Members of the Gratiot County Board of Commissioners are getting closer to hiring a new administrator.
The board has scheduled a special meeting at 4 p.m. Tuesday to discuss applicants for the post.
According to a notice posted by County Clerk Angie Thomspon, commissioners will meet in closed session with the regularly scheduled meeting following at 4:30 p.m.
The Board is looking to replace current administrator Tracey Cordes, who announced her retirement in January and is due to end her tenure later this month.
Cordes, 60, has held the position since she was hired in October 2016.
Initially commissioners voted to approve a contract with the Michigan Municipal League, the same organization that helped the board when it hired Cordes, to assist with the search process.
However, when the MML would not agree to renegotiate and lower its $17,000 price tag, commissioners decided to go in a different direction to save money and hired Okemos-based Walsh Municipal Services at a cost of $12,800.
Walsh was one of four firms that had submitted bids to assist with the search.
In addition to the MML the others were GovHR of Northbrook, Ill, and Pivot Muni Services of Zeeland.
Although Pivot Muni's bid was actually lower than the others it did not offer the level of services the board had required.
Walsh will assist commissioners in developing the job posting, advertise the vacancy, review resumes, recommend candidates, perform background reviews, conduct pre-interviews and schedule final interviews with the full board.
Among the administrator's duties listed on the county's website are serving as liaison between county departments and the board, labor relations, research, development and implementation of county policies, and directly overseeing financial services, human resources, community services and facility maintenance.
According to the job advertisement posted by the Walsh firm, commissioners are "most interested in a candidate who has the skill set to manage the county's finances, respect the county culture and provide excellent teamwork across all county departments."
It lists the salary range from $86,466 to $105,206 annually.
• Inaugurates 22-man transition committee
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has inaugurated a 22-man Presidential Transition Council to facilitate and manage the 2023 transition programme to the next administration, saying his records of achievements must be preserved.
He said his administration has successfully advanced the fortunes of the country and learned lessons that will be helpful for the new administration, leading to its decision to ensure a smooth transition for the incoming president and his team on May 29.
Represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, the president said the reforms that enabled those achievements must be documented and communicated in clear terms, so that “the incoming administration understands what we have done, the basis of our decisions, what we achieved and the opportunities for continuity.”
President had, last Thursday, approved the establishment of the council, and also signed the Executive Order 14, 2023 to legalised the activities of the council.
During the council’s inauguration, Mustapha said it was another historic occasion for the current administration since it showed its continued commitment to bolstering important institutions of governance that assist the democratic process.
“Although the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria sets out the overarching framework for assumption of office of the president, this is the first time in our history as a country that the Federal Government will be establishing a detailed process for managing presidential transitions of government at the federal level.
“It is with great delight and honour, therefore, that I am carrying out the onerous task of inaugurating the Presidential Transition Council, on behalf of the president.
“In line with the Executive Order No. 14 of 2023, the council is charged with the responsibility of facilitating and managing the 2023 Presidential Transition Programme,” Mustapha said.
He said the council will among others facilitate the handing over process by the current president to the president-elect; organise for the security of the president-elect and the vice president-elect including coordinating security briefings on the nation’s security matters post-elections.
Other mandate of the council is to organise for the necessary facilities, including fully furnished office and personnel for the president-elect and his/her transition team.
“Co-ordinate the briefings of the president-elect by relevant public officers; facilitate communication between the outgoing president and the president-elect; prepare the programme and organise for the swearing-in ceremony.
“Carry out any other activity necessary to ensure optimal performance of the functions of the president under the constitution and perform any other function assigned to it under the 1999 Constitution as amended.”
He added that the council shall have all powers necessary for the execution of its functions under the new Executive Order and shall conduct its business in line with national ethics as espoused in Section 23 of the constitution.
He also said except as otherwise provided in the Executive Order, the council may determine its own procedure.
He said: “I enjoin each of us to put in even more effort in ensuring the next administration receives every support needed to make an early and quick start. In a few months, it will be eight years that the Buhari administration has been in power.
“Within this period, we have made significant strides in advancing the fortunes of our nation, we have also learnt lessons that will be useful for the incoming administration and it is on the strength of this trajectory, that the current administration is committing itself to making the 2023 transition process seamless for the incoming president and his team.
The SGF also said the reforms that enabled those achievements must, therefore, be documented and communicated in clear terms, so the incoming administration understands what we have done, the basis of our decisions, what we achieved and the opportunities for continuity.
“Our achievements must be preserved. To maximise the limited time we have, Mr. President has directed the chairperson of the council to convene the inaugural meeting of the council with immediate effect. This aims to kick off the transition process across all levels of government in line with Executive Order No. 14 of 2023. The president expects that the transition process will be replicated across states government.”
He also announced the appointment of the Special Adviser to the President on Policy and Coordination, Habiba Lawal, as the secretary of the Presidential Transition Council in line with the Executive Order No.14, and that she shall be known as the Federal Transition Coordinator.
