If you don't know how to use a credit card, maybe you shouldn't have one?

[Anonymous]

God, these people are an embarrassment to the county:

The Prince George’s County Board of Education voted 8-1 to suspend board member Carletta Fellows’ board credit card due to more than $700 worth of unauthorized expenses.

Fellows (Dist. 7) said she will pay the money back within a month, even though she feels most of the expenses she charged were justified. She said she does not plan to appeal the council’s decision.

“I’m just outraged, because these are taxpayer dollars, and we have to take this very seriously as a board. We cannot allow this to continue,” said board member Edward Burroughs III (Dist. 8), who put forth the motion to strip Fellows of her credit card at the board’s April 25 meeting.

An emergency item was added to the agenda, where school system internal auditor Michele Winston presented the board with a list of expenses for February and March, during which Fellows’ county-issued Visa was used to pay Washington Gas bills ($103.22), Verizon Wireless bills ($212.71), Pepco bills ($26.45) and a $20 bill for alcohol.

http://www.gazette.net/article/20130429/NEWS/130509993/1029/prince-george-x2019-s-school-board-member-has-credit-card-suspended&template=gazette

[Anonymous]

My sis works for the Feds. She has gone through three assistants, each of whom was fired for misusing the govt credit card (which she is required to have to make travel arrangements).

One of them gave the card to her boyfriend. Right before he drove off in her car. Permanently.

[Anonymous]

Fellows is lucky she isn't in jail

[Anonymous]

Why is she allowed to continue serving on the board?

[Anonymous]

Who was the 1 vote against? Fellows?

[Anonymous]

I don't fully understand why any of the Board members need credit cards to begin with.

There isn't a lot of travel involved with that job. Office supplies should be ordered through purchase orders with the county (not individual board member credit cards).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who was the 1 vote against? Fellows?

That seems likely. And I agree, she should be off the board. This is an abuse of the public trust (also probably a crime) and there should be more of a consequence than this silly internal vote and public fingerwagging. If you can't appropriately/ethically use a business credit card then you have no standing to make budgetary recommendations for an entire school system. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

When do Baker and the Council plan to make their picks for the Board? Anyone have any word of mouth on someone throwing their hat in the ring and hoping for an appointment? I know some people who would be great but the Board has been such a mess I don't know anyone who would actually *want* the appointment.

[Anonymous]

I thought they got to pick the superintendent, the new powers will also allow them to pick individuals for the school board? How many spots?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When do Baker and the Council plan to make their picks for the Board? Anyone have any word of mouth on someone throwing their hat in the ring and hoping for an appointment? I know some people who would be great but the Board has been such a mess I don't know anyone who would actually *want* the appointment.

Actually, the applications for being appointed to the school board are available online and any resident of the county can apply. You can apply, if you want to. You're probably better qualified than the jokers in there now.

[Anonymous]

"...she feels most of the expenses she charged were justified."

Her power bill, her phone bill, her gas bill, and booze made up more than half the total. I would have loved to hear her justify any of that.

(I did once use my corporate card by accident, in a restaurant. As soon as I realized it, I notified my boss, wrote them a check, and was done. So I'm not saying errors can't happen. Just that they didn't happen here.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"...she feels most of the expenses she charged were justified."

Her power bill, her phone bill, her gas bill, and booze made up more than half the total. I would have loved to hear her justify any of that.

(I did once use my corporate card by accident, in a restaurant. As soon as I realized it, I notified my boss, wrote them a check, and was done. So I'm not saying errors can't happen. Just that they didn't happen here.)

Her justification was that everything save the alcohol bill was allowable as part of her "home office". Sigh.

There is pretty much no sum of money that could entice me to serve on this board. I value my sanity too much. From the way it sounds the meetings just devolve into Fellows and Jacobs yelling at each other.

I think Baker appoints 3 people and County Council gets 1 pick. Someone correct me if I misunderstood how the final plan got hammered out.

[Anonymous]

I would love to see the credit card charges of every board member publicly available. I bet there is a lot of this which actually amazes me because when I had a state government credit card for work, I had to attend a special training on acceptable use, I had to justify and classify my purchases, and then my supervisor also had to review and approve before it then went to the central office who could also audit the accounts. I can't believe there isn't a checks and balance system in place for the county schools. It seems like common sense to me that even if you have a home office you cannot pay for your electric bill with a job issued credit card. Ugh!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love to see the credit card charges of every board member publicly available. I bet there is a lot of this which actually amazes me because when I had a state government credit card for work, I had to attend a special training on acceptable use, I had to justify and classify my purchases, and then my supervisor also had to review and approve before it then went to the central office who could also audit the accounts. I can't believe there isn't a checks and balance system in place for the county schools. It seems like common sense to me that even if you have a home office you cannot pay for your electric bill with a job issued credit card. Ugh!

Totally agree with you. I also had a govt. credit card and had to go to training, keep careful records, have a credit check run prior to it being issued, etc. Or maybe they just shouldn't have credit cards at all. They can purchase things and submit for reimbursement. None of these board members should be needing to purchase anything that is cost-prohibitive (I wouldn't think) so I'm not sure why they can't just invoice and submit for reimbursement and keep everything transparent and audited prior to payout. I think a huge problem with the board is how opaque everything is. You can go to meetings, but then they have closed door meetings so the public is never really privy to everything going on.

[Anonymous]

I can't think of a single reason why they need a credit card.