Glock handguns for $99. Yearlong yoga classes. Spanish lessons in Costa Rica.
Montgomery County’s tuition assistance program is coming under increasing attack for a multitude of questionable classes taken by employees at taxpayer expense.
The program is supposed to help county employees take classes or earn degrees that will make them better employees and help them advance in their careers with the county by giving them up to $1,730 each a year to spend on outside training.
But a lack of oversight by County Executive Ike Leggett’s human resources staff has left the door open to potential abuses and fraud, critics say. The program is being investigated by the inspector general, the county attorney, the sheriff’s office and the County Council.
“The executive has a responsibility to administer [the program] in a way that maintains public confidence in the use of tax dollars,” said Council President Phil Andrews. “I haven’t seen any evidence yet that the program has been managed in a way that would give any taxpayer confidence.”
The county started investigating the tuition assistance program in July, after deputies told Sheriff Raymond Kight that a training company, Applied Sciences for Public Safety, may be misusing public funds to give county employees expensive flashlights and sell Glock handguns and sniper rifles at bargain-basement prices.
State records show that two county police officers, including a detective in the county’s firearms unit, and an employee of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives own one of the companies linked to Applied Sciences.
The county has paid more than $540,000 to Applied Sciences and the two companies linked to the company through state records: Global Law Enforcement Advisory Group and Center for Public Safety & Research.
Applied Sciences’ lawyer has denied any wrongdoing.
As part of their investigations, county officials have begun looking at the entire tuition assistance program, including the types of courses that have been approved for county employees, which include:
» Spanish lessons in Costa Rica for fire department personnel;
» Fashion and portrait photography for a county crossing guard;
» A “glass fusing” art course for a fire department employee;
» A three-day basic ice climbing course for a fire department employee;
» Hot yoga lessons for employees of the Office of Human Resources, the department that is supposed to be the gatekeeper of the tuition assistance program.
Critics say the questionable classes, all first reported by The Examiner, are proof that the program isn’t being used as intended, and major reforms are needed.
“Something’s got to change in this county; this is ridiculous,” Kight said.
Councilwoman Valerie Ervin said the whole program needs to be overhauled. She has questioned why county employees are taking courses that aren’t clearly linked with their jobs, like “Bible doctrines.”
Andrews has suggested shutting down the program for a year, a move he says will save the cash-strapped county $1 million while more oversight is added.
Last year the county budgeted about $800,000 for the program, but spent nearly $1 million because the county allows police officers to have their tuition assistance paid for regardless of whether funds are available. The program is first-come, first-served for all other county employees.
Office of Human Resources Director Joseph Adler did not return multiple calls for comment, but told a County Council panel recently that his office had started looking more carefully at employee applications for tuition assistance and now has a manager sign off on any approved courses.