Speaking on behalf of all the members of the council, Head of Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan, said it was a privilege to be called upon to serve.
She appreciated the confidence reposed in them by the president in approving their membership is transitional council.
Yemi-Esan assured members will work together to ensure they leave no stone unturned in facilitating the smooth transition of governance.
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Heavy examination schedules are expected to delay the completion of the Educational calendar for 2023 until early next year, a senior official of the Education Ministry said.
The Education Ministry and the Department have already made arrangements to conduct last year’s GCE Advanced and Ordinary Level exams for early this year while the A/L and O/L schedule for this year is to be held in the second half of the year.
Accordingly, the third term for this year will continue until the early part of next year, the official said.
Education Minister Susil Premajayantha told Education Times that some schools would be closed for paper correction and if the paper correction is expedited they would be able to minimise closure of schools. He hopes the Ministry will be able to release the time table for this year for the respective terms by March 27, based on the examination time table prepared by the Examination Department.
He said that according to the current situation it would be at least January by the time the syllabuses would be completed. “However we do not plan to continue the third term until April. We will try to finish it before that.”
The Education calendar has been disrupted since the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020 which forced the closure of schools and the cancellation of examinations.
The Education Ministry has been taking steps to reduce delays; but school activities were disrupted during last year’s protest campaigns as well.
The Education Ministry has taken several steps to complete the syllabuses this year and reduce the lag. -DWI
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Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy's (FALA) leadership situation has continued to unfold over the past two months, with administrator positions changing, and students and staff experiencing impacts to their education and work.
In the second of two meetings hosted the week before winter break, the school's board of directors moved to administratively reassign executive director Eli Cohen to remote work after a discussion that took place in public session.
Board treasurer Ron Borkan spoke against the reassignment, noting latest resignations and saying he had concerns about “the unintended consequences,” but other board members disagreed.
“We have lost 30 out of 40 faculty in the last three years, 26 of them in the last two years,” said board member Debra Edgerton. “What became alarming was to have more, the largest number of faculty that left in the past year.”
She continued: “What was happening after this past year is what started, at least for me, thinking what is going on and to talk about students when we had the report of how many students were leaving and not connecting it to the reason faculty were leaving. That is the question we have in front of us. Yes, we will probably lose more faculty, but you can’t blame the entire incident on us when most of this has happened in the prior three years.”
The motion passed 3-2, with Borkan and James Yih, the board president, voting against.
During discussion of appointing an interim executive director later in the meeting, Borkan resigned, citing his disapproval with the way the board was handling the situation.
He later said this “was not some rash decision,” noting dissenting votes he’d made throughout the fall.
“When you’re on the board, sometimes you lose a vote, but you’re expected to then support the majority decision," he said. "For the most part, I could, but as we got into reassigning Eli to work from home or reassigning Christina [Wolfe] to work from home, those decisions I thought were very ill-advised, very short-sighted and downright wrong. I figured I can’t support these decisions [and] I can’t be on the board if they’re going to be making decisions I can’t support, so I resigned.”
The latter of those two reassignments had happened at the board’s meeting on Nov. 28.
Borkan was absent, but the rest of the board voted unanimously, due to a reduction in force, not to renew Extended School Services (ESS) director Wolfe’s contract after it is set to end on June 30. It also appointed board Vice President Kyle Winfree to lead a committee — including staff, parents, FALA leaders and outside experts — to explore how to restructure the department.
“We’ve been deliberating with thoughtfulness and care,” board secretary Andy Bessler is summarized as saying in the minutes. “We can move forward in positivity and growth. This has been tough for everyone, and it involves confidential information we cannot disclose. Please trust that we are working in the benefit of the school, legally and for the care of the students.”
Although Borkan believed Wolfe had performance issues that needed to be addressed, he moved during the meeting to rescind the decision to eliminate the position until the new structure had been finalized.
He had been on the finance committee for about a year at time and said neither reduction in force nor changes to the ESS director position had ever been discussed.
“If the issues were how Christina was performing at her job, that she wasn't what the school needed in a SPED director, the process the board was going through was wrong,” he said. “You do a performance evaluation, you collect your data, you talk to the employees and you work on a performance improvement plan. You’re not just having performance issues and eliminating the position; that's not how it's done.”
Other members noted that without this motion the position would still exist at FALA, with Wolfe in the role, until the end of her contract at the close of the academic year.
“I am feeling extraordinarily challenged and concerned that this is not objectively being considered,” Wolfe said when recognized at the meeting.
In response, Bessler said he was “considering all the stuff objectively as best as I can,” but that he was not comfortable discussing certain items in public “to protect people.”
“I’ll say that finances were not the only thing that we considered,” Yih said. “We had a long discussion of this.”
The motion did not continue.
According to Winfree, the reduction in force was the first step in addressing a need to restructure the ESS department. While he said he thinks everyone in the department has a "big heart" and is “in it for the right reasons,” his belief is that the structure is not serving them well.
