Dixon remains silent on $4.6M in payouts

Can residents sue the city for failure to prosecute or failure to fire them or failure to make them pay funds back?

In reading an article here, I stumbled across a comment I posted last year about CCPS salaries that were listed for all to see. I don't have a huge problem with that since we're public employees, as long as the info is accurate. I commented that my name and salary were on the list, but the salary was incorrect by a few thousand dollars. I find it funny that 173 people disagree with my comment as if they saw my paycheck each week. I guess some people on here just disagree for the sake of disagreeing.

Wow, I can't believe that BCPSS is in the news! Tell Mr. Williams of Parents Organizing Parents that I'm not in it for the money, if anything I pay out of pocket for my students. I pay for parents who can't pay and I don't mind doing it. Posting the most private information for what? Will this change the conditions in the city schools? Will this get parents involved? Will this bring up our scores? Will this help BCPSS students be good citizens? Stop beating a dead horse and move on OR say something positive, celebrate the schools that make AYP and the teachers, students and administration that make it possible.

and how much do you make? i don't see your business plastered all over for public viewing. lawyers are going to have a field day with this one. maybe now teachers will be paid what they are worth, like our counterparts in the "other" systems. I hope you can sleep now that you have invaded everyone's privacy. Now everyone will ask me to borrow money and i can't say I don't have it.

Although your article attempts to outline a need for better fiscal responsibility, producing a list of everyone's salaries, names, and schools is totally irresponsible. Our privacy should be protected for various reasons (domestic separations, begging relatives, etc...) and this spreadsheet does nothing to support your article other than show salaries, unless I failed to see the precious sick and vacation time of which you were speaking. Very few teachers in BCPSS can afford to NOT spend their sick time after dealing with the danger and turmoil in their school buildings, so present more accurate data. I minored in journalism and didn't go into that field because very little real information comes out of it. This article is about as significant as the prescription trials for drugs like VIOXX and Phen-Fen...They are not! You have very little information that suggests that ridiculous amounts of money are being paid out over all. Present data from more public careers to support!

Why publish the same article and refer to the remaining 23 LEAs that have the same policies? Stop bullying BCPSS!

Let's make something crystal clear: there are no schools in Baltimore City that are underperforming because of lack of funding. Every single Baltimore City Public School is adequately funded. Don't say you doubt it because I know WAY better than you do. If you want to point out a problem, point out the fact that most principals and offices in Baltimore City Public School system spend nearly 40% of their operational budget on, of all things, feeding themselves. Ask Jay's catering how much of their overall profit comes straight from this great organization. Then ask the principals, all 200-plus of them, what they could have done with the money they spent in food.

You have proven your journalistic prowess for sure by publishing ALL of my financial information for only...well....ANYONE to see. Lets see: your next headline can just read "14000 government employees are the country's newest identity theft victims." Go ahead, draft the story now so I don't have to feign the surprise look when I step over your litter on my way to do the better good of the CHILDREN of the City of Baltimore!

Identity theft is a big deal, next the release of social security numbers . Way to go Examiner, Not. Actually credit reports can be pulled by name and address, and or birth date. Are you going to release that info too. Responsible reporting, I think not, The law suits should be coming on the privacy act alone and put the examiner out on its ear.

It's mighty funny how the facts can be twisted to make a cute news story. Firstly, there is no such thing as a 'severance package' in the BCPSS. If you have accumulated many years of leave, when you leave, you are entitled to be paid a percentage of leave earned/accumulated. This is only fair in a system when many people are denied leave in lieu of things that require immediate attention. Severance packages are a private practice and that term has no business in an article regarding a government entity.

Why don't you look at all of the school systems in the State, including those like Montgomery who pay their teachers much more than Baltimore City. Baltimore City teachers and administators earn the sick leave and vacation time by not using their time. Instead, they are on the job doing a very difficult job teaching the students of Baltimore. If you think that's an easy job, try teaching in one the middle schools in Baltimore City. By the way, what do your writers and editors make sitting behind computer monitors passing judgement on people who do a job that actually matters.

Even though the Examiner has obviosly removed the Excell version with the employee numbers in it, they have cost the school system money in the hours that now must be spent by ITD employees (whose salaries you can still look up by job code) to change passwords to access school system resources. Is the Examiner going to reimburse the school system for this colossal waste of money? I doubt it. Again, the school children are the ones who suffer. I wonder if this would be allowed to happen in a non-urban environment?

