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From the Mail Bag...Comments from the residents of Montgomery County |
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Tuesday, May 11, 2010 Thank you for the prompt and detailed response, and for your service during these virtually unprecedented times. I am confident that you will make the right choices and that we will emerge from this economic crisis the stronger.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 Thank you very much for your response to my inquiry about a possible budgetary reduction or elimination of the Silver Spring Purple VANGO bus route. I and other Silver Spring residents and businesses are very relieved the VANCO bus will be held harmless in the extremely difficult budget cost-saving measures you , your staff and the County Council have had to contemplate. Hopefully, by continuing this valuable transit service, this service will continue to assist the city economy and welfare of its residents. I want to take this opportunity to share with you how pleased I am about your execution of the role of our County Executive. I believe you and your management team have demonstrated yeoman performance in unusually challenging economic times. I am also in concurrence in the recent unpopular to some decisions to have to re-examine old pay and benefit compensation arrangement practices for county employees that clearly are not cost-effective in these harsh economic times spreading the burden more equitably, not just on resident taxpayers. We taxpayers applaud you and the Council for these recent efforts to keep Montgomery County budget within its mark while still maintaining the county's high standards and reputation of quality services to its constituents. Keep up these innovative efforts and finding ways to make Montgomery County one of the most attractive areas to reside in the region and in the country. I look forward to your able administration and you continuing in office for another term. Tuesday, May 11, 2010 I wanted to forward this email to you that was written by my wife, an extremely dedicated para educator in Montgomery County. I know that we are in very tight financial times in the county but the proposed furloughs are going to be a burden for my family as well as many other families in the county. I hope you will consider other options when it comes time to do this. I can't believe that it will come to this.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 I am a high school teacher who came to the career after 15 years of business experience and raising my own family. I have been teaching for six years because it was time to give back to my community and help others.
If you seriously want to continue to attract the “best and the brightest” teachers to MCPS, then you will at the very least have to find some way to pay commensurate salaries, including COLA’s and step increases.
Please find other ways to cut costs and trim our budget. Montgomery County children will be supporting your retirement. They NEED the best education they can get for all of our sakes.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 I'm writing to add my name to the many Mo Co residents who want to preserve and strengthen our educational assets in this time of economic recession. I know that the demands for tax revenues are many. But, in my opinion, the priority for supporting education should be as high as that for the county police department. The economic and psycho/sociological well-being of our county depends strongly upon both. Past support has helped to make our educational system, including Montgomery College, among the finest in the nation. Please do everything possible to maintain that support, and increase it if at all possible. It will be a wise investment. Thank you for your service, particularly in these troubling times. Tuesday, May 11, 2010 The purpose of this e-mail is to express my utter disappointment in the proposed 5 day furlough and doubled health insurance costs for MCPS employees. At a time when everyone is struggling financially, even though we continue to work very diligently at our jobs, the last thing we need is another loss of income. We have already been hit with no COLA raise for two years in a row and continuing into the unforeseeable future. As a supporting services staff member, we already have several days during the school year that we are not paid for that teachers are paid for, i.e. Jewish holidays, teacher's conference in October, winter break, spring break and professional day in April. Additional "no pay" days will provide an undue hardship for me personally and I'm sure that many other supporting staff members would agree with me. It seems clear to me that the message you are trying to send is that our hard work and dedication to our jobs is not valued or appreciated. How disappointing, since I, for one, give my "all" to working with Montgomery County's special needs population. I strongly urge you to adopt a budget that(1) does not furlough ANY county employees, (2) avoids any additional cuts to MCPS beyond the $137.7 already agreed to, (3) raises the full $101 million proposed increase in the energy tax and (4) phases in the restoration of the reserve fund by going to 5.6% in FY11 and then to 6% in FY12. When voting on proposed budget changes on May 20th, ask yourself if you would appreciate your hard work being rewarded with pay cuts, furloughs and doubled insurance costs. My guess is that you wouldn't like it either. From a dedicated MCPS employee Tuesday, May 11, 2010 Kudos to County Executive Leggett for stepping up to the plate and making difficult decisions during these tough economic times. Now it's time for my oKudos to County Executive Leggett for stepping up to the platepinions:
1. Instead of suspending step increases, why not suspend shift differential pay for public safety employees?
2. High ranking police personnel should not receive any increase in pay if the rank-and-file officers do not receive a pay increase.
3. Furlough ALL police officers, deputy sheriffs and firefighter-rescuers one day during the next fiscal year, including civilian support personnel within those departments.
4. Strictly limit tuition assistance for accredited colleges, universities and other government sponsored training.
5. I used to work for the Park Police and I'm now a county police officer. I fully support the absorption of the Park Police into the county police. However, it cannot be done simply, nor all-inclusive. The county police have greater minimum hiring standards (such as college education requirements), and additional education, testing, selection and training requirements for promotions (Sergeant and above). In addition, Park Police officers are much less experienced with enforcement, investigations and emergency response to calls compared to the county police (among other things). The most efficient and effective means of absorption is to create a new Park Police Division of the Montgomery County Police, much like the existing Security and Animal Services Divisions. Keep the parks protected while cutting taxpayer costs of supporting the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.
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