For Immediate Release: Friday, June 23, 2017
Montgomery Council Committee to
discuss Inspector General’s report on
expenses for College president
Also on Monday, June 22: OLO report on
Montgomery College metrics, Bethesda Downtown Plan
ROCKVILLE, Md., June 23, 2017—The Montgomery County Council’s Education Committee at 2 p.m. on Monday, June 26, will address a report from the County’s Inspector General on oversight of expenses requested by Montgomery College President DeRionne Pollard. The report was released on June 13.
The Education Committee, which is chaired by Councilmember Craig Rice and includes Councilmembers Marc Elrich and Nancy Navarro, will meet in the Third Floor Conference Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. The session also will be available live via streaming through the Council web site at http://tinyurl.com/z9982v8 .
County Inspector General Edward Blansitt III will lead the discussion for Monday’s session. His office decided to pursue an investigation after a November 2016 report by a local television station on the travel and other expenses of the Montgomery College president. After the report, and additional published articles from other news outlets, the Office of the Inspector General received requests to conduct a review of these allegations.
By law, the Inspector General is solely responsible for choosing topics and issues to review after carefully considering available resources. The mission of the Inspector General’s office includes:
• Prevent and detect fraud, waste and abuse in government activities.
• Propose ways to increase the legal, fiscal and ethical accountability of County government departments and County-funded agencies.
• Review efficiency and effectiveness of programs and operation of County government and independent County agencies.
The office undertook this review to determine if the college is following the provisions of the Employment Agreement between the Montgomery College Board of Trustees and the college president and to determine if travel and other expenses of the president were consistent with Montgomery College's established policies and procedures.
The Education Committee also will hold a worksession on an Office of Legislative Oversight report that worked with Montgomery College to develop a set of metrics describing the college's operations and outcomes to help with OLO’s annual review of the college's budget. In response to this directive, OLO gathered and reviewed existing sources of data compiled by college personnel, including budget documents and local and state reports. OLO staff also worked closely with Montgomery College staff to identify key metrics for the Council's review.
At 2 p.m. in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room, the Planning, Housing and Economic Development (PHED) Committee, which is chaired by Councilmember Nancy Floreen and includes Councilmembers George Leventhal and Hans Riemer, will continue its review the Bethesda Overlay Zone. The overlay zone addresses how to implement certain provisions of the Bethesda Downtown Plan, which the Council recently approved.
The meeting of the PHED Committee will be will be televised live by County Cable Montgomery (CCM). The channel can be viewed on Cable Channels 996 (high definition) and 6 (standard definition) on Comcast; Channels 1056 (HD) and 6 (SD) on RCN; and Channel 30 on Verizon.
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Release ID: 17-210