Thanks BCPSS and the Examiner......you have both made my personal information available (again BCPSS) to ID thiefs. I would love to know the name of the BCPSS employee who sent you the Excell in the first place. I wonder if they removed their name from the list before they sent it? Also, you have both added to the multitude of reasons to leave Baltimore City- again, teachers and students suffer.

I would rather have the employee not use a sick day and be at work. Let them get paid for it. Again, the Examiner shows a lack of class posting peoples salaries. When are the reporters and editors salaries being printed.

Like anyone is going to be able to do anything with an internal ID. Like anyone would bother to steal the id of a teacher. Grow up.

I am urging all Baltimore City School System Employees to contact their union. The Examiner should not be allowed to display our private information in such a manner.

We live in a free society. Information is power. Identity thief is a multi-million dollar industry. Your presenting personnel information assist in the theft process. Your article was not balanced and the individuals identified were given approved payment for unused service time provided in approved labor agreements signed by teachers, administrators, and the School Board. What is your ID number? What is your compensation package?

For all the persons that steal orthers IDs the information is now out there. Why would anyone print the employee identification number and where they work and their job title. I am glad that I do not work for Baltimore City Public Schools. If I did, I would be calling my lawyer now. A person's salary may be Public Information, but their employee identification number is the same as a social secruity number. Oil CEOs salaries are printed--but I have never seen their ID number in print. What is Kaitlyn Seith ID number? Please print Dorothy Rowley address and ID number. No, the address is not needed a crook can get that on line. An id number, place of employement, salary and job title is all that is needed. BCPSS employees call your unions and lawyers now!

How dare you put my personal information including my ID out there for every crook to see, its bad enough that you were even given this information by someone from BCPSS but to publicize every detail of personal information should be against the law. Your paper and you ought to be ashamed. Now that you have the nerve to do such a hateful thing, by all means show us what every member of the examiner is making including your personal ID #

Your writer doesn't indicate what the definition of severance pay is. In the private sector, it does not include accumulated leave (vacation or sick days). Here it does, but your reporter does not mention this significant fact. By the way observations such as "Collectively, 10 were paid more than $800,000" is true, but so is this statement "Collectively, 10 Examiner staff reporters have an IQ over 90".

All the payouts are just unused vacation time. Some of the staff had worked for the system for 30 years. Perhaps the paper should look a little closer and report the truth.

The benefits might be better than private industry, but the pay is generally much much lower. You have to attract people somehow.

With all the focus on Baltimore City schools, is anyone paying attention to the talent drain and upheaval going on in Baltimore County Public Schools particularly at the central administrative level?

I am one of the 700+ down-sized in 2003 with a retirement package to look forward to after age 62 (that’s if the current system is still lucratively functioning). What the public may not be aware of is that the school system's HR, IT, Payroll… systems were realigned prior to 2003. From what I could see, there were some feasible changes made but others such as executive packages and related contracts are negotiated in the back ground. Adjustments were made that kept the executive level happy. The rest of the system has to follow the strict guides of the rules which makes some secretly very, very happy in spite of what is going on around them. I will be surprise if anything changes to improve things; not much has. There is much greed at the executive level in Baltimore City.

Study have proven that you can nor work excessive overtime (500+ pere year) and be effective. It increases probabilty of error, fatigue, not to mention productivity and responsiveness. Stop wasting our tax dollars and vote these bums the hell out!

Criminal as the rest of the times, they do nothing then they line their pockets. When are we going to stand up and revolt against these corrupt bastards that waste our tax paying dollars as children are dying daily on the streets. No education = easy politics...ask o'malley

Stop the non-sense and report on something meaningful to the taxpayer. Overtime earned by the decicated and hardworking people of our county is not a gift, but compensation for time spent away from family and providing the services that the county needs. When the streets go unplowed after a snow storm, people complain, when streets are not driveable, people complain, when you don't have water or sewers are not working, people complain. All the essential jobs you reported about are for the most part, jobs that people are paid low starting wages, thus overtime is the only way to make a living in our counties. We are not talking about sweetheart deals with local businesses.......maybe you should do a story on government waste, but to imply that providing basic needs is a waste is frankly a lot of missinformation on your part to a taxpaying public whom are all too ready to blame our high taxes on people that did not make the decisions to have overtime, but just provide the services

As an avid reader of the only paper in town to seek the sunlight, I am on one hand glad that the paper is holding our local governments accountable to the taxpayer. I wish that this could be done without disclosing the identity of people that just do their job and serve their communities. In all, I know that as a public servant, I am open to scrunity and my good work is only noticed by those who benefit directly from my efforts. It was interesting to notice that some of my co-workers have received higher raises than others, and I am just trying to figure out how to deal with this new piece of information. In all, good job! Not everyone is happy, but at least we all are learning something about government and how some positions are hard to fill, thus the high overtime, and low morale by many.