“As it was earlier this year, we have one person at the top with certification and then multiple others who have these conditional certifications that are dependent on a mentor in the school to retain their certification and complete their education,” he said. “I think it’s great to have a mentor supporting your education, but if it is your direct supervisor and there is no other [supervisor], how are you going to speak up if there’s an issue? This person controls your job [and] they control your education."
Having multiple people at the top of the hierarchy does not necessarily require hiring new staff, he said. Instead, he offered, “it should be interpreted as an opportunity for advancement.”
Wolfe, however, was skeptical that the department could function without any sort of director, saying one is needed for tasks such as reporting to the state, providing oversight and SPED-specific crisis management.
“I just don’t see how a full-time teacher has the level of flexibility that's needed sometimes to support the department running as smoothly as it needs to,” she said. “I would never recommend that a SPED department completely eliminate the director or the leader of that entirely because there are too many moving pieces at all times for that to all be distributed out. But my hope was to actually move to more distribution and building more autonomy within all of the professionals.”
Cohen and Borkan had similar concerns about removing the position, both saying it was a necessary role for the school to have filled.
“[This position is] the one that keeps you from getting sued,” Cohen explained. “Which is frankly what schools get into trouble for -- they get SPED lawsuits or a lawsuit from the office of civil rights or the ADA or IDEA. That's when you get into trouble.”
During the Dec. 12 meeting, the board discussed interim solutions for determining the structure of the ESS department going forward with the director position eliminated.
Winfree said he met with four Flagstaff SPED experts to discuss ways FALA could better support its ESS students (only naming one, to the disapproval of meeting attendees).
The committee, which will eventually provide a recommendation to the board, has not yet met and is expected to take “several months” to come to a decision -- Winfree estimated next fall.
In the meantime, the board has hired two experts to help guide the ESS department -- interim director Michele Lucci and consultant Russ Randall, both of whom have decades of experience in special education.
In an email to the Daily Sun, Yih specifically noted their knowledge of IEPs, 504 plans and transition plans, saying they along with school improvement specialist Kara Kelty "have been instrumental in bringing the highest quality of services to our students."
“I want people to understand that the story the board is trying to tell is a lie,” Wolfe said about a month after these meetings. “I, for sure, understand and appreciate that reality is based on perception and that perception is subjective. But this whole 'we’re going to fix the school after we broke it, but we're not going to say that we broke it.' ... It's wrong, it’s gaslighting.”
Like almost everyone cited in these articles, Wolfe described her initial experience at FALA as one of the best work environments she’d experienced in education, and, similar to former dean Jed Hayes, she believed some of the issues came from a lack of support as she entered an administrative position for the first time.
While the 21-22 school year was especially difficult, she said she’d started this year with new staff and a plan to “pivot and grow.” She had hired three educators who were in the process of completing a master’s degree and was building extra support for them. Eventually, she said, the hope was to grow a strong team in-house and move to a more distributed leadership model that matched FALA overall.
Wolfe expressed several concerns with the board’s decision. Among them were Borkan’s absence, that her position was the only one affected by the reduction in force, that the next school year’s budget had not yet been reviewed (she was also a member of the finance committee) and that a continuance clause in her contract meant that reduction in force was one of the only nonperformance (specifically a PIP) reasons the board could decide not to renew it.
Her primary reason for resigning, she said, was the Dec. 13 meeting and the board’s treatment of staff during the open forum that night.
She had also found the situation personally stressful.
“I have plenty of documentation about how the board’s been pretty crappy to me, but it was painful on a different level last night, watching everyone be treated that way,” she said the day after the Jan. 12 meeting.
Students walk between classes Monday morning at Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy.
The school began its winter break on Dec. 16, with students and staff set to return Jan. 2 (snow later delayed the return from break to Jan. 3).
Issues again surfaced after the break, with a total of 10 staff now having resigned, including the student services director. By the end of January, the board had hired three education professionals to help provide guidance for the school -- two specifically for its ESS department.
Two group letters were sent to the board -- one from 14 staff members, one from 47 students -- expressing disapproval with the board’s handling of the situation and asking for changes, as were several individual emails on the same themes.
The staff email, sent Dec. 14, included seven demands they asked to be recognized by 2 p.m. Dec. 16 (the last day of school before winter break), after which they would “have no choice but to coordinate escalating actions until our demands are met.”
The student letter, sent Jan. 11, expressed concerns with Cohen and Wolfe’s removal and the lack of explanation for those actions in particular.
“In the immediate aftermath of your actions, we are left without administrators on our campus and without answers to our questions,” they wrote. “Rather than promote our well-being, you have chosen to take actions that place stress on students and staff, disrupting our education and damaging our school.”
Both emails asked that three board members -- Yih, Winfree and Edgerton -- resign and that some form of staff and student voice replace them, and on the board more generally. This had also been expressed in meeting comments throughout the process.
A clip from the public comment section of FALA's Dec. 12 board meeting, in which the school's executive director asks the entire board to resign.
