Commissioners really messed up this time

County Commissioner Caryn Abbott of Pocomoke didn’t just let the cat out of the bag last week by revealing the backroom pay raise proposal made to the teachers association, she threw the door open on the majority’s overreaching and sometimes slippery approach to government.

In secretly offering teachers association President Beth Shockley-Lynch a take-it-or-leave-it teacher pay increase of $3,000 a year, as opposed to the $2,000 the four-member majority voted for publicly after rejecting the board of education’s $4,000 deal with teachers, they did so many things wrong it’s tough to list them all.

Still, we’ll give it a try:

• They tried to co-opt Shockley-Lynch by getting her to agree to a deal she had no authority to accept without her membership’s knowledge. They also unfairly tied the fate of all school system and county employees pay to her answer.
• They tried to circumvent the board of education, the only branch of local government authorized by the state to negotiate with teachers and other school employees.
• They might have violated the state’s open meetings law if they agreed privately, through a phone poll or some other off-the-books manner, to pursue a deal.
• They got even with Shockley-Lynch for refusing to join their scheme by walking back that private offer of $3,000, and instead voting for a $2,500 raise in last Wednesday’s public session. If they had the money, why do that?
• They assumed authority they don’t have over teachers’ pay either through ignorance of the law or purposely going around it to try to repair the political damage they suffered after rejecting the terms of theteacher/school board contract.

Whether the majority just didn’t know any better or took this route for political reasons makes no difference. It’s no way to run the county and changes should be made.

— Stewart Dobson

(We acknowledge that Executive Editor Steve Green has filed to run for the 4th District county commissioner seat.)