I Support an Independent Third Party Investigation of BCPS

I write today in response to my colleague, Delegate Robin Grammer having recently accused my Delegate colleagues and me of a criminal, "cover up." These comments came as a result of Delegate Grammer's bill being voted down in the Baltimore County Delegation to the Maryland House of Delegates.
Delegate Grammer had submitted legislation calling for a "legislative audit," of Baltimore County Schools. His thinking was that such an audit may expose more criminal or unethical activity within the Board and/or the Baltimore County Public Schools Administration.

It should be noted that Chairman Jim Brochin and the Baltimore County Senate Delegation had stated that they would not support Delegate Grammar's bill and would not be moving his legislation forward. So how the House voted on the bill did not matter with regard to the measure failing to gain a majority of votes in the House.

But to be clear, many of my colleagues and I wholeheartedly support a third-party investigation of past practices. Our feelings were relayed to BCPS and as a result, the scope of the third party, independent investigation was expanded. The request for proposal (RFP) has already been put out for the investigation and money has already been budgeted for this purpose. In fact, when four members of the school board asked the legislature to perform an audit, they asked for specific parameters. Those parameters are reflected in the current RFP, as a result of our feelings being relayed to the Board.

Nobody has done more to change the culture of Baltimore County Schools than the Baltimore County Delegation. Several years ago, we made it so that members of the School Board are now required to be elected. Voters in 2018 will now have the final say in who represents their interests on the School Board for the first time in State history. This came after years of complaints about a lack of accountability.

So why Delegate Grammar would want to further inject politics into a process that is already far too political is beyond me. A legislative audit, performed by a political body, is NOT the answer. It would be far too limited. We need a true third party, independent investigation. And that is exactly what we are getting with the current RFP.

I also want to point out that a legislative audit in this situation would be redundant, unnecessary, and most importantly insufficient to the task at hand. BCPS doesn't need a political, legislative audit. They need a third party investigation! The actions taken by our former Superintendent, Dallas Dance were criminal. The failure of our interim Superintendent to not claim her income on ethics forms, in my mind, should disqualify her from serving as permanent Superintendent. Whether Ms. White did or did not intentionally leave out this information is irrelevant in my mind. Baltimore County needs to close this chapter of corruption and begin again with a new elected Board and a new Superintendent.

So Delegate Grammer does what he does and chooses to mislead voters to try to get them to support his legislation. It is an old trick, but one that Delegate Grammer continues to deploy. My guess is, Delegate Grammer uses these tactics to distract from the fact that he is known for taking horrible votes. For instance, when Governor Hogan declared an Opioid Crisis in Maryland, Delegate Grammer was the ONLY legislator, democrat or republican, Senator or Delegate, to vote NO. All three of his district mates supported the legislation. Out of 188 legislators, Delegate Grammer was the lone no vote. Leave it to, "Red Robin" to let down his constituents in such a colossal way. Apparently, Delegate Grammer doesn't feel the opioid crisis has hit his district, even though the evidence suggests that his district is among the most heavily hit by this crisis.

With a few weeks left in Annapolis, as we head into an election, you will see more attempts like these to either bend the truth, or downright lie as Delegate Grammer has done in this case. I hope that in the end, people will actually look into the legislation that interests them, and not simply believe what one ineffective Delegate declares to be true.