In a report examining some school system-based purchases, Montgomery County’s Inspector General Megan Davey Limarzi found that 1,622 traffic citations were issued to employees operating school vehicles.
And of those issued citations, 1,062 were given to school transportation employees. According to the report, the 1,622 citations included fines totaling $155,174.
Limarzi said it was logical that school transportation employees would have more citations than other employees. “Of course, the buses are on the road all day, every day,” she said.
But in the report, Limarzi said what was alarming was that 85% of the citations issued for passing stopped school buses with their stop-arms extended were issued to other school bus drivers — 330 of the 386 stop-arm camera violations were by bus drivers.
The data covers a period from July 1, 2015, to January of 2023.
Limarzi noted in her report that the use of the purchase cards, or P-cards, to pay for traffic citations is not prohibited, but she wrote, “the lack of policies and procedures for handling citations in general has led to duplicate payments and failure to collect reimbursements from responsible parties.”
“Currently, there is a little over $2,000 in outstanding reimbursements still owed,” Limarzi said, for the fiscal year 2021 to 2022 up to January 2023.
In his written response to the report, Montgomery County schools Chief Operating Officer Brian Hull wrote, “MCPS is proud of the school bus operators who transport our students each day. Violations of driving laws and expectations are addressed through the Staff Code of Conduct progressive discipline process.”
Hull also wrote, “We are successful in recouping the majority of monies from MCPS employees who are responsible for the violations.”
He concluded by writing that the school system would “apply the findings and recommendations in our continuous improvement processes and procedures.”