The board has so far had two community discussion sessions on different subjects related to the situation in its meetings and, in a letter to the community published Feb. 12, said FALA would hold a public town hall "in the near future."
The Jan. 23 meeting included reports from student representatives and staff advocates -- which Yih said would be the first of many.
In this meeting, he addressed the request to resign, saying it was "a fair request," and that he was past his three-year term, but that it was difficult to find suitable candidates. Winfree gave a similar answer, with both noting that the board cannot legally function with fewer than five members, so to fulfill the request would have risked FALA's charter school status.
Board members also acknowledged the impact the situation was having on students and staff in their comments.
"We will get through this, and I think part of this healing process does start with us being called out and us owning up to the situation that we are in," Yih said. "I'm hopeful, based on your participation today, that we can go down this road together to Excellerate our communications with you, to meet you, to learn from you and to hear your voice."
Borkan said this situation has also caused at least a “handful” of students to leave FALA -- on Jan. 5, Cohen mentioned about 10 leaving over the previous two weeks. Other educators described the effects they’d seen in their students.
“Students on campus are afraid, some of them to the point of tears daily, that the school’s going to shut down and that this is the only place they’ve felt safe at school,” said Chad Fields, FALA’s mental health counselor. “At every other school, they felt ostracized, marginalized and unseen. [They] felt safe here and they’re afraid that’s going to go away.”
One student shared an email they wrote to a board member as part of an exchange in response to the group letter. At the end, they explained why they decided to join the other students in signing.
“Personally, my hope for the letter from students wasn't that it would immediately prompt everything it calls for, because I'd seen nothing that made me expect any quick action," they wrote. "Rather, I hoped that it could demonstrate the cost of the direction the Board is moving in, as well as the stress and frustration it creates for students when we're not given a way to affect that direction."
It went on to read: “At worst, I expected it to be taken as a demonstration of conviction and capability from FALA's students. I did hope and do still hope that it will encourage the Board to deliver students the seat at the table we're entitled to, and that the Board will deliver us more reasons to believe that our voices actually have an impact on their decisions.”
Fields’ job means he works closely with the school’s ESS team -- Wolfe was his direct supervisor for the roughly 80% of his work that had to do with special education, he said.
Fields has attended every meeting since October and said the board’s actions in that time have seemed “at best, illogical.”
“It feels like a hostage situation, where our care for the children and the services we provide for them are leveraged against our moral sense of integrity to not want to be a part of this system anymore,” he said. “But we know what will happen if we all choose to be a part of this immoral disaster. ... So many staff feel like we have to sacrifice our sense of integrity to be what is just because of our commitment to holding this community together for the students that we love.”
The reassignments and resignations have impacted Fields’ work “massively,” he said in early January. The ESS department went from having a director, counselor, three teachers and an administrative assistant to just himself and one teacher.
Fields said he has been helping out in other areas to try to fill those gaps, and while he’s continued to be able to meet the required number of counseling minutes, ”it’s becoming harder and harder.”
“It’s huge,” he said. “There are compliance issues -- IEPs are tied to legal documents and our funding is tied to the ability to satisfy the stipulations in those contracts with students and their families. We’re getting close to not being able to do that legally and, I would say, definitely ethically.”
Such concerns are echoed by many current staff’s communication with the board and some of the resignation letters.
One current employee, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation, said they would like to resign from the school as well, but needed to stay to support their family’s livelihood. They’d seen other staff making similar decisions.
In an email to a board member in late December, another employee (who asked for anonymity for the same reason) gave the example of the student services team needing to cover multiple positions due to the absences created by the reassignments and resignations.
“I just want to do my job. I want to come to work and be amazing,” they wrote. “I miss where the hardest problem I had was telling kids to get out of the bathroom. I understand we all have the same mission, ‘to do what is best for kids.’ That is hard to do when we ended up in a place of distrust and endless discomfort towards the people around us.”
That email was part of a thread about the third FALA-related police report filed in December.
The first two, filed by Winfree and another staff member, both focused on the same incident, which had happened in May of 2021.
One report summarizes Winfree as saying he’d heard from a school employee that Wolfe had taken a student with disabilities to music class, which was auditorily overstimulating for them and caused significant distress. Wolfe, however, said the student had asked to be taken to the class, the reporting educator had misread the situation and that the student's parents agreed this was not a concern.
Both reports ended with the case being closed unfounded, with the stated reasons that there was no criminal conduct and the allegations don’t rise to the level of child abuse.
The timing and reason behind these reports has been in contention, however.
Cohen and Wolfe both say the board knew about and dismissed this employee’s claim; an email from Yih on Sept. 18 asks the board not to respond to the same source cited in the report, as “at this point, I do not believe [their] claims need to rise to the attention of the board.”
Winfree, however, said he was taking the first step in reporting allegations to the state by calling law enforcement. Hearing that Wolfe had threatened to sue a different staff member if they spoke up about the situation was what “solidified” his understanding that it needed to be reported.
The third report is about a different incident: an alleged kidnapping attempt on Winfree’s child.
