111,300 for Multifamily Apartment Complex was noted that it would be withdrawn from the CIP. 2009 was the only year that monies were to be allotted for the project.

The next major business dealt with the restoration of the Youth and Civic Center through a 2 million dollar bond. I’m all for keeping up the Civic Center but an interesting point was made on the amount of competition that it has to face. The list went on from Cambridge’s Hyatt to every string of centers to Ocean City and the colleges. One thing that the Civic Center has is an open venue for music. I for one am desperate to get great live music. The venues on the other side of the bridge bring in acts all the time, from the local circuit bands to the national headliners. This would be a great outlet for everyone as to adding to the lack of evening/night entertainment which the area lacks. Bring in the bands and get some economy in as well as money which will improve the Center.

Unfortunately I did not have the numbers in front of me from the Wicomico Liquor Board Audit but there were three interesting points made by Gail Bartkovich and Stevie Prettyman. Again, I’m sorry but not having the papers in front of me gave me a small problem of following along. Councilwoman Bartkovich raised the question to John Stern about a discrepancy in numbers from 2005 which affected the current audit numbers. I’m sure Joe will have the full details as he is so capable requisitioning by some means. John did say he would immediately look at the discrepancy Gail pointed out and report back.

Councilwoman Prettyman raised two key points which I believe were thrown around in a previous post. 1. Why was there a increase from $26,000 to $46,000 in advertising expenditures when the WLCB has a monopoly on liquor sales? And why was there over $50,000 plus in renovation expenditures to store #2 for services rendered by the Allessi Co? Makes your head wonder. The response was not there for the advertising question and the response for the renovations was that services from Allessi was the best bang for the buck. Plausible but thanks to Councilwoman Prettyman for pointing out some suspect stuff.

The original reason I attended the meeting was for the open work session concerning the gang activity in schools and the alternative program. I work in the trenches for the Board of Ed as a fulltime substitute and it is important to be informed about your working conditions as well as the procedures they go upon. The Board of Ed. Members first discussed the Choices and Ombudsman alternative learning programs which the County offers. The Ombudsman program was introduced and implemented at the beginning of the 07/08 school year to help provide support for the alternative program and to learn from the Ombudsman program ways and methods. Both programs have been working simultaneously. WBOE presented that the Ombudsman program was a good program it just was not cost effective. To date 33 kids have been a part of the program and around 23 students are currently enrolled. The number of enrolled students change based on the number of students who qualify to be let out of the program and the influx based on the number who qualify.

The WBOE entered a 3 year contract, with an no buy out opt out, at $360,000 total or at $6,000 per student which allows for 60 slots that are available. This price tag is over $3,000 less than the standard cost per student. The problem which was presented is that the $360,000 does not cover food or transportation. The Board has to transport these alternative students from their door, to school, and back to the door because they cause problems on the busses with the regular students. Both the Service and Ombudsman programs are two separate locations which requires more resources and money to be used to keep the regular students safe.

WBOE estimated that the program would be full, but it is not. The other costs and the fact that the program is not getting filled is not cost effective and thus will be opting out of the contract without penalty to the County. The Board is exhibiting some practical wisdom here. First of all they took a very big step in introducing this program to improve and save some kids from ultimate disaster in their lives. They are to be applauded. They assessed that it is not the best thing at the right time. They however have learned a lot from the Ombudsman program which they have implemented in the Service program which they have said has improved it immensely. They feel the Service program is the best course right now. The Board committed to continually finding solutions and a course of action to improve these troubled students lives.
For your information to get admitted into the alternative program a student must have either committed an egregious act, have been suspended for 11 days, all typical means of discipline exhausted, or be referred to a reviewing board on a case to case basis.

I'm sure Joe will have his take on some of this....