A typically congenial commissioners? roundtable with staff turned tense Thursday when officials squabbled about correspondence with legislators.
“Justremember that three commissioners were elected,” Commissioner Dean Minnich told Commissioner Michael Zimmer, who wrote a letter to Sen. Larry Haines, R-Carroll and Baltimore Counties, breaking from the practice of past boards that sent correspondence as a group, not as individuals. “You need to catch up and know what we are talking about.”
Zimmer disagrees with Carroll providing the state delegation an estimated $80 million for this year?s bond bill, which must pass the General Assembly.
That would authorize commissioners to take out bonds up to that amount to pay for schools and roads, according to a letter dated Monday to Haines, a state delegation chairman.
“This figure does not enjoy my support,” wrote Zimmer, who suggested $70 million as “a prudent compromise.”
“There is a project in the materials given to you by [Budget Director] Ted Zaleski that does not enjoy my support … the possible new Carroll County Public School headquarters. The purpose of such a building is not to address any need with our schools … [but] to relieve overcrowding at the Circuit Court and Sheriff?s Office. I have yet to see that alternatives have been fully explored.”
Zimmer wrote that he remembered Haines wanted the bond amount “in a more timely fashion.”
Gouge and Minnich sent the delegation a letter Thursday to clarify Zimmer?s letter.
“The Board of County Commissioners fully supports the request of $80 million of bond authorization,” their letter reads.
“Though there have been some changes in the schedule over the years, providing the delegation with the projected bond authorization need in advance of the commissioners? decisions on the budget has been the process for more than two decades.”