On Dec. 15, someone called the school claiming to be Winfree’s wife, according to what Winfree and Cohen said was the understanding at the time. The caller said to send Winfree’s child to meet them outside, and that they were not to interact with any school staff.
Winfree said he was concerned enough after putting the pieces together to call the police about this on Dec. 22. The police report closed the case on Dec. 28, noting that this was likely a misunderstanding, as the parent of another child at the school who had the same first name had called their child out of school at the same time as the phone call in question.
The board brought charges against Cohen at a meeting Jan. 12, delivering them with an intent to terminate on Jan. 26.
Board members went into more detail of their concerns at the meeting as they brainstormed what to include in the charges. (Cohen has admitted to some of these, including breaking reassignment and having a relationship with a subordinate. He said the first was necessary out of a need for safety and that there were no policies against the second at the time.)
Yih summarized the charges in a Jan. 23 meeting as falling into groups of allegations around “inappropriate disclosure of confidential information, violation of administrative reassignments, failure to conduct duties, mishandling of contracts…poor relationship with the board of directors and some unprofessionalism.”
As seen in the comments around the original discussion, particularly an apology Yih made at the beginning, current employees disagreed with the choice to outline these in detail in a public session. To Wolfe and other employees, this discussion wasn’t an act of transparency, because it was both false and unnecessary.
Clip from the Jan. 12 meeting, where Yih introduces the item on making charges against Cohen.
Stating that Cohen broke the terms of his reassignment would have been enough, Wolfe said.
“He has areas to work on in his profile as a leader; we all do, frankly. We don’t all have to suffer through 45 minutes of public criticism,” she said. “Those weren’t discussions. It’s such a gross display of dehumanizing.”
“To learn in the board meeting that James apologized for not taking action in 2020 over things, feels very wrong to take it now. It's 2023. It's punishing us,” another employee wrote to the Daily Sun. “Clearly there have been improvements as all of Eli's staff working near him have stuck our necks out, spoken up, sent emails and said how wrong this is from the beginning. Ron's resignation and letter summed it up that it is wrong and they need to listen to us.”
Board members noted here and in later meetings, however, that Cohen had requested the discussion be done in public, so that is what they did.
When the board turned the floor to Cohen after discussing the potential charges at the meeting, he said he didn’t need to speak, out of concern for legal jeopardy.
“I am not going to deal with lies and whatever. I have legal counsel, we’re done,” he said. “You can continue as you wish.”
The motion passed with four members voting for it, and the two new members abstaining.
This was followed by an explanation of the hearing process from the board's legal counsel, which can be seen about 45 minutes into the recording.
On Jan. 26, the board took the next step, moving to approve and deliver the charges against Cohen as well as an intent to terminate his employment. It also amended the terms of his reassignment, instructing him not to report to work or act on FALA's behalf until further notice.
He is currently still employed at the school.
"I hope we can in due time deliver more information when we feel it is legally appropriate, good timing, that sort of thing," Yih said in discussion of the motion. "We're trying to be careful here -- in large part, legally. We have heard your concerns about transparency and we're working through that."
Bessler added: "We need to have that due process run through and I just ask for everyone's patience while we let that happen."
A hearing, which will not be open to the public, is set for today. Afterwards, the hearing officer will have 10 days to deliver a report with recommendations to the board, which it will then review in a public meeting.
Minutes of all the meetings, including summaries of public and board comments on the matter, are available on FALA’s website at flagarts.com/governance. Recorded versions and transcripts are available for meetings beginning Dec. 12.
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Environmental groups are buoyed so far by the messaging coming from Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s environmental appointees, including promises to fill vacancies in the Maryland Department of the Environment and to focus on enforcement against polluters, which lagged under Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.
During a latest briefing before a Maryland General Assembly committee, Moore’s appointed Secretary of the Environment, Serena McIlwain — who came from California’s Environmental Protection Agency — spoke about her new agency’s hiring strategy.
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“In terms of a general, overall statement on how we are going to staff up: I have made it a priority that we’re going to look at the vacancies that we have,” McIlwain said. “We’re going to ensure that we have the right people in the right place.”
Deputy Secretary Suzanne Dorsey, who came to MDE during the Hogan administration, cited a McIlwain directive to focus on taking enforcement action against polluters, including stop-work orders, fines and lawsuits.
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“We have important priorities — important work to do — at the Maryland Department of the Environment, and I want to start with a directive from Secretary McIlwain, which is enforcement,” Dorsey said. “We have an absolute commitment to enforcement.”
It’s a change in rhetoric from Hogan’s administration, which often discussed “compliance assistance” — helping violators clean up their act before issuing fines or other corrective action.
“After the disastrous Hogan administration, it’s great to see the Moore administration looking to hire more people at MDE,” said Tom Pelton, a spokesman for the Environmental Integrity Project. “Now, we have to follow up that encouraging messaging and encouraging pledges with genuine action on the ground.”
