Later today, the Montgomery County Council will take up all of those budget cuts County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) recommended last week. But as of last night, some of those proposed reductions to Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission were already figured out.
M-NCPPC’s Planning Board voted that if Leggett’s proposed $231,640 cut to the agency was approved by the county council, all of it would come from the Montgomery County Parks Department. Parks director Mary Bradford told the commission last night that the parks department’s current budget is already 16.5 percent less than what had been requested and they’ve managed to keep things running by holding positions vacant as employees retired.
“The $231,640 would basically come out of holding out vacancies even longer,” she said.
Deputy parks director Mike Riley also said that the department had already tried to save money on contracts and had trimmed everywhere else possible (um, hello, porta-potties sponsorship ads, anyone?)
“We’ve already cut to the bone. There’s just nothing left there, but we’ll achieve the savings by building up our vacancies,” Riley said. “We will further fall behind in meeting our maintenance standards. “
The $231,640 cut amounts to keeping five more positions vacant through the end of the fiscal year, which ends June 30. And if the cut is approved, it will take even longer for crews to do trash pick-up, do litter control, handle field maintenance, and fill out service requests, Riley said. SOURCE: TBD
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