Montgomery County employees taking yoga classes with public funds
By: Alan Suderman
Examiner Staff Writer
September 17, 2009
Montgomery County employees are sweating through their downward dogs on the public's dime.
The county's Office of Human Resources, which is tasked with making sure that county employees don't abuse a troubled tuition assistance program, approved $3,027 for yoga classes for at least one of its own employees in the last two years, according to records obtained by The Examiner.
Taxpayers paid for the "hot" yoga classes at Bikram Yoga Rockville, where 90-minute classes cost $17 and take place in a studio with the temperature set at 105 degrees. The classes were funded through the county's tuition assistance program, which allows employees to take an outside course or training if it "improves or maintains the skills required in the employee's current job," according to Joseph Adler, director of human resources.
Adler's department has the final say on approving or disapproving funding through the tuition assistance program. On Monday he told a County Council panel that he instructed one of his managers last week to review each new application with a staff member, saying the "second layer" would help prevent the county paying for questionable classes.
Adler could not be reached before deadline to comment on the yoga classes. The county has refused to disclose the names of employees who have taken classes through the tuition assistance program, citing privacy laws pertaining to personnel records
The human resources employee's yoga classes are among several courses approved under the tuition assistance program being questioned by the county's elected officials.
"If taxpayers knew that they were paying for employees to go take hot yoga, I don't think they would be very happy about that," said Councilwoman Valerie Ervin, D-Silver Spring. "The whole thing needs to be overhauled."
Council President Phil Andrews, D-Gaithersburg/Rockville, said the yoga classes were another example of "so many troubling issues" related to the tuition assistance program, which should be suspended for a year while reforms are made.
The tuition assistance program came under fire in July when Sheriff Raymond Kight's office began investigating whether a training company was using money from the program to sell guns to county employees at steep discounts.
The investigation has broadened to include the entire tuition assistance program, with both the county attorney and the inspector general looking into what they call "systemic" problems.