A 2021 study by the Chesapeake Accountability Project, a coalition of groups including Pelton’s organization, found that declines in water pollution inspections, enforcement actions and staffing were especially dramatic under Hogan, though they began during prior administrations. Hogan’s administration took 67% fewer enforcement actions against violators compared with that of his predecessor, Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat.
Moore didn’t address the environment directly in his first State of the State address last week, but he noted that state government “has nearly 10,000 vacancies.”
“That means needs are not being met,” the governor said. “It means timelines for licensing and approvals are closer to the 19th century than the 21st.”
So far, environmental groups have been encouraged by Moore’s first budget proposal. The governor allotted funds for 67 new positions in the Maryland Department of the Environment, including 43 specifically to address a backlog of expired water quality permits, often called “zombie permits,” by issuing updated pollution controls for facilities.
Last year, Maryland legislators passed a requirement that the backlog be eliminated by the end of 2026, and required increased inspections and penalties for incompliant facilities.
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But the mandate came without any additional funds for MDE, instead requiring the agency to submit a report on the number of positions it would need by October 2022.
“Essentially, the agency is working on borrowed money” to cut down the backlog as of now, said Katlyn Schmitt, a senior policy analyst who has studied the issue at the Center for Progressive Reform in Washington, D.C.
MDE estimated it would need 86 new positions to comply with the new law. The law calls for the agency to request the second half of the positions in December 2023, said Brittany Marshall, a Moore spokesperson.
Schmitt said it’s been refreshing to see Moore’s administration speak openly about the agency’s staffing needs, something that wasn’t discussed much by Hogan’s MDE.
”We’ve seen a lot more — I believe — transparency from MDE in the last couple of months,” she said. “That’s something I don’t think we’ve had in a long time: A lot more clarity around capacity needs staffing needs and budgetary needs.”
Moore’s budget also allotted funds for 24 new jobs in MDE’s Water Supply Program, focused on drinking water safety, after a 2021 report from the Environmental Protection Agency found the team critically understaffed, and in danger of federal intervention.
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Among other items, Moore dedicated $2 million to begin a geological survey of the Chesapeake Bay bottom, $15 million for tree-planting tied to the Tree Solutions Now Act of 2021 and 77 new positions for state parks under the Department of Natural Resources.
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Meanwhile, Moore’s nominee for the Department of Natural Resources Secretary, Josh Kurtz, comes from the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation, where he served as Maryland executive director.
The appointment drew cheers from the nonprofit world, but concern from the state’s watermen, said Rob Newberry, chairman of the Delmarva Fisheries Association, who are thinking that Kurtz’s perspective could be skewed toward environmental groups, which often call for tighter regulation of the state’s wild fisheries and boosts for aquaculture.
“The opposition of your industry is now the head of the regulatory agency that regulates your industry? That’s scary,” said Newberry, who recently helped convene a new Eastern Shore Watermen’s Caucus to fund lobbying in Annapolis.
Newberry said he’d be open to supporting Kurtz’s confirmation with assurances that he won’t favor his former employer.
During an interview with The Baltimore Sun, Kurtz said he is excited about “getting back to the balance” by moving from an advocacy organization to a government agency.
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“The way to be a successful natural resources manager is to work with everybody,” Kurtz said. “I learned a lot about talking to people in the advocacy space, but I think here it’s about bringing every stakeholder together.”
The turnover in the governor’s office also changed things for environmentally minded legislators, said Del. Kumar Barve, a Montgomery County Democrat who chairs the House Environment and Transportation Committee.
“Now that we have an administration that wants to enforce the law, it’s going to be a more positive thing for us,” Barve said. “A lot of the bills that we would be putting in, we won’t be putting in because we’re going to be working more closely with a friendly administration.”
For instance, the committee might have considered a bill to push back against Hogan’s last-minute changes to the state’s vehicle emissions inspection program, which reduce the number of vehicles that need to be inspected, Barve said. But now, legislators are in talks with Moore’s administration to address their concerns, he added.
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It remains to be seen, though, whether Moore’s administration will reverse the declining enforcement trend with more aggressive action against polluting industrial facilities, wastewater treatment plants and poultry farms, among others.
An Environmental Integrity Project report found that from 2017 to 2020, Maryland inspectors found water pollution violations at more than half the poultry farms they inspected, but those farms were rarely fined.
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In a General Assembly hearing last year, former Environment Secretary Ben Grumbles pledged to increase poultry farm inspections, in addition to staffing for drinking water.
“We want to make sure that actually happens,” Pelton said.
Environmental groups also have raised alarm about MDE’s slow response to serious maintenance problems at Baltimore’s two wastewater treatment plants, which dumped millions of gallons of inadequately treated wastewater into the Back and Patapsco rivers, filled with harmful nutrients and bacteria. The Patapsco plant remains out of compliance with its discharge limits.
Since then, the department has taken steps to Excellerate wastewater enforcement, including by implementing an “early warning system” over the past year to catch pollution violations earlier, said Lee Currey, director of MDE’s Water and Science Administration. Some pollution limits are tracked on a monthly or seasonal basis, but the warning system would provide the department with more frequent updates, Currey said.
