Things went much more smoothly last Tuesday for Montgomery County voters than was the case in the chaotic September primary. Even so, there were still some problems locally and elsewhere across Maryland and in other states using electronic voting machines. We detailed in this space Monday the growing evidence of serious technical problems with touch screen voting technology.
But the concern here today is with a different aspect of the problem. Shortly after the September primary, The Washington Examiner Community Action Network — WECAN — requested from the Montgomery County government a copy of its work force compensation database. A few weeks later, the database was delivered. It wasn’t long before something in the data caught our eye: Key members of the county’s Board of Elections staff have been paid for enormous amounts of overtime through the end of August.
Program specialist Gilberto Zelaya, for example, had been paid nearly $28,000 for more than 940 hours of overtime. Zelaya’s annual salary is $61,522. Considering that there are 2,080 hours in a workyear, Zelaya’s overtime represented nearly half a year of additional work. Betty Lucey, another program specialist, was paid nearly $23,000 for 710 overtime hours. Her annual salary is $67,063. A third program specialist, Dianna Long, received almost $18,000 for 733 overtime hours. Long’s annual salary is $50,962.
Similarly, Office Services Coordinator Norma Laletta Dorsey was paid $17,625 for more than 750 overtime hours. Dorsey’s annual salary is $48,850. Barbara Payne, the Board of Elections’ second Office Services coordinator, was paid nearly $11,000 for more than 508 overtime hours. Payne’s annual salary is $43,409.
Others on the Board of Elections receiving significant overtime pay included Marjorie Rohrer, administrative specialist, with more than $23,000 for 656 overtime hours, and Program Manager Paul Valette with more than $14,000 for 410 overtime hours. Rohrer and Valette are paid annual salaries of $73,316 and $72,900, respectively.
When we asked Board of Elections head Margaret Jurgensen why so much overtime was required by her staff and when these overtime hours were worked by each employee, we were told to submit another Freedom of Information Act request. If Jurgensen and her staff were responsible for their payroll paperwork, we could understand her response because our request came just prior to last week’s election. But others in Montgomery County government would be tasked with compiling that data, so the prospect of the election being right around the corner doesn’t suffice to explain Jurgensen’s evident reluctance to explain the overtime.
With the election past, we now look forward to hearing Jurgensen’s explanation. In view of the growing evidence that electronic voting machines don’t work as advertised, Montgomery County residents deserve a detailed explanation.
