Published: December 09, 2007 12:49 pm      

Citizens, lawmakers meet before session

Education, slots legislation among issues

CUMBERLAND — The public — one short of an even dozen people — spoke at length to issues concerning them to the District 1 legislative delegation Saturday morning at Allegany College of Maryland.

Issues residents and stakeholders raised included education, collective bargaining, the environment and slot machines, among other items.

Those people hope Sen. George Edwards, along with Delegates LeRoy Myers, Kevin Kelly and Wendell Beitzel will take their concerns to Annapolis next month and enact legislation to address those issues and others. The delegation made a single promise, that being to consider each issue and decide whether to act on an item this spring.

Valeria Arch, president of the Allegany County Teachers’ Association, said it’s imperative lawmakers fully fund the Thornton bill “to keep quality schools and teachers.”

She said the Thornton funding so far has allowed Allegany County schools’ test scores to increase, allowed for smaller class sizes and helped provide instructional specialists in every school.

Arch also asked the delegation to prevent lawmakers from shifting the cost of funding teachers’ pensions from the state to local governments.

“Shifting pension costs will have an adverse effect on local school board budgets,” Arch read from a prepared statement.

She said passing the cost on to local school districts would hinder local jurisdictions’ abilities to fund salaries, locally offered benefits and health care.

The delegation emphasized that current budget forecasts call for a “lesser increase” in funding rather than an actual decrease in funding.

Steve Benson, a representative for the Allegany County Teachers Association, asked the delegation to create a public employee relations bureau to help teachers and state education administrators at the bargaining table.

Right now, Benson said, the state board of education acts as arbitrator in such cases — a relationship he said was inappropriate.

“We need a totally independent agency (for this),” Benson said. “We have no form of dispute resolution. That causes a lot of problems.”

Benson said that when he had an argument with his spouse, he rarely would go to his mother-in-law for a quick resolution.

“You lose either way,” Myers said.

Benson proposed enacting the concept of “last best offer” arbitration, a process in which each side, if unable to reach an agreement, would hash out each issue using its “last best offer” as a starting point.

Benson also recommended having at least one county commissioner and perhaps one county board of education member at the bargaining table. This would help, he said, whenever an agreement is reached. The commissioners are not bound by any such agreement, he said. Being at the table would have them already familiar with what’s taken place.

The delegation had its concerns. Myers said it would be the only such board for public employees in the state. Benson said he envisioned a statewide bureau in the future.

Kelly said he favored having a county commissioner at the bargaining table. He appeared concerned it would be the only such board in the state.

Longtime county resident Kenny Wilmont brought up slot machines — an issue which lawmakers passed to the voters via referendum in the 2008 general election.

“I am 100 percent against gambling,” said Wilmont. “Gambling is not the solution to the problems we have. We need jobs that put money in our pockets.”

Wilmont, a 20-year U.S. Air Force veteran, said he saw many servicemembers kicked out of the military for having accumulated too much debt.

“In civilian life, you can’t boot people out,” Wilmont said. “You have to take care of them.”

Myers, a longtime slots opponent, agreed. He said Wilmont could vote on the slots issue a year from now.

“You’ll be able to take care of the solution,” Myers told Wilmont.

Kelly, who advocates spending cuts over any new taxes, disagreed with Wilmont’s idea to tax alcohol. He also pointed to a series of polls that indicated, 56 percent to 44 percent, that Maryland residents favored legalizing slots.

Joe Helmstetter agreed with Wilmont against gambling in general. But the LaVale resident had another ax to grind. He questioned why West Virginia wasn’t required to help with Chesapeake Bay conservation and restoration. West Virginians polluted the Potomac River, too, he said.

“Why wasn’t the governor of West Virginia invited to the (special session) parlay?” Helmstetter said.

Helmstetter also questioned why Trooper 5, the Maryland State Police medevac helicopter, was used to transport victims from out-of-state incidents.

Kelly pointed out there was a “compassionate” side to the issue, as well as a practical one.

“It might be a Marylander” that needs help, Kelly said.

Cumberland resident Jim Combs, a staple at city council meetings, asked the delegation to look into why there was little, if any, penalty for city officials to consistently be late with audit findings.

He said Cumberland is late for the sixth straight year in submitting its audit. Combs told the delegation the city once was 14 months late. It’s currently 40 days late, he said, and “there’s no penalty.”

Combs said his job put him in charge of $2.8 billion in assets and included the task of overseeing his company’s audit division. He said he knew if his company failed to submit its audit report within 90 days of the end of a fiscal year, he’d be fined and, possibly, jailed.

Combs asked the delegation to look into the law, see if there was a penalty procedure and how a penalty might be assessed.

“I think your requests are very reasonable,” said Kelly, who said the delegation would follow up the issue with the state’s attorney general.

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.