The department also is starting to integrate into its permits a requirement for wastewater treatment plants to procure third-party engineering studies cataloging their long-term needs for improvements, Currey said. In addition, permits will require plants to increase their resilience in the face of climate change, which could increase the flow to wastewater plants because of stronger storms.
The new administration also has several key environmental decisions sitting in its lap that will inform the perspectives of environmental groups. For instance‚ a federal court in December invalidated a 50-year license for the Conowingo Dam issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
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Environmental groups say the decision offers a new opportunity for Maryland to hold dam owner Constellation Energy accountable for the pollution trapped in the Conowingo’s reservoir, which is spilling into the Chesapeake now that sediments have built up behind the dam.
That’s because it forces Maryland to revisit a 2018 certification issued to the dam, which had a host of requirements for Constellation and a $172 million-per-year price tag for the company. The state dropped that certification after legal challenges from the dam’s former owner Exelon, and the two sides came to a $200 million settlement.
During a briefing this week before a Maryland Senate committee, McIlwain said the administration is in settlement talks with Constellation over the certification.
“We’re going to take that opportunity to negotiate hard on implementing the water quality conditions that we had in the first place before we settled,” McIlwain said during a latest Maryland Senate briefing. “[Constellation is] willing to work with us and we’re going to be working with them to deal with those issues.”
Broward school libraries will remove a sexually explicit teen graphic novel that Gov. Ron DeSantis administration categorized as “pornography.”
The book “Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human” was in the libraries of three schools, Fort Lauderdale High, Coral Glades High in Coral Springs and Nova High in Davie. It has now been removed.
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“Once we received a complaint, we initiated our review process of the material. During the review, the book will be removed from our schools,” Broward school district spokesman John Sullivan said.
The complaint came from the Broward chapter of the socially conservative group Moms for Liberty, and its affiliate Moms for Libraries. “Good. It is pornography,” Bryan Griffin, DeSantis’ press secretary, tweeted Wednesday evening in response to the Broward School District’s removal of the book.
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[ RELATED: Countering DeSantis, Broward Democrats launch effort to buy and distribute banned books ]
The book also was found in Orange and Seminole counties, Griffin said earlier Wednesday via email. The books the governor’s staff said were in Orange and Seminole county public schools have already been removed, officials said.
“Pornography in the classroom is a real and ongoing issue,” Griffin tweeted Tuesday. “From the book’s own description: ‘Covering relationships, friendships, gender, sexuality, anatomy, body image, safe sex, sexting, jealousy, rejection, sex education ... the first in graphic novel form.’”
“Let’s Talk About It” isn’t recommended for young children, according to publisher Penguin Random House’s website, which said it is appropriate for grades nine and higher. The graphic novel form apparently is an attempt to engage high-school-aged readers.
The book poses these questions, and provides answers, according to the publisher: “Is what I’m feeling normal? Is what my body is doing normal? Am I normal? How do I know what are the right choices to make? How do I know how to behave? How do I fix it when I make a mistake?” Penguin Random House said.
The publisher’s full description, which Griffin quoted, provides additional context: “How do you find the answers to all the questions you have about yourself, about your identity, and about your body? Let’s Talk About It provides a comprehensive, thoughtful, well-researched graphic novel guide to everything you need to know. Covering relationships, friendships, gender, sexuality, anatomy, body image, safe sex, sexting, jealousy, rejection, sex education, and more, Let’s Talk About It is the go-to handbook for every teen, and the first in graphic novel form.”
[ RELATED: As Ron DeSantis remakes education, many look to the long-term impact it’ll have on Florida ]
Penguin Random House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A review in School Library Journal, which describes itself as “the premiere publication for librarians and information certified who work with children and teens,” praised the book.
“Don’t be afraid. Yes, there are drawings of naked bodies in this book (mostly in the “Body Image” section), and, yes, readers will learn about some of the ways the human body is wired for pleasure. And the detailed drawings of genitals are not solely in service of explaining how babies are made. But every panel of this book, every anatomical drawing, every conversation over tea or in a tent, is loaded with crucial information about consent, respect, consideration, and boundaries,” the review said.
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The information is conveyed through “a magnificently varied cast of characters” who “receive reassurance, information, and practical advice.”
It’s one of several books DeSantis’ communications director, press secretary and deputy press secretary identified as problematic in a series of tweets Tuesday, saying the frequently challenged books “Gender Queer” and “It’s Perfectly Normal” also were found in other Florida schools.
In his email Wednesday, Griffin said “It’s Perfectly Normal” had been found in Broward schools, but didn’t identify “Let’s Talk About It” as being in Broward schools as Moms for Liberty reported.
“Let’s Talk About It was found in Orange and Seminole counties. Gender Queer was found in Collier and Orange counties. It’s Perfectly Normal was found in Broward and Duval counties. This Book is Gay was found in Marion and Orange counties,” Griffin wrote.
