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Discussion of differences in employee pay at Frederick County's government and school system meeting Tuesday produced a lot of heat, but no resolution.Last month, Commissioner Charles Jenkins criticized Frederick County Public Schools for trying to fill two accounting jobs at salaries more than $20,000 greater than comparable county employees receive.
Schools Superintendent Linda Burgee countered that the school system's accounting office does more work with fewer employees and at a lower total cost than the county accounting office.
On Tuesday, Jenkins said Burgee had blocked efforts by county and school system staff to compare salaries between the two.
Burgee said she had stopped school staff from proceeding with the analysis because it would be time consuming and she didn't know its goal.
It's easy to pull out a few positions and show that pay is better one place than it is another, Burgee said.
The school system and the county each have the expertise to judge how much to pay their staffs, she said.
"I would never criticize what you pay your folks," she said. "Maybe you don't pay them enough."
Board of Education Vice President Bonnie Borsa said Jenkins inflamed public opinion by venting when no one was there to respond to his claims.
His dismissal of a statement the NAACP made in support of the school system was inappropriate, as was the general character of his remarks, she said.
"Your tenor and your tone is an assault," Borsa said. "I'm sorry if I sound the same way, but I've had a bellyful."
Jenkins said the NAACP had a right to make a statement, just as he did.
"I will not suppress my thoughts to satisfy you," he said. "That's public discourse."
Commissioners President Jan Gardner asked the school board members to look over a letter from county Finance Director John Kroll.
In the letter, Kroll noted the county expects its accountants to be more experienced than the school system, despite its lower pay scales.
The county deals with accounting issues the school system doesn't, including tax increment financing districts, community development authorities, and the solid waste and water and sewer enterprise funds.
Restarting a defunct collaborative budget committee could help deal with issues like this, said Janice Spiegel, president of the PTA Council of Frederick County.
That committee disbanded last year, supposedly having addressed the tensions it was created to deal with, she said.
"Well, what a difference a year makes," Spiegel said. "Having a budget shortage should not and cannot allow elected officials to treat each other with anything other than respect."