At least the police officers are qualified. I wish we could say the same about our County Executive. Seriously, have you seen this guy's resume? What is "Secretary of the Cabinet" anyhow?

Maybe your next article should be on the MAJORITY of the officers whose salaries are below what it costs to live in this area. The Majority of them have to work hundreds of hours of overtime or obtain secondary employment just to make ends meet. Like Pfc Scott Wheeler, who should have been home on his day off with his new Wife, but needed to supplement his income and paid the ultimate price protecting his community. Oh yeah, that's not controversial enough. Way to honor a Fallen Hero, Examiner ("Home of the Irresponsible Journalist".)

I don't see how officers' salaries are relevent to fighting crime, etc. They are - if they're smart - treating this employment like a business and are trying to strike the best deal possible. While their profession is a noble one, nobility doesn't put food on the table or pay the bills.

Thank God and Bless the Howard County Police. You do a great job and are worth every penny we pay you. I've lived in other places and this is honestly the safest I have ever felt. My deepest sympathies on loss of a very valuable officer in Scott Wheeler. My prayers go out to his family, friends and fellow officers.

It is frustrating to see these kinds of numbers, but I can't get a police officer to check the safety of my child's car seat. The dispatchers and police officers with whom I speak state, "there is limited opportunity for such services". Given the high level of integrity the HCPD maintains and the taxes we pay to ensure this department, I would hope the county could append more value and support to this vital services.

You get what you pay for!! Howard County is a very safe place to live. If paying officers a higher salary made Howard County what it is, then further justification is not needed.

Poor timing on your part. I feel for the family of the dead officer who was working overtime when he was struck by a car.

For the love of God, can't you people at the Examiner leave them alone for ONE DAY? They just lost an officer to massive head trauma, and all you care about is parading about who makes what. This isn't about reporting "the truth", this is about turning citizens on the very people who protect them. I haven't seen such biased titles for articles before in my life! There is no shred of objectivity, and printing the names of these employees is simply deplorable. Congratulations, you've managed to get the majority of the people that read you to do so for the sole fact that you're a paper one loves to hate. LEAVE THEM ALONE!

It is irresponsible of The Examiner to print the names of employees and their work location. There are victims of domestic, and other, violence who have now been endangered because they can be located by their abusers who, until now, did not know where exactly to find us. You could have simply listed the salaries, postions, and locations without the names. That would have been sufficient to allow the taxpayers to see where their money is going. This applies to all the recent articles involving police and other public employees as well. I do not feel safe going to work as a result of this unwarranted "outing." NAMES = SHAME on you!!

What is the author's purpose? It is a shame that on the last day of school we repay the educational employees in Carroll County with an article that serves no purpose. This article is nothing more than an opportunity to cause bad feelings for those who work so hard to help our students. Printing their hard earned and under paid salaries in the paper served as a reminder of the lack of professionalism they receive by some members of the community. What did you want your readers' to learn? Surely you could have found a more news worthy topic. I was appalled at the disrespect the "Examiner" showed to our dedicated school employees. Next time you want to write an article on the last day of school why not discuss the wonderful differences the CCPS has made in the lives of our students.

I wonder how accurate these CCPS salary listings are and where they came from. I'm on the list, and mine is inaccurate.

Totally irresponsible series. In this age of identity theft this is the perfect aid for criminals. They thank you Examiner.

I understand that is "public info" however, I don't think that it needed to be posted online like this. I work in a CCPS and let me tell you, all it did was create feelings of ill will between staff members. Very sad.

I work in the technology services department at CCPS. These guys that work in this department deserve what they earn. Some of these guys are on call 24/7 and sometimes are here until midnight or even later. These workers are bright, ambitious, and are always learning new things because their job is always changing. I still say they don't make enough honestly with how their job is always changing with new programs and new ways of dealing with technology. The pay raise they received does not nearly compensate for the overtime they put in, especially since they won't be receiving it anymore. They may have smoothed out the problem of money, but they also left a big hole if you ask me in our technicians wallets.