[ RELATED: New state rules tell school librarians to ‘err on side of caution’ when picking books ]
“It’s Perfectly Normal” was pulled last year from Broward schools after complaints from Moms for Liberty. Palm Beach County schools pulled “Gender Queer” after similar complaints there.
The free-speech organization PEN America’s nationwide Index of School Book Bans covering the 12 months from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022, found 41 instances of “Gender Queer” being banned, including in Brevard, Orange, Osceola and Pinellas counties in Florida. “It’s Perfectly Normal” had seven bannings during that time, PEN America reported, including Polk and Walton counties in Florida. “Let’s Talk About It,” wasn’t on the PEN America list.
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Previously, Broward’s Moms for Liberty chapter has identified more than 20 books that it wants removed from libraries. Parents, using a student’s ID, can log on to a school district system that allows them to find any book in Broward schools. It wasn’t immediately clear Wednesday afternoon if taxpayers without children in the schools could also see what books are available.
Some books have been pulled while others have been restricted to middle or high schools. Corie Pinero, a member of the group, emailed School Board members and district staff Monday evening about “Let’s Talk About,” including photos of graphic pictures showing sexual acts.
“I wanted to bring this additional book (attached) to your attention, it is currently in 3 of our high schools in Broward County,” she wrote. “This book needs to be removed by the end of this week. It is pornographic and very sexually explicit. It does not belong in our schools. As you can see there is no question that it violates Florida law.”
Pinero said she will be “checking again later this week to make sure that it has been removed from all of our schools in Broward County.”
[ RELATED: State questions Broward schools’ use of ADL anti-hate program ]
A state rule adopted by the state board last month urges librarians to “err on the side of caution” when selecting books for their campuses. The rule stems from a new 2022 state law pushed by Republican leaders. Critics say it will have a “chilling effect” on educators and will allow those with conservative views to dictate what books all Florida students can select at their schools.
But supporters say the new law, rule and training provide much-needed scrutiny of books in media centers and classrooms and more ways for parents to learn what is on school shelves.
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The book “Let’s Talk About It” was at one Seminole County high school — and was never checked out by a student, said Seminole County Public Schools spokesperson Katherine Crnkovich, in an email. The book, praised by the School Library Journal among others, was removed after someone filed a complaint about it in October, she said.
In Orange County, Superintendent Maria Vazquez said in January that “Let’s Talk About It” and “This Book is Gay” were removed for fear they did not comply with new state laws related to libraries. The book “Gender Queer: A Memoir” raised the same worries, but district staff had already removed it in 2021.
Only two to four copies of those three books were available to students in just a few of the 22 Orange County Public Schools’ high schools, according to district staff and a review of online library catalogs.
Stephana Ferrell, co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, formed to push back against book banning, said Tuesday’s tweets seem part of an effort to create a statewide “banned books list.” One shouldn’t claim books are pornographic simply because they contain descriptions or pictures of sexual acts, she said.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that sexual content does not automatically equate to obscenity as whether the material has “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value” must also be considered. Ferrell noted the state’s own training material for school librarians makes the same point.
All the books have value and should be available at libraries, she added. If parents don’t want their children to access them, they can say so but neither they nor “big government” should dictate what other parents’ children read, she said.
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“Of course, we as parents do not want pornography in our schools,” said Ferrell, a mother of two elementary school students in Orange County Public Schools.
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Opinions vary on whether the book “Let’s Talk About It” is appropriate for high school students. Kirkus Reviews, a widely cited website and magazine, gave the book a positive review.
The book starts with discussions of what sex is, varying types of sexual expression and the meaning of consent, the Kirkus review said, before going on to a chapter that “nonjudgmentally explores various kinds of relationships, including monogamous, polyamorous, open, and companionate. Subsequent chapters discuss gender and sexuality (with joyful and varied illustrations), body image (featuring loving representations of many body types), anatomy (including outstanding drawings that are inclusive of trans and intersex people), masturbation (with how-to ideas presented), and thorough coverage of birth control and STI prevention. The book is rounded out with chapters on what to think about before having sex; orgasms; ground rules for sexting; kinks, fantasies, and porn; jealousy and rejection (including guidance on recognizing abusive patterns); potential impacts on friendship; and more.”
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Moms for Liberties/Moms for Libraries included two attachments to its Monday email to the school district in which it demanded the book’s removal.
One attachment has three pages from the book in which cartoon characters are shown having sexual intercourse, female masturbation is depicted and two people are performing in a pornography video. “Watching porn uncritically can leave you with unrealistic expectations about what to do in the bedroom, so do yourself a favor and consume it with a hefty pinch of salt,” the text says.
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The Moms for organizations also included a lengthy report from Book Look, which the liberal organization Media Matters for America reported is “crowdsourcing parents’ book reviews and using them as justification for literature bans in public schools.”
Book Look’s “Summary of Concerns” reports, “This book contains obscene, sexual illustrations and commentary; obscene sexual nudity; profanity; and alternate gender ideologies.”
