A court hearing was held this week to hash out a money conflict between Prince George’s County Council and the Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission after the commission filed a lawsuit.
Attorneys representing both sides appeared in court Wednesday morning.
The parks and planning commission said they’re against the County Council’s transfer of $39 million from the commission’s coffers by July 1, which they say is not aligned with state law.
The Council’s Office of Law disagrees with that interpretation.
After the hearing, employees of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and other supporters, including members of the County Council, spoke to reporters outside the courthouse.
“Hopefully, the judge will see that under state law, those funds do not belong to the county. Those funds belong to Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. No one else,” said Manuel Geraldo, with the Parks and Planning Commission.
“We’re not a county agency. But people think that we are,” Geraldo said. “The money that they’re taking … it’s a raid of our budget. Because we’re fiscally responsible, we have reserves. So, the county believes they don’t have the reserves, so they want to take our money. It’s just not fair,” Geraldo said.
Two Prince George’s County Council members who are against these types of budget transfers from the Commission to the Council were at the hearing as well.
Sydney Harrison of District 9 and At-Large Council Member Jolene Ivey also spoke to reporters afterward.
“This is strictly about process and what our legal authority is as a county council and what does the state expect from us,” Harrison said.
Ivey expressed concern about what happened with an earlier budget switch to an administrative fund.
“We’ve asked what’s become of that money, and we’ve not gotten answers. And we’re county council members,” Ivey said. “If we don’t know, the public doesn’t know.”
Ivey said even though the reimbursement procedure for project charges is far from perfect, “we need to fix that process. We don’t need to eliminate it by transferring the money from Park and Planning into what essentially becomes a slush fund for the County Council.”
A ruling is expected on June 26